Part 4
Ahey! Ahey! How long to wait? Have you come to an agreement? --Oh, I say, shepherd, ho! you shepherd, For yourself, then, do you keep her? --Candia, what if Lazaro come back now? --Is she then unwilling? But open, Open! A hand we will lend her. And meanwhile give us the wine-jug, The wine-jug, the wine-jug's the custom!
[_Another reaper peers in through the grating._]
THE REAPER
Mila di Codra, come out here! For you that will be much the better. To try to escape us is useless, We'll seek now the oak-tree shady, And throw dice for the one to have you, That the chance for us all be equal, Now, we will not quarrel for you, As Lazaro did with Rainero, No, we'll have no useless bloodshed. But, now, if you don't come out here, Ere the last one turns up his dice-box, Then this door we all shall break open And carry things here with a free hand. You are warned now; best heed this your warning, Candia della Leonessa!
[_He jumps down and the clamor is much abated. The ringing of the village church bells can be heard in the distance._]
CANDIA
Woman, hear me. Lo, I am the mother Of these three innocent maidens, Also of this youth, the bridegroom. We were in peace in our home, here, In peace and in rest with God's favor, And blessing with home rites the marriage, You may see the wheat still in the baskets And in the blest loaf the fresh flower! You have entered in here and brought us Suddenly conflict and sorrow, Interrupted the kindred's giving, In our hearts sowing thoughts of dark omen, That have set my children weeping, And my bowels yearn and weep with them. All to chaff our good wheat grain is turning, And a worse thing still may follow. It is best for you to go now. Go thou with God, knowing surely He will help you, if you trust Him. Oh! There is cause for all this our sorrow. We would fain have desired your safety. Yet now, turn your steps hence, swiftly, So that none of this house need harm you. The door, this my son will now open.
[_The victim listens in humility with bent head, pale and trembling. _ALIGI_ steps toward the door and listens. His face shows great sorrow._]
MILA
Christian mother, lo! the earth here I kiss where your feet have trodden, And I ask of you forgiveness. With my heart in my hand lying, In the palm of my hand, grieving, For this sorrow of my bringing. But I did not seek your dwelling: I was blinded, with fear blinded, And the Father, He, all-seeing, Led me here thus to your fireside, So that I, the persecuted, Might find mercy by your fireplace, Mercy making this day sacred. O have mercy! Christian mother. O have mercy! and each wheat grain Resting here within these hampers God will return a hundred-fold.
LA CATALANA [_whispering_]
Listen not. Whoever listens Will be lost. The false one is she. Oh! I know! Her father gave her, To make her voice so sweet and gentle, Evil roots of secret magic.
ANNA
Just see now how Aligi's spellbound!
MARIA CORA
Beware! beware! lest she give him Fatal illness. O Lord, save us! Have you not heard what all the reapers Have been saying about Lazaro?
MONICA
Shall we stay here then till vespers With these baskets on our heads thus? I shall put mine on the ground soon.
[CANDIA _gazes intently upon her son, who is fastened upon _MILA_. Suddenly fear and rage seize her, and she cries aloud._]
CANDIA
Begone, begone, you sorcerer's Daughter! Go to the dogs! Begone! In my house remain no longer! Fling open the door, Aligi!
MILA
Mother of Ornella,--Love's own mother, All, but not this, God forgiveth. Trample on me, God forgiveth, Cut off my hands, yet God forgiveth, Gouge out my eyes, pluck my tongue out, Tear me to shreds, yet God forgiveth, Strangle me, yet God forgiveth, But if you now (heed me, O heed me! While the bells are ringing for Santo Giovanni). If now you seize upon this body,-- This poor tortured flesh signed in Christ's name, And toss it out there in that courtyard, In sight of these your spotless daughters, Abandoning it to sin of that rabble, To hatred and to brutal lusting, Then, O mother of Ornella, Mother of innocence in so doing, Doing that thing, God condemns you!
LA CATALANA
She was never christened, never, Her father was never buried In consecrated ground; under A thorn-bush he lies. I swear it.
MILA
Demons are behind you, woman! Black and foul and false your mouth is!
