Vũ Đàm Linh
(Mazerlin)
New Member
No words to say
just read the following extract:
~~~~~~~~~~~
THE GIRL (who has wakened, and peeped cautiously from her nest to
see who is speaking). Old gentleman.
CAESAR (starting violently, and clutching his sword). Immortal
gods!
THE GIRL. Old gentleman: don't run away.
CAESAR (stupefied). "Old gentleman: don't run away!!!" This! To
Julius Caesar!
THE GIRL (urgently). Old gentleman.
CAESAR. Sphinx: you presume on your centuries. I am younger than
you, though your voice is but a girl's voice as yet.
THE GIRL. Climb up here, quickly; or the Romans will come and eat
you.
CAESAR (running forward past the Sphinx's shoulder, and seeing
her). A child at its breast! A divine child!
THE GIRL. Come up quickly. You must get up at its side and creep
round.
CAESAR (amazed). Who are you?
THE GIRL. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
CAESAR. Queen of the Gypsies, you mean.
CLEOPATRA. You must not be disrespectful to me, or the Sphinx
will let the Romans eat you. Come up. It is quite cosy here.
CAESAR (to himself). What a dream! What a magnificent dream! Only
let me not wake, and I will conquer ten continents to pay for
dreaming it out to the end. (He climbs to the Sphinx's flank, and
presently reappears to her on the pedestal, stepping round its
right shoulder.)
CLEOPATRA. Take care. That's right. Now sit down: you may have
its other paw. (She seats herself comfortably on its left paw.)
It is very powerful and will protect us; but (shivering, and with
plaintive loneliness) it would not take any notice of me or keep
me company. I am glad you have come: I was very lonely. Did you
happen to see a white cat anywhere?
CAESAR (sitting slowly down on the right paw in extreme
wonderment). Have you lost one?
CLEOPATRA. Yes: the sacred white cat: is it not dreadful? I
brought him here to sacrifice him to the Sphinx; but when we got
a little way from the city a black cat called him, and he jumped
out of my arms and ran away to it. Do you think that the black
cat can have been my great-great-great-grandmother?
CAESAR (staring at her). Your great-great-great-grandmother!
Well, why not? Nothing would surprise me on this night of nights.
CLEOPATRA. I think it must have been. My great-grandmother's
great-grandmother was a black kitten of the sacred white cat; and
the river Nile made her his seventh wife. That is why my hair is
so wavy. And I always want to be let do as I like, no matter
whether it is the will of the gods or not: that is because my
blood is made with Nile water.
CAESAR. What are you doing here at this time of night? Do you
live here?
CLEOPATRA. Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the
palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me
out of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I
shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and
pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery
furnace.
CAESAR. Hm! Meanwhile why are you not at home and in bed?
CLEOPATRA. Because the Romans are coming to eat us all. YOU are
not at home and in bed either.
CAESAR (with conviction). Yes I am. I live in a tent; and I am
now in that tent, fast asleep and dreaming. Do you suppose that I
believe you are real, you impossible little dream witch?
CLEOPATRA (giggling and leaning trustfully towards him). You are
a funny old gentleman. I like you.
CAESAR. Ah, that spoils the dream. Why don't you dream that I am
young?
CLEOPATRA. I wish you were; only I think I should be more afraid
of you. I like men, especially young men with round strong arms;
but I am afraid of them. You are old and rather thin and stringy;
but you have a nice voice; and I like to have somebody to talk
to, though I think you are a little mad. It is the moon that
makes you talk to yourself in that silly way.
CAESAR. What! you heard that, did you? I was saying my prayers to
the great Sphinx.
CLEOPATRA. But this isn't the great Sphinx.
CAESAR (much disappointed, looking up at the statue). What!
CLEOPATRA. This is only a dear little kitten of the Sphinx. Why,
the great Sphinx is so big that it has a temple between its paws.
This is my pet Sphinx. Tell me: do you think the Romans have any
sorcerers who could take us away from the Sphinx by magic?
CAESAR. Why? Are you afraid of the Romans?
CLEOPATRA (very seriously). Oh, they would eat us if they caught
us. They are barbarians. Their chief is called Julius Caesar. His
father was a tiger and his mother a burning mountain; and his
nose is like an elephant's trunk. (Caesar involuntarily rubs his
nose.) They all have long noses, and ivory tusks, and little
tails, and seven arms with a hundred arrows in each; and they
live on human flesh.
CAESAR. Would you like me to show you a real Roman?
CLEOPATRA (terrified). No. You are frightening me.
CAESAR. No matter: this is only a dream--
CLEOPATRA (excitedly). It is not a dream: it is not a dream. See,
see. (She plucks a pin from her hair and jabs it repeatedly into
his arm.)
