Part 17

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Stretching his arms wide._] Yes, yes,—come!

IRENE.

My adored lord and master!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Oh, Irene!

IRENE.

[_Hoarsely, smiling and groping in her breast._] It will be only an episode—[_Quickly, whispering_.] Hush!—do not look round, Arnold!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Also in a low voice._] What is it?

IRENE.

A face that is staring at me.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Turns involuntarily._] Where? [_With a start._] Ah——!

[_The SISTER OF MERCY’S head is partly visible among the bushes beside the descent to the left. Her eyes are immovably fixed on IRENE._

IRENE.

[_Rises and says softly._] We must part then. No, you must remain sitting. Do you hear? You must not go with me. [_Bends over him and whispers._] Till we meet again—to-night—on the upland.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

And you will come, Irene?

IRENE.

Yes, surely I will come. Wait for me here.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Repeats dreamily._] Summer night on the upland. With you. With you. [_His eyes meet hers._] Oh, Irene—that might have been our life.—And _that_ we have forfeited—we two.

IRENE.

We see the irretrievable only when—

[_Breaks off._

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Looks inquiringly at her._] When——?

IRENE.

When we dead awaken.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Shakes his head mournfully._] What do we really see _then_?

IRENE.

We see that we have never lived.

[_She goes towards the slope and descends._

[_The SISTER OF MERCY makes way for her and follows her. PROFESSOR RUBEK remains sitting motionless beside the brook._

MAIA.

[_Is heard singing triumphantly among the hills._]

I am free! I am free! I am free! No more life in the prison for me! I am free as a bird! I am free!

ACT THIRD

[_A wild riven mountain-side, with sheer precipices at the back. Snow-clad peaks rise to the right, and lose themselves in drifting mists. To the left, on a stone-scree, stands an old, half-ruined hut. It is early morning. Dawn is breaking. The sun has not yet risen._

[_MAIA comes, flushed and irritated, down over the stone-scree on the left. ULFHEIM follows, half angry, half laughing, holding her fast by the sleeve._

MAIA.

[_Trying to tear herself loose._] Let me go! Let me go, I say!

ULFHEIM.

Come, come! are you going to bite now? You’re as snappish as a wolf.

MAIA.

[_Striking him over the hand._] Let me go, I tell you! And be quiet!

ULFHEIM.

No, confound me if I will!

MAIA.

Then I will not go another step with you. Do you hear?—not a single step!

ULFHEIM.

Ho, ho! How can you get away from me, here, on the wild mountain-side?

MAIA.

I will jump over the precipice yonder, if need be——

ULFHEIM.

And mangle and mash yourself up into dogs’-meat! A juicy morsel! [_Lets go his hold._] As you please. Jump over the precipice if you want to. It’s a dizzy drop. There’s only one narrow footpath down it, and that’s almost impassable.

MAIA.

[_Dusts her skirt with her hand, and looks at him with angry eyes._] Well, _you_ are a nice one to go hunting with!

ULFHEIM.

Say rather, sporting.

MAIA.

Oh! So you call this sport, do you?

ULFHEIM.

Yes, I venture to take that liberty. It is the sort of sport I like best of all.

MAIA.

[_Tossing her head._] Well—I must say! [_After a pause; looks searchingly at him._] Why did you let the dogs loose up there?

ULFHEIM.

[_Blinking his eyes and smiling._] So that _they_ too might do a little hunting on their own account, don’t you see?

MAIA.

There’s not a word of truth in that! It wasn’t for the dogs’ sake that you let them go.

ULFHEIM.

[_Still smiling._] Well, why did I let them go then? Let us hear.

MAIA.

You let them go because you wanted to get rid of Lars. He was to run after them and bring them in again, you said. And in the meantime—. Oh, it was a pretty way to behave!

ULFHEIM.

In the meantime?

MAIA.

[_Curtly breaking off._] No matter!

ULFHEIM.

[_In a confidential tone._] Lars won’t find them. You may safely swear to that. He won’t come with them before the time’s up.

MAIA.

[_Looking angrily at him._] No, I daresay not.

ULFHEIM.