LA CATALANA
O Candia, hear her, hear her, Curses heaping! But a little, And she'll drive you from your dwelling, And then all the reapers threatened Will most surely fall upon us.
ANNA DI BOVA
Up, Aligi! Drag her out there! MARIA CORA
See you not how your Vienda, Your young bride, looks like one dying?
LA CINERELLA
What kind of a man are you? Forsaken Thus of all force in your muscles? Is the tongue within your mouth, then, Dried and shrivelled that you speak not?
FELAVIA
You seem lost. How then? Did your senses Go astray afar off in the mountain?-- Did you lose your wits down in the valley?
MONICA
Look! He hasn't let go of her mantle, Since the time he took it from her. To his fingers it seems rooted.
LA CATALANA
Do you think your son Aligi's Mind is going? Heaven help us!
CANDIA
Aligi, Aligi! You hear me? What ails you? Where are you? Gone are your senses? What is coming to birth in your heart, son?
[_Taking the mantle out of his hand, she throws it to the woman._]
I myself will open the door; take her And push her out of here straightway. Aligi, to you I speak. You hear me? Ah! verily you have been sleeping For seven hundred hundred years, And all of us are long forgotten. Kindred! God wills my undoing. I hoped these last days would bring solace And that God would now give me repose, That less bitterness now need I swallow; But bitterness overpowers me. My daughters! Take ye my black mantle From out of the ancient chest there, And cover my head and my sorrows, Within my own soul be my wailing!
[_The son shakes his head, his face showing perplexity and sorrow, and he speaks as one in a dream._]
ALIGI
What is your will of me, mother? Unto you said I: "Ah! lay there Against both of the door-posts the ploughshare, The wain and the oxen, put sods there and stones there, Yea, the mountain with all of its snow-drifts." What did I say then? And how answered you? "Heed the waxen cross that is holy, That was blest on the Day of Ascension, And the hinges with holy water sprinkled." O, what is your will that I do? It was night still When she took the road that comes hither. Profound, then, profound was my slumber, O mother! although you had not mingled for me, The wine with the seed of the poppy. Now that slumber of Christ falls and fails me: And though well I know whence this proceedeth, My lips are yet stricken with dumbness. O woman! what then is your bidding? That I seize her here now by her tresses,-- That I drag her out there in the courtyard,-- That I toss her for these dogs to raven? Well! So be it! So be it!--I do so.
[ALIGI _advances toward _MILA_, but she shrinks within the fireplace, clinging for refuge._]
MILA
Touch me not! Oh! you, you are sinning, Against the old laws of the hearthstone-- You are sinning the great sin that's mortal Against your own blood and the sanction Of your race, of your own ancient kinfolk. Lo! over the stone of the fireplace I pour out the wine that was given To me by your sister, in blood bound; So now if you touch me, molest me, All the dead in your land, in your country, All those of the long years forgotten, Generation to past generation, That lie underground eighty fathoms Will abhor you with horror eternal.
[_Taking the bowl of wine, _MILA_ pours it over the inviolate hearth. The women utter fierce and frantic cries._]
THE CHORUS OF KINDRED
O woe! She bewitches--bewitches the fireplace! --She poured with the wine there a mixture. I saw it, I saw her. 'T was stealthy! --O take her, O take her, Aligi, And force her away from the hearthstone. By the hair, O seize her, seize her! --Aligi, fear you naught, fear nothing, All her conjuring yet will be nothing. --Take her away and shiver the wine-bowl! Shiver it there against the andirons. --Break the chain loose and engirdle Her neck with it, three times twist it. --She has surely bewitched the hearthstone. -Woe! Woe for the house that totters! Ah! What lamenting will here be lamented!
THE CHORUS OF REAPERS
Oho there! All quarrelling, are you? We are waiting here and we 're watching. We have cast the dice, we know the winner. Bring her out to us, you shepherd! Yes, yes! Or the door we'll break down.
[_They join in blows on the door and in clamoring._]
ANNA DI BOVA
Hold on! Hold on! and have patience a little, But a little while longer, good menfolk. Aligi is taking her. Soon you will have her.