CAESAR. Ffff--Stop. (Wrathfully) How dare you?
CLEOPATRA (abashed). You said you were dreaming. (Whimpering) I
only wanted to show you--
CAESAR (gently). Come, come: don't cry. A queen mustn't cry. (He
rubs his arm, wondering at the reality of the smart.) Am I awake?
(He strikes his hand against the Sphinx to test its solidity. It
feels so real that he begins to be alarmed, and says perplexedly)
Yes, I--(quite panicstricken) no: impossible: madness, madness!
(Desperately) Back to camp--to camp. (He rises to spring down
from the pedestal.)
CLEOPATRA (flinging her arms in terror round him). No: you shan't
leave me. No, no, no: don't go. I'm afraid--afraid of the Romans.
CAESAR (as the conviction that he is really awake forces itself
on him). Cleopatra: can you see my face well?
CLEOPATRA. Yes. It is so white in the moonlight.
CAESAR. Are you sure it is the moonlight that makes me look
whiter than an Egyptian? (Grimly) Do you notice that I have a
rather long nose?
CLEOPATRA (recoiling, paralyzed by a terrible suspicion). Oh!
CAESAR. It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA. Ah! (With a piercing scream she springs up; darts
round the left shoulder of the Sphinx; scrambles down to the
sand; and falls on her knees in frantic supplication, shrieking)
Bite him in two, Sphinx: bite him in two. I meant to sacrifice
the white cat--I did indeed--I (Caesar, who has slipped down from
the pedestal, touches her on the shoulder) Ah! (She buries her
head in her arms.)
CAESAR. Cleopatra: shall I teach you a way to prevent Caesar from
eating you?
CLEOPATRA (clinging to him piteously). Oh do, do, do. I will
steal Ftatateeta's jewels and give them to you. I will make the
river Nile water your lands twice a year.
CAESAR. Peace, peace, my child. Your gods are afraid of the
Romans: you see the Sphinx dare not bite me, nor prevent me
carrying you off to Julius Caesar.
CLEOPATRA (in pleading murmurings). You won't, you won't. You
said you wouldn't.
CAESAR. Caesar never eats women.
CLEOPATRA (springing up full of hope). What!
CAESAR (impressively). But he eats girls (she relapses) and cats.
Now you are a silly little girl; and you are descended from the
black kitten. You are both a girl and a cat.
CLEOPATRA (trembling). And will he eat me?
CAESAR. Yes; unless you make him believe that you are a woman.
CLEOPATRA. Oh, you must get a sorcerer to make a woman of me. Are
you a sorcerer?
CAESAR. Perhaps. But it will take a long time; and this very
night you must stand face to face with Caesar in the palace of
your fathers.
CLEOPATRA. No, no. I daren't.
CAESAR. Whatever dread may be in your soul--however terrible
Caesar may be to you--you must confront him as a brave woman and
a great queen; and you must feel no fear. If your hand shakes: if
your voice quavers; then--night and death! (She moans.) But if he
thinks you worthy to rule, he will set you on the throne by his
side and make you the real ruler of Egypt.
CLEOPATRA (despairingly). No: he will find me out: he will find
me out.
CAESAR (rather mournfully). He is easily deceived by women. Their
eyes dazzle him; and he sees them not as they are, but as he
wishes them to appear to him.
CLEOPATRA (hopefully). Then we will cheat him. I will put on
Ftatateeta's head-dress; and he will think me quite an old woman.
CAESAR. If you do that he will eat you at one mouthful.
CLEOPATRA. But I will give him a cake with my magic opal and
seven hairs of the white cat baked in it; and--
CAESAR (abruptly). Pah! you are a little fool. He will eat your
cake and you too. (He turns contemptuously from her.)
CLEOPATRA (running after him and clinging to him). Oh, please,
PLEASE! I will do whatever you tell me. I will be good! I will be
your slave. (Again the terrible bellowing note sounds across the
desert, now closer at hand. It is the bucina, the Roman war
trumpet.)
CAESAR. Hark!
CLEOPATRA (trembling). What was that?
CAESAR. Caesar's voice.
CLEOPATRA (pulling at his hand). Let us run away. Come. Oh, come.
CAESAR. You are safe with me until you stand on your throne to
receive Caesar. Now lead me thither.
CLEOPATRA (only too glad to get away). I will, I will. (Again the
bucina.) Oh, come, come, come: the gods are angry. Do you feel
the earth shaking?
CAESAR. It is the tread of Caesar's legions.
CLEOPATRA (drawing him away). This way, quickly. And let us look
for the white cat as we go. It is he that has turned you into a
Roman.