[_Catching at her arm._] For Lars—he knows, my—my methods of sport, you see.

MAIA.

[_Eludes him and measures him with a glance._] Do you know what you look like, Mr. Ulfheim?

ULFHEIM.

I should think I’m probably most like myself.

MAIA.

Yes, there you’re exactly right. For you’re the living image of a faun.

ULFHEIM.

A faun?

MAIA.

Yes, precisely; a faun.

ULFHEIM.

A faun! Isn’t that a sort of monster? Or a kind of a wood demon, as you might call it?

MAIA.

Yes, just the sort of creature you are. A thing with a goat’s beard and goat-legs. Yes, and the faun has horns too!

ULFHEIM.

So, so!—has _he_ horns too?

MAIA.

A pair of ugly horns, just like yours, yes.

ULFHEIM.

Can you see the poor little horns _I_ have?

MAIA.

Yes, I seem to see them quite plainly.

ULFHEIM.

[_Taking the dogs’ leash out of his pocket._] Then I had better see about tying you.

MAIA.

Have you gone quite mad? Would you tie me?

ULFHEIM.

If I _am_ a demon, let me _be_ a demon! So that’s the way of it! You can see the horns, can you?

MAIA.

[_Soothingly._] There, there, there! Now try to behave nicely, Mr. Ulfheim. [_Breaking off._] But what has become of that hunting-castle of yours, that you boasted so much of? You said it lay somewhere hereabouts.

ULFHEIM.

[_Points with a flourish to the hut._] There you have it, before your very eyes.

MAIA.

[_Looks at him._] That old pig-stye!

ULFHEIM.

[_Laughing in his beard._] It has harboured more than one king’s daughter, I can tell you.

MAIA.

Was it _there_ that that horrid man you told me about came to the king’s daughter in the form of a bear?

ULFHEIM.

Yes, my fair companion of the chase—this is the scene. [_With a gesture of invitation._] _If_ you would deign to enter——

MAIA.

Isch! _If_ ever I set foot in it—! Isch!

ULFHEIM.

Oh, two people can doze away a summer night in there comfortably enough. Or a whole summer, if it comes to that!

MAIA.

Thanks! One would need to have a pretty strong taste for that kind of thing. [_Impatiently._] But now I am tired both of you and the hunting expedition. Now I am going down to the hotel—before people awaken down there.

ULFHEIM.

How do you propose to get down from here?

MAIA.

That’s your affair. There must be a way down somewhere or other, I suppose.

ULFHEIM.

[_Pointing towards the back._] Oh, certainly! There is a sort of way—right down the face of the precipice yonder——

MAIA.

There, you see. With a little goodwill——

ULFHEIM.

—but just you try if you dare go that way.

MAIA.

[_Doubtfully._] Do you think I can’t?

ULFHEIM.

Never in this world—if you don’t let me help you.

MAIA.

[_Uneasily._] Why, then come and help me! What else are you here for?

ULFHEIM.

Would you rather I should take you on my back——?

MAIA.

Nonsense!

ULFHEIM.

—or carry you in my arms?

MAIA.

Now do stop talking that rubbish!

ULFHEIM.

[_With suppressed exasperation._] I once took a young girl—lifted her up from the mire of the streets and carried her in my arms. Next my heart I carried her. So I would have borne her all through life—lest haply she should dash her foot against a stone. For her shoes were worn very thin when I found her——

MAIA.

And yet you took her up and carried her next your heart?

ULFHEIM.

Took her up out of the gutter and carried her as high and as carefully as I could. [_With a growling laugh._] And do you know what I got for my reward?

MAIA.

No. What did you get?

ULFHEIM.

[_Looks at her, smiles and nods._] I got the horns! The horns that _you_ can see so plainly. Is not that a comical story, madam bear-murderess?

MAIA.

Oh yes, comical enough! But I know another story that is still more comical.

ULFHEIM.

How does _that_ story go?

MAIA.

This is how it goes. There was once a stupid girl, who had both a father and a mother—but a rather poverty-stricken home. Then there came a high and mighty seigneur into the midst of all this poverty. And he took the girl in his arms—as you did—and travelled far, far away with her——

ULFHEIM.