CAESAR. Incorrigible, oh, incorrigible! Away! (He follows her,
the bucina sounding louder as they steal across the desert. The
moonlight wanes: the horizon again shows black against the sky,
broken only by the fantastic silhouette of the Sphinx. The sky
itself vanishes in darkness, from which there is no relief until
the gleam of a distant torch falls on great Egyptian pillars
supporting the roof of a majestic corridor. At the further end of
this corridor a Nubian slave appears carrying the torch. Caesar,
still led by Cleopatra, follows him. They come down the corridor,
Caesar peering keenly about at the strange architecture, and at
the pillar shadows between which, as the passing torch makes them
hurry noiselessly backwards, figures of men with wings and hawks'
heads, and vast black marble cats, seem to flit in and out of
ambush. Further along, the wall turns a corner and makes a
spacious transept in which Caesar sees, on his right, a throne,
and behind the throne a door. On each side of the throne is a
slender pillar with a lamp on it.)
CAESAR. What place is this?
CLEOPATRA. This is where I sit on the throne when I am allowed to
wear my crown and robes. (The slave holds his torch to show the
throne.)
CAESAR. Order the slave to light the lamps.
CLEOPATRA (shyly). Do you think I may?
CAESAR. Of course. You are the Queen. (She hesitates.) Go on.
CLEOPATRA (timidly, to the slave). Light all the lamps.
FTATATEETA (suddenly coming from behind the throne). Stop. (The
slave stops. She turns sternly to Cleopatra, who quails like a
naughty child.) Who is this you have with you; and how dare you
order the lamps to be lighted without my permission? (Cleopatra
is dumb with apprehension.)
CAESAR. Who is she?
CLEOPATRA. Ftatateeta.
FTATATEETA (arrogantly). Chief nurse to--
CAESAR (cutting her short). I speak to the Queen. Be silent. (To
Cleopatra) Is this how your servants know their places? Send her
away; and you (to the slave) do as the Queen has bidden. (The
slave lights the lamps. Meanwhile Cleopatra stands hesitating,
afraid of Ftatateeta.) You are the Queen: send her away.
CLEOPATRA (cajoling). Ftatateeta, dear: you must go away--just
for a little.
CAESAR. You are not commanding her to go away: you are begging
her. You are no Queen. You will be eaten. Farewell. (He turns to
go.)
CLEOPATRA (clutching him). No, no, no. Don't leave me.
CAESAR. A Roman does not stay with queens who are afraid of their
slaves.
CLEOPATRA. I am not afraid. Indeed I am not afraid.
FTATATEETA. We shall see who is afraid here. (Menacingly)
Cleopatra--
CAESAR. On your knees, woman: am I also a child that you dare
trifle with me? (He points to the floor at Cleopatra's feet.
Ftatateeta, half cowed, half savage, hesitates. Caesar calls to
the Nubian) Slave. (The Nubian comes to him.) Can you cut off a
head? (The Nubian nods and grins ecstatically, showing all his
teeth. Caesar takes his sword by the scabbard, ready to offer the
hilt to the Nubian, and turns again to Ftatateeta, repeating his
gesture.) Have you remembered yourself, mistress?
Ftatateeta, crushed, kneels before Cleopatra, who can hardly
believe her eyes.
FTATATEETA (hoarsely). O Queen, forget not thy servant in the
days of thy greatness.
CLEOPATRA (blazing with excitement). Go. Begone. Go away.
(Ftatateeta rises with stooped head, and moves backwards towards
the door. Cleopatra watches her submission eagerly, almost
clapping her hands, which are trembling. Suddenly she cries) Give
me something to beat her with. (She snatches a snake-skin from
the throne and dashes after Ftatateeta, whirling it like a
scourge in the air. Caesar makes a bound and manages to catch her
and hold her while Ftatateeta escapes.)
CAESAR. You scratch, kitten, do you?
CLEOPATRA (breaking from him). I will beat somebody. I will beat
him. (She attacks the slave.) There, there, there! (The slave
flies for his life up the corridor and vanishes. She throws the
snake-skin away and jumps on the step of the throne with her arms
waving, crying) I am a real Queen at last--a real, real Queen!
Cleopatra the Queen! (Caesar shakes his head dubiously, the
advantage of the change seeming open to question from the point
of view of the general welfare of Egypt. She turns and looks at
him exultantly. Then she jumps down from the step, runs to him,
and flings her arms round him rapturously, crying) Oh, I love you
for making me a Queen.
CAESAR. But queens love only kings.
CLEOPATRA. I will make all the men I love kings. I will make you
a king. I will have many young kings, with round, strong arms;
and when I am tired of them I will whip them to death; but you
shall always be my king: my nice, kind, wise, proud old king.
CAESAR. Oh, my wrinkles, my wrinkles! And my child's heart! You
will be the most dangerous of all Caesar's conguests.
CLEOPATRA (appalled). Caesar! I forgot Caesar. (Anxiously) You
will tell him that I am a Queen, will you not? a real Queen.
Listen! (stealthily coaxing him) let us run away and hide until
Caesar is gone.
CAESAR. If you fear Caesar, you are no true Queen; and though you
were to hide beneath a pyramid, he would go straight to it and
lift it with one hand. And then--! (He chops his teeth together.)
CLEOPATRA (trembling). Oh!
CAESAR. Be afraid if you dare. (The note of the bucina
resounds again in the distance. She moans with fear. Caesar
exalts in it, exclaiming) Aha! Caesar approaches the throne of
Cleopatra. Come: take your place. (He takes her hand and leads
her to the throne. She is too downcast to speak.) Ho, there,
Teetatota. How do you call your slaves?
CLEOPATRA (spiritlessly, as she sinks on the throne and cowers
there, shaking). Clap your hands.
He claps his hands. Ftatateeta returns.
CAESAR. Bring the Queen's robes, and her crown, and her women;
and prepare her.
CLEOPATRA (eagerly--recovering herself a little). Yes, the Crown,
Ftatateeta: I shall wear the crown.
FTATATEETA. For whom must the Queen put on her state?
CAESAR. For a citizen of Rome. A king of kings, Totateeta.
CLEOPATRA (stamping at her). How dare you ask questions? Go and
do as you are told. (Ftatateeta goes out with a grim smile.
Cleopatra goes on eagerly, to Caesar) Caesar will know that I am
a Queen when he sees my crown and robes, will he not?
CAESAR. No. How shall he know that you are not a slave dressed up
in the Queen's ornaments?
CLEOPATRA. You must tell him.
CAESAR. He will not ask me. He will know Cleopatra by her pride,
her courage, her majesty, and her beauty. (She looks very
doubtful.) Are you trembling?
CLEOPATRA (shivering with dread). No, I--I--(in a very sickly
voice) No.
Ftatateeta and three women come in with the regalia.
FTATATEETA. Of all the Queen's women, these three alone are left.
The rest are fled. (They begin to deck Cleopatra, who submits,
pale and motionless.)
CAESAR. Good, good. Three are enough. Poor Caesar generally has
to dress himself.
FTATATEETA (contemptuously). The Queen of Egypt is not a Roman
barbarian. (To Cleopatra) Be brave, my nursling. Hold up your
head before this stranger.
CAESAR (admiring Cleopatra, and placing the crown on her head).
Is it sweet or bitter to be a Queen, Cleopatra?
CLEOPATRA. Bitter.
CAESAR. Cast out fear; and you will conquer Caesar. Tota: are
the Romans at hand?
FTATATEETA. They are at hand; and the guard has fled.
THE WOMEN (wailing subduedly). Woe to us!
The Nubian comes running down the hall.
NUBIAN. The Romans are in the courtyard. (He bolts through the
door. With a shriek, the women fly after him. Ftatateeta's jaw
expresses savage resolution: she does not budge. Cleopatra can
hardly restrain herself from following them. Caesar grips her
wrist, and looks steadfastly at her. She stands like a martyr.)
CAESAR. The Queen must face Caesar alone. Answer "So be it."
CLEOPATRA (white). So be it.
CAESAR (releasing her). Good.
A tramp and tumult of armed men is heard. Cleopatra's terror
increases. The bucina sounds close at hand, followed by a
formidable clangor of trumpets. This is too much for Cleopatra:
she utters a cry and darts towards the door. Ftatateeta
stops her ruthlessly.
FTATATEETA. You are my nursling. You have said "So be it"; and if
you die for it, you must make the Queen's word good. (She hands
Cleopatra to Caesar, who takes her back, almost beside herself
with apprehension, to the throne.)
CAESAR. Now, if you quail--! (He seats himself on the throne.)
She stands on the step, all but unconscious, waiting for death.
The Roman soldiers troop in tumultuously through the corridor,
headed by their ensign with his eagle, and their bucinator, a
burly fellow with his instrument coiled round his body, its
brazen bell shaped like the head of a howling wolf. When they
reach the transept, they stare in amazement at the throne; dress
into ordered rank opposite it; draw their swords and lift them in
the air with a shout of HAIL CAESAR. Cleopatra turns and
stares wildly at Caesar; grasps the situation; and, with a great
sob of relief, falls into his arms.
just read the following extract:~~~~~~~~~~~
THE GIRL (who has wakened, and peeped cautiously from her nest to
see who is speaking). Old gentleman.