Was she so anxious to be with him?

MAIA.

Yes, for she was stupid, you see.

ULFHEIM.

And he, no doubt, was a brilliant and beautiful personage?

MAIA.

Oh no, he wasn’t so superlatively beautiful either. But he pretended that he would take her with him to the top of the highest of mountains, where there were light and sunshine without end.

ULFHEIM.

So he was a mountaineer, was he, that man?

MAIA.

Yes, he was—in his way.

ULFHEIM.

And then he took the girl up with him——?

MAIA.

[_With a toss of the head._] Took her up with him finely, you may be sure! Oh no! he beguiled her into a cold, clammy cage, where—as it seemed to _her_—there was neither sunlight nor fresh air, but only gilding and great petrified ghosts of people all round the walls.

ULFHEIM.

Devil take me, but it served her right!

MAIA.

Yes, but don’t you think it’s quite a comical story, all the same?

ULFHEIM.

[_Looks at her a moment._] Now listen to me, my good companion of the chase——

MAIA.

Well, what is it now?

ULFHEIM.

Should not we two tack our poor shreds of life together?

MAIA.

Is his worship inclined to set up as a patching-tailor?

ULFHEIM.

Yes, indeed he is. Might not we two try to draw the rags together here and there—so as to make some sort of a human life out of them?

MAIA.

And when the poor tatters were quite worn out—what then?

ULFHEIM.

[_With a large gesture._] Then there we shall stand, free and serene—as the man and woman we really are!

MAIA.

[_Laughing._] You with your goat-legs, yes!

ULFHEIM.

And you with your—. Well, let that pass.

MAIA.

Yes, come—let _us_ pass—on.

ULFHEIM.

Stop! Whither away, comrade?

MAIA.

Down to the hotel, of course.

ULFHEIM.

And afterwards?

MAIA.

Then we’ll take a polite leave of each other, with thanks for pleasant company.

ULFHEIM.

_Can_ we part, we two? Do you think we _can_?

MAIA.

Yes, you didn’t manage to tie me up, you know.

ULFHEIM.

I have a castle to offer you——

MAIA.

[_Pointing to the hut._] A fellow to that one?

ULFHEIM.

It has not fallen to ruin yet.

MAIA.

And all the glory of the world, perhaps?

ULFHEIM.

A castle, I tell you——

MAIA.

Thanks! I have had enough of castles.

ULFHEIM.

—with splendid hunting-grounds stretching for miles around it.

MAIA.

Are there works of art too in this castle?

ULFHEIM.

[_Slowly._] Well, no—it’s true there are no works of art; but——

MAIA.

[_Relieved._] Ah! that’s one good thing, at any rate!

ULFHEIM.

Will you go with me, then—as far and as long as I want you?

MAIA.

There is a tame bird of prey keeping watch upon me.

ULFHEIM.

[_Wildly._] We’ll put a bullet in his wing, Maia!

MAIA.

[_Looks at him a moment, and says resolutely._] Come then, and carry me down into the depths.

ULFHEIM.

[_Puts his arm round her waist._] It is high time! The mist is upon us!

MAIA.

Is the way down terribly dangerous?

ULFHEIM.

The mountain mist is more dangerous still.

[_She shakes him off, goes to the edge of the precipice and looks over, but starts quickly back._

ULFHEIM.

[_Goes towards her, laughing._] What? Does it make you a little giddy?

MAIA.

[_Faintly._] Yes, that too. But go and look over. Those two, coming up——

ULFHEIM.

[_Goes and bends over the edge of the precipice._] It’s only your bird of prey—and his strange lady.

MAIA.

Can’t we get past them—without their seeing us?

ULFHEIM.

Impossible! The path is far too narrow. And there’s no other way down.

MAIA.

[_Nerving herself._] Well, well—let us face them here, then!

ULFHEIM.

Spoken like a true bear-killer, comrade!

[_PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE appear over the edge of the precipice at the back. He has his plaid over his shoulders; she has a fur cloak thrown loosely over her white dress, and a swansdown hood over her head._

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Still only half visible above the edge._] What, Maia! So we two meet once again?

MAIA.

[_With assumed coolness._] At your service. Won’t you come up?

[_PROFESSOR RUBEK climbs right up and holds out his hand to IRENE, who also comes right to the top._

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Coldly to MAIA._] So you, too, have been all night on the mountain,—as we have?

MAIA.

I have been hunting—yes. You gave me permission, you know.

ULFHEIM.

[_Pointing downward._] Have you come up that path there?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

As you saw.

ULFHEIM.

And the strange lady too?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Yes, of course. [_With a glance at MAIA._] Henceforth the strange lady and I do not intend our ways to part.

ULFHEIM.

Don’t you know, then, that it is a deadly dangerous way you have come?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

We thought we would try, nevertheless. For it did not seem particularly hard at first.

ULFHEIM.

No, at first nothing seems hard. But presently you may come to a tight place where you can neither get forward nor back. And then you stick fast, Professor! Mountain-fast, as we hunters call it.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Smiles and looks at him._] Am I to take these as oracular utterances, Mr. Ulfheim?

ULFHEIM.

Lord preserve me from playing the oracle! [_Urgently, pointing up towards the heights._] But don’t you see that the storm is upon us? Don’t you near the blasts of wind?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Listening._] They sound like the prelude to the Resurrection Day.

ULFHEIM.

They are storm-blasts from the peaks, man! Just look how the clouds are rolling and sinking—soon they’ll be all around us like a winding-sheet!

IRENE.

[_With a start and shiver._] I know that sheet!

MAIA.

[_Drawing ULFHEIM away._] Let us make haste and get down.

ULFHEIM.

[_To PROFESSOR RUBEK._] I cannot help more than one. Take refuge in the hut in the meantime—while the storm lasts. Then I shall send people up to fetch the two of you away.

IRENE.

[_In terror._] To fetch us away! No, no!

ULFHEIM.

[_Harshly._] To take you by force if necessary—for it’s a matter of life and death here. Now, you know it. [_To MAIA._] Come, then—and don’t fear to trust yourself in your comrade’s hands.

MAIA.

[_Clinging to him._] Oh, how I shall rejoice and sing, if I get down with a whole skin!

ULFHEIM.

[_Begins the descent and calls to the others._] You’ll wait, then, in the hut, till the men come with ropes, and fetch you away.

[_ULFHEIM, with MAIA in his arms, clambers rapidly but warily down the precipice._

IRENE.

[_Looks for some time at PROFESSOR RUBEK with terror-stricken eyes._] Did you hear that, Arnold?—men are coming up to fetch me away! Many men will come up here——

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Do not be alarmed, Irene!

IRENE.

[_In growing terror._] And she, the woman in black—she will come too. For she must have missed me long ago. And then she will seize me, Arnold! And put me in the strait-waistcoat. Oh, she has it with her, in her box. I have seen it with my own eyes——

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Not a soul shall be suffered to touch you.

IRENE.

[_With a wild smile._] Oh no—I myself have a resource against that.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

What resource do you mean?

IRENE.

[_Drawing out the knife._] This!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Tries to seize it._] Have you a knife?

IRENE.

Always, always—both day and night—in bed as well!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Give me that knife, Irene!

IRENE.

[_Concealing it._] You shall not have it. I may very likely find a use for it myself.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

What use can you have for it, here?

IRENE.

[_Looks fixedly at him._] It was intended for _you_, Arnold.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

For _me_!

IRENE.

As we were sitting by the Lake of Taunitz last evening——

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

By the Lake of——

IRENE.

—outside the peasant’s hut—and playing with swans and water-lilies——

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

What then—what then?

IRENE.

—and when I heard you say with such deathly, icy coldness—that I was nothing but an episode in your life——

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

It was _you_ that said _that_, Irene, not I.

IRENE.

[_Continuing._]—then I had my knife out. I wanted to stab you in the back with it.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Darkly._] And why did you hold your hand?

IRENE.

Because it flashed upon me with a sudden horror that you were dead already—long ago.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Dead?

IRENE.