CAESAR (starting violently, and clutching his sword). Immortal
gods!
THE GIRL. Old gentleman: don't run away.
CAESAR (stupefied). "Old gentleman: don't run away!!!" This! To
Julius Caesar!
THE GIRL (urgently). Old gentleman.
CAESAR. Sphinx: you presume on your centuries. I am younger than
you, though your voice is but a girl's voice as yet.
THE GIRL. Climb up here, quickly; or the Romans will come and eat
you.
CAESAR (running forward past the Sphinx's shoulder, and seeing
her). A child at its breast! A divine child!
THE GIRL. Come up quickly. You must get up at its side and creep
round.
CAESAR (amazed). Who are you?
THE GIRL. Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.
CAESAR. Queen of the Gypsies, you mean.
CLEOPATRA. You must not be disrespectful to me, or the Sphinx
will let the Romans eat you. Come up. It is quite cosy here.
CAESAR (to himself). What a dream! What a magnificent dream! Only
let me not wake, and I will conquer ten continents to pay for
dreaming it out to the end. (He climbs to the Sphinx's flank, and
presently reappears to her on the pedestal, stepping round its
right shoulder.)
CLEOPATRA. Take care. That's right. Now sit down: you may have
its other paw. (She seats herself comfortably on its left paw.)
It is very powerful and will protect us; but (shivering, and with
plaintive loneliness) it would not take any notice of me or keep
me company. I am glad you have come: I was very lonely. Did you
happen to see a white cat anywhere?
CAESAR (sitting slowly down on the right paw in extreme
wonderment). Have you lost one?
CLEOPATRA. Yes: the sacred white cat: is it not dreadful? I
brought him here to sacrifice him to the Sphinx; but when we got
a little way from the city a black cat called him, and he jumped
out of my arms and ran away to it. Do you think that the black
cat can have been my great-great-great-grandmother?
CAESAR (staring at her). Your great-great-great-grandmother!
Well, why not? Nothing would surprise me on this night of nights.
CLEOPATRA. I think it must have been. My great-grandmother's
great-grandmother was a black kitten of the sacred white cat; and
the river Nile made her his seventh wife. That is why my hair is
so wavy. And I always want to be let do as I like, no matter
whether it is the will of the gods or not: that is because my
blood is made with Nile water.
CAESAR. What are you doing here at this time of night? Do you
live here?
CLEOPATRA. Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the
palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me
out of it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I
shall be able to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and
pretend to Ftatateeta that she is going to be put into the fiery
furnace.
CAESAR. Hm! Meanwhile why are you not at home and in bed?
CLEOPATRA. Because the Romans are coming to eat us all. YOU are
not at home and in bed either.
CAESAR (with conviction). Yes I am. I live in a tent; and I am
now in that tent, fast asleep and dreaming. Do you suppose that I
believe you are real, you impossible little dream witch?
CLEOPATRA (giggling and leaning trustfully towards him). You are
a funny old gentleman. I like you.
CAESAR. Ah, that spoils the dream. Why don't you dream that I am
young?
CLEOPATRA. I wish you were; only I think I should be more afraid
of you. I like men, especially young men with round strong arms;
but I am afraid of them. You are old and rather thin and stringy;
but you have a nice voice; and I like to have somebody to talk
to, though I think you are a little mad. It is the moon that
makes you talk to yourself in that silly way.
CAESAR. What! you heard that, did you? I was saying my prayers to
the great Sphinx.
CLEOPATRA. But this isn't the great Sphinx.
CAESAR (much disappointed, looking up at the statue). What!
CLEOPATRA. This is only a dear little kitten of the Sphinx. Why,
the great Sphinx is so big that it has a temple between its paws.
This is my pet Sphinx. Tell me: do you think the Romans have any
sorcerers who could take us away from the Sphinx by magic?
CAESAR. Why? Are you afraid of the Romans?
CLEOPATRA (very seriously). Oh, they would eat us if they caught
us. They are barbarians. Their chief is called Julius Caesar. His
father was a tiger and his mother a burning mountain; and his
nose is like an elephant's trunk. (Caesar involuntarily rubs his
nose.) They all have long noses, and ivory tusks, and little
tails, and seven arms with a hundred arrows in each; and they
live on human flesh.
CAESAR. Would you like me to show you a real Roman?
CLEOPATRA (terrified). No. You are frightening me.
CAESAR. No matter: this is only a dream--
CLEOPATRA (excitedly). It is not a dream: it is not a dream. See,
see. (She plucks a pin from her hair and jabs it repeatedly into
his arm.)
CAESAR. Ffff--Stop. (Wrathfully) How dare you?
CLEOPATRA (abashed). You said you were dreaming. (Whimpering) I
only wanted to show you--
CAESAR (gently). Come, come: don't cry. A queen mustn't cry. (He
rubs his arm, wondering at the reality of the smart.) Am I awake?
(He strikes his hand against the Sphinx to test its solidity. It
feels so real that he begins to be alarmed, and says perplexedly)
Yes, I--(quite panicstricken) no: impossible: madness, madness!
(Desperately) Back to camp--to camp. (He rises to spring down
from the pedestal.)
CLEOPATRA (flinging her arms in terror round him). No: you shan't
leave me. No, no, no: don't go. I'm afraid--afraid of the Romans.
CAESAR (as the conviction that he is really awake forces itself
on him). Cleopatra: can you see my face well?
CLEOPATRA. Yes. It is so white in the moonlight.
CAESAR. Are you sure it is the moonlight that makes me look
whiter than an Egyptian? (Grimly) Do you notice that I have a
rather long nose?
CLEOPATRA (recoiling, paralyzed by a terrible suspicion). Oh!
CAESAR. It is a Roman nose, Cleopatra.
CLEOPATRA. Ah! (With a piercing scream she springs up; darts
round the left shoulder of the Sphinx; scrambles down to the
sand; and falls on her knees in frantic supplication, shrieking)
Bite him in two, Sphinx: bite him in two. I meant to sacrifice
the white cat--I did indeed--I (Caesar, who has slipped down from
the pedestal, touches her on the shoulder) Ah! (She buries her
head in her arms.)
CAESAR. Cleopatra: shall I teach you a way to prevent Caesar from
eating you?
CLEOPATRA (clinging to him piteously). Oh do, do, do. I will
steal Ftatateeta's jewels and give them to you. I will make the
river Nile water your lands twice a year.
CAESAR. Peace, peace, my child. Your gods are afraid of the
Romans: you see the Sphinx dare not bite me, nor prevent me
carrying you off to Julius Caesar.
CLEOPATRA (in pleading murmurings). You won't, you won't. You
said you wouldn't.
CAESAR. Caesar never eats women.
CLEOPATRA (springing up full of hope). What!
CAESAR (impressively). But he eats girls (she relapses) and cats.
Now you are a silly little girl; and you are descended from the
black kitten. You are both a girl and a cat.
CLEOPATRA (trembling). And will he eat me?
CAESAR. Yes; unless you make him believe that you are a woman.
CLEOPATRA. Oh, you must get a sorcerer to make a woman of me. Are
you a sorcerer?
CAESAR. Perhaps. But it will take a long time; and this very
night you must stand face to face with Caesar in the palace of
your fathers.
CLEOPATRA. No, no. I daren't.
CAESAR. Whatever dread may be in your soul--however terrible
Caesar may be to you--you must confront him as a brave woman and
a great queen; and you must feel no fear. If your hand shakes: if
your voice quavers; then--night and death! (She moans.) But if he
thinks you worthy to rule, he will set you on the throne by his
side and make you the real ruler of Egypt.
CLEOPATRA (despairingly). No: he will find me out: he will find
me out.
CAESAR (rather mournfully). He is easily deceived by women. Their
eyes dazzle him; and he sees them not as they are, but as he
wishes them to appear to him.
CLEOPATRA (hopefully). Then we will cheat him. I will put on
Ftatateeta's head-dress; and he will think me quite an old woman.
CAESAR. If you do that he will eat you at one mouthful.
CLEOPATRA. But I will give him a cake with my magic opal and
seven hairs of the white cat baked in it; and--
CAESAR (abruptly). Pah! you are a little fool. He will eat your
cake and you too. (He turns contemptuously from her.)
CLEOPATRA (running after him and clinging to him). Oh, please,
PLEASE! I will do whatever you tell me. I will be good! I will be
your slave. (Again the terrible bellowing note sounds across the
desert, now closer at hand. It is the bucina, the Roman war
trumpet.)
CAESAR. Hark!
CLEOPATRA (trembling). What was that?
CAESAR. Caesar's voice.
CLEOPATRA (pulling at his hand). Let us run away. Come. Oh, come.
CAESAR. You are safe with me until you stand on your throne to
receive Caesar. Now lead me thither.
CLEOPATRA (only too glad to get away). I will, I will. (Again the
bucina.) Oh, come, come, come: the gods are angry. Do you feel
the earth shaking?
CAESAR. It is the tread of Caesar's legions.
CLEOPATRA (drawing him away). This way, quickly. And let us look
for the white cat as we go. It is he that has turned you into a
Roman.