Dead. Dead, you as well as I. We sat there by the Lake of Taunitz, we two clay-cold bodies—and played with each other.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

I do not call that being dead. But you do not understand me.

IRENE.

Then where is the burning desire for me that you fought and battled against when I stood freely forth before you as the woman arisen from the dead?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Our love is assuredly not dead, Irene.

IRENE.

The love that belongs to the life of earth—the beautiful, miraculous earth-life—the inscrutable earth-life—that is dead in both of us.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Passionately._] And do you know that just that love—it is burning and seething in me as hotly as ever before?

IRENE.

And I? Have you forgotten who I now am?

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Be who or what you please, for aught I care! For me, you are the woman I see in my dreams of you.

IRENE.

I have stood on the turn-table—naked—and made a show of myself to many hundreds of men—after you.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

It was I that drove you to the turn-table—blind as I then was—I, who placed the dead clay-image above the happiness of life—of love.

IRENE.

[_Looking down._] Too late—too late!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Not by a hairsbreadth has all that has passed in the interval lowered you in my eyes.

IRENE.

[_With head erect._] Nor in my own!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Well, what then! Then we are free—and there is still time for us to live our life, Irene.

IRENE.

[_Looks sadly at him._] The desire for life is dead in me, Arnold. Now I have arisen. And I look for you. And I find you.—And then I see that you and life lie dead—as I have lain.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

Oh, how utterly you are astray! Both in us and around us life is fermenting and throbbing as fiercely as ever!

IRENE.

[_Smiling and shaking her head._] The young woman of your Resurrection Day can see all life lying on its bier.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Throwing his arms violently around her._] Then let two of the dead—us two—for once live life to its uttermost—before we go down to our graves again!

IRENE.

[_With a shriek._] Arnold!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

But not here in the half darkness! Not here with this hideous dank shroud flapping around us——

IRENE.

[_Carried away by passion._] No, no—up in the light, and in all the glittering glory! Up to the Peak of Promise!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

There we will hold our marriage-feast, Irene—oh, my beloved!

IRENE.

[_Proudly._] The sun may freely look on us, Arnold.

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

All the powers of light may freely look on us—and all the powers of darkness too. [_Seizes her hand._] Will you then follow me, oh my grace-given bride?

IRENE.

[_As though transfigured._] I follow you, freely and gladly, my lord and master!

PROFESSOR RUBEK.

[_Drawing her along with him._] We must first pass through the mists, Irene, and then——

IRENE.

Yes, through all the mists, and then right up to the summit of the tower that shines in the sunrise.

[_The mist-clouds close in over the scene—PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE, hand in hand, climb up over the snow-field to the right and soon disappear among the lower clouds. Keen storm-gusts hurtle and whistle through the air._

[_The SISTER OF MERCY appears upon the stone-scree to the left. She stops and looks around silently and searchingly._

[_MAIA can be heard singing triumphantly far in the depths below._

MAIA.

I am free! I am free! I am free! No more life in the prison for me! I am free as a bird! I am free!

[_Suddenly a sound like thunder is heard from high up on the snow-field, which glides and whirls downwards with rushing speed. PROFESSOR RUBEK and IRENE can be dimly discerned as they are whirled along with the masses of snow and buried in them._

THE SISTER OF MERCY.

[_Gives a shriek, stretches out her arms towards them and cries._] Irene!

[_Stands silent a moment, then makes the sign of the cross before her in the air, and says._

Pax vobiscum!

[_MAIA’S triumphant song sounds from still farther down below._

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Transcriber’s Note

There are quite a few instances of missing punctuation. The conventional period following the character’s name is sometimes missing and has been added for consistency’s sake without further comment. Those missing from setting and stage direction are also added without comment, since there is no obvious purpose to be served by the omission. However, the restoration of punctuation missing from dialogue is noted below, since the punctuation can be expressive. One instances of dubious ‘?’ mark has been corrected to‘!’, based on context.

Other errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.

xiii.18 of passion[.] Added. 40.22 [No, ]that is true. Restored. 132.21 nothing in the world had happened[.] Added. 337.25 no mere _port[r]ait_-busts Inserted. 433.21 Let me go, I tell you[?/!] Replaced.