CAESAR. Incorrigible, oh, incorrigible! Away! (He follows her,
the bucina sounding louder as they steal across the desert. The
moonlight wanes: the horizon again shows black against the sky,
broken only by the fantastic silhouette of the Sphinx. The sky
itself vanishes in darkness, from which there is no relief until
the gleam of a distant torch falls on great Egyptian pillars
supporting the roof of a majestic corridor. At the further end of
this corridor a Nubian slave appears carrying the torch. Caesar,
still led by Cleopatra, follows him. They come down the corridor,
Caesar peering keenly about at the strange architecture, and at
the pillar shadows between which, as the passing torch makes them
hurry noiselessly backwards, figures of men with wings and hawks'
heads, and vast black marble cats, seem to flit in and out of
ambush. Further along, the wall turns a corner and makes a
spacious transept in which Caesar sees, on his right, a throne,
and behind the throne a door. On each side of the throne is a
slender pillar with a lamp on it.)
CAESAR. What place is this?
CLEOPATRA. This is where I sit on the throne when I am allowed to
wear my crown and robes. (The slave holds his torch to show the
throne.)
CAESAR. Order the slave to light the lamps.
CLEOPATRA (shyly). Do you think I may?
CAESAR. Of course. You are the Queen. (She hesitates.) Go on.
CLEOPATRA (timidly, to the slave). Light all the lamps.
FTATATEETA (suddenly coming from behind the throne). Stop. (The
slave stops. She turns sternly to Cleopatra, who quails like a
naughty child.) Who is this you have with you; and how dare you
order the lamps to be lighted without my permission? (Cleopatra
is dumb with apprehension.)
CAESAR. Who is she?
CLEOPATRA. Ftatateeta.
FTATATEETA (arrogantly). Chief nurse to--
CAESAR (cutting her short). I speak to the Queen. Be silent. (To
Cleopatra) Is this how your servants know their places? Send her
away; and you (to the slave) do as the Queen has bidden. (The
slave lights the lamps. Meanwhile Cleopatra stands hesitating,
afraid of Ftatateeta.) You are the Queen: send her away.
CLEOPATRA (cajoling). Ftatateeta, dear: you must go away--just
for a little.
CAESAR. You are not commanding her to go away: you are begging
her. You are no Queen. You will be eaten. Farewell. (He turns to
go.)
CLEOPATRA (clutching him). No, no, no. Don't leave me.
CAESAR. A Roman does not stay with queens who are afraid of their
slaves.
CLEOPATRA. I am not afraid. Indeed I am not afraid.
FTATATEETA. We shall see who is afraid here. (Menacingly)
Cleopatra--
CAESAR. On your knees, woman: am I also a child that you dare
trifle with me? (He points to the floor at Cleopatra's feet.
Ftatateeta, half cowed, half savage, hesitates. Caesar calls to
the Nubian) Slave. (The Nubian comes to him.) Can you cut off a
head? (The Nubian nods and grins ecstatically, showing all his
teeth. Caesar takes his sword by the scabbard, ready to offer the
hilt to the Nubian, and turns again to Ftatateeta, repeating his
gesture.) Have you remembered yourself, mistress?
Ftatateeta, crushed, kneels before Cleopatra, who can hardly
believe her eyes.
FTATATEETA (hoarsely). O Queen, forget not thy servant in the
days of thy greatness.
CLEOPATRA (blazing with excitement). Go. Begone. Go away.
(Ftatateeta rises with stooped head, and moves backwards towards
the door. Cleopatra watches her submission eagerly, almost
clapping her hands, which are trembling. Suddenly she cries) Give
me something to beat her with. (She snatches a snake-skin from
the throne and dashes after Ftatateeta, whirling it like a
scourge in the air. Caesar makes a bound and manages to catch her
and hold her while Ftatateeta escapes.)
CAESAR. You scratch, kitten, do you?
CLEOPATRA (breaking from him). I will beat somebody. I will beat
him. (She attacks the slave.) There, there, there! (The slave
flies for his life up the corridor and vanishes. She throws the
snake-skin away and jumps on the step of the throne with her arms
waving, crying) I am a real Queen at last--a real, real Queen!
Cleopatra the Queen! (Caesar shakes his head dubiously, the
advantage of the change seeming open to question from the point
of view of the general welfare of Egypt. She turns and looks at
him exultantly. Then she jumps down from the step, runs to him,
and flings her arms round him rapturously, crying) Oh, I love you
for making me a Queen.
CAESAR. But queens love only kings.
CLEOPATRA. I will make all the men I love kings. I will make you
a king. I will have many young kings, with round, strong arms;
and when I am tired of them I will whip them to death; but you
shall always be my king: my nice, kind, wise, proud old king.
CAESAR. Oh, my wrinkles, my wrinkles! And my child's heart! You
will be the most dangerous of all Caesar's conguests.
CLEOPATRA (appalled). Caesar! I forgot Caesar. (Anxiously) You
will tell him that I am a Queen, will you not? a real Queen.
Listen! (stealthily coaxing him) let us run away and hide until
Caesar is gone.
CAESAR. If you fear Caesar, you are no true Queen; and though you
were to hide beneath a pyramid, he would go straight to it and
lift it with one hand. And then--! (He chops his teeth together.)
CLEOPATRA (trembling). Oh!
CAESAR. Be afraid if you dare. (The note of the bucina
resounds again in the distance. She moans with fear. Caesar
exalts in it, exclaiming) Aha! Caesar approaches the throne of
Cleopatra. Come: take your place. (He takes her hand and leads
her to the throne. She is too downcast to speak.) Ho, there,
Teetatota. How do you call your slaves?
CLEOPATRA (spiritlessly, as she sinks on the throne and cowers
there, shaking). Clap your hands.
He claps his hands. Ftatateeta returns.
CAESAR. Bring the Queen's robes, and her crown, and her women;
and prepare her.
CLEOPATRA (eagerly--recovering herself a little). Yes, the Crown,
Ftatateeta: I shall wear the crown.
FTATATEETA. For whom must the Queen put on her state?
CAESAR. For a citizen of Rome. A king of kings, Totateeta.
CLEOPATRA (stamping at her). How dare you ask questions? Go and
do as you are told. (Ftatateeta goes out with a grim smile.
Cleopatra goes on eagerly, to Caesar) Caesar will know that I am
a Queen when he sees my crown and robes, will he not?
CAESAR. No. How shall he know that you are not a slave dressed up
in the Queen's ornaments?
CLEOPATRA. You must tell him.
CAESAR. He will not ask me. He will know Cleopatra by her pride,
her courage, her majesty, and her beauty. (She looks very
doubtful.) Are you trembling?
CLEOPATRA (shivering with dread). No, I--I--(in a very sickly
voice) No.
Ftatateeta and three women come in with the regalia.
FTATATEETA. Of all the Queen's women, these three alone are left.
The rest are fled. (They begin to deck Cleopatra, who submits,
pale and motionless.)
CAESAR. Good, good. Three are enough. Poor Caesar generally has
to dress himself.
FTATATEETA (contemptuously). The Queen of Egypt is not a Roman
barbarian. (To Cleopatra) Be brave, my nursling. Hold up your
head before this stranger.
CAESAR (admiring Cleopatra, and placing the crown on her head).
Is it sweet or bitter to be a Queen, Cleopatra?
CLEOPATRA. Bitter.
CAESAR. Cast out fear; and you will conquer Caesar. Tota: are
the Romans at hand?
FTATATEETA. They are at hand; and the guard has fled.
THE WOMEN (wailing subduedly). Woe to us!
The Nubian comes running down the hall.
NUBIAN. The Romans are in the courtyard. (He bolts through the
door. With a shriek, the women fly after him. Ftatateeta's jaw
expresses savage resolution: she does not budge. Cleopatra can
hardly restrain herself from following them. Caesar grips her
wrist, and looks steadfastly at her. She stands like a martyr.)
CAESAR. The Queen must face Caesar alone. Answer "So be it."
CLEOPATRA (white). So be it.
CAESAR (releasing her). Good.
A tramp and tumult of armed men is heard. Cleopatra's terror
increases. The bucina sounds close at hand, followed by a
formidable clangor of trumpets. This is too much for Cleopatra:
she utters a cry and darts towards the door. Ftatateeta
stops her ruthlessly.
FTATATEETA. You are my nursling. You have said "So be it"; and if
you die for it, you must make the Queen's word good. (She hands
Cleopatra to Caesar, who takes her back, almost beside herself
with apprehension, to the throne.)
CAESAR. Now, if you quail--! (He seats himself on the throne.)
She stands on the step, all but unconscious, waiting for death.
The Roman soldiers troop in tumultuously through the corridor,
headed by their ensign with his eagle, and their bucinator, a
burly fellow with his instrument coiled round his body, its
brazen bell shaped like the head of a howling wolf. When they
reach the transept, they stare in amazement at the throne; dress
into ordered rank opposite it; draw their swords and lift them in
the air with a shout of HAIL CAESAR. Cleopatra turns and
stares wildly at Caesar; grasps the situation; and, with a great
sob of relief, falls into his arms.
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