[ALIGI, _like one demented, takes her by the wrists, but she resists and tries to free herself._]
MILA
No! No! You are sinning, are sinning. Crush under your feet my forehead Or stun it with blows of your sheep-hook, And when I am dead toss me out there. No, no! God's punishment on you! From the womb of your wife serpents To you shall be born and brought forth. You shall sleep no more, no more, And rest shall forsake your eyelids, From your eyes tears of blood shall gush forth. Ornella, Ornella, defend me, Aid me, O thou, and have mercy! Ye sisters in Christ, do thou help me!
[_She frees herself and goes to the three sisters, who surround her. Blind with rage and horror, _ALIGI_ lifts his hook to strike her on the head. Immediately his three sisters begin to cry and moan. This stops him at once; he lets the hook fall on his knees and with open arms he stares behind her._]
ALIGI
Mercy of God! O give me forgiveness! I saw the angel, silent, weeping. He is weeping with you, O my sisters! And at me he is gazing and weeping. Even thus shall I see him forever, Till the hour for my passing, yea! past it. I have sinned thus against my own hearth-stone, My own dead and the land of my fathers; It will spurn me and scorn me forever, Deny rest to my weary dead body! For my sins, sisters, purification, Seven times, seven times, I do ask it. Seven days shall my lips touch the ashes, And as many times more as the tears shed From your gentle eyes, O my sisters! Let the angel count them, my sisters, And brand on my heart all their number! It is thus that I ask you forgiveness. Before God thus I ask you, my sisters, Oh! pray you for brother Aligi, Who must now return to the mountain. And she who has suffered such shame here, I pray you console her, refresh her With drink, wipe the dust from her garments, Bathe her feet with water and vinegar. Comfort her! I wished not to harm her. Spurred on was I by these voices. And those who to this wrong have brought me Shall suffer for many days greatly. Mila di Codra! sister in Jesus, O give me peace for my offences. These flowerets of Santo Giovanni Off from my sheep-hook now do I take them And thus at your feet here I place them. Look at you I cannot. I'm shamefaced. Behind you I see the sad angel. But this hand which did you offence here, I burn in that fire with live embers.
[_Dragging himself on his knees to the fireplace, he bends over and finds a burning ember. Taking it with his left hand, he puts the point of it in the palm of the right._]
[Illustration: "O GIVE ME PEACE FOR MY OFFENCES." _Act I._]
MILA
It is forgiven. No, no. Do not wound yourself. For me, I forgive you, and God shall receive Your penitent prayer. Rise up from the fire-place! One only, God only may punish; And He that hand hath given to you To guide your flocks to the pasture. And how then your sheep can you pasture If your hand is infirm, O Aligi? For me, in all humbleness, I forgive you, And your name I shall ever remember, Morn, eve, and midday shall my blessing Follow you with your flocks in the mountains.
THE CHORUS OF REAPERS [_outside_]
--Oho, there! Oho, there! How now? --What is the row? Do you fool us? --Ho! We'll tear down the door there. --Yes, yes! Take that timber, the plough-beam. --Shepherd, we'll not have you fool us. Now, now, that iron there, take it! Down with it! Crash down the door there! --Ho, shepherd Aligi! Now answer! One, then! Two! Three, and down goes it!
[_The heavy breathing of the men lifting the timber and iron is heard._]
ALIGI
For you, for me, and for all my people, I make the sign of the cross!
[_Rising and going toward the door, he continues._]
Reapers of Norca! This door I open.
[_The men answer in a unanimous clamor. The wind brings the sound of the bells. _ALIGI_ draws the bars and bolts and silently crosses himself, then he takes down from the wall the cross of wax and kisses it._]
Women, God's servants, cross yourselves praying.
[_All the women cross themselves and kneeling murmur the litany._]
WOMEN [_together_]
Kyrie eleison! Lord have mercy upon us! Christe eleison! Christ have mercy upon us! Eyrie eleison! Lord have mercy upon us! Christe audi nos! O Christ hear us! Christe exaudi nos! O Christ hearken unto us!
[_The shepherd then lays the cross on the threshold between the hoe and the distaff and opens the door. In the yard glittering in the fierce sun the linen-clad reapers appear._]
ALIGI
Brothers in Christ! Behold the cross That was blest on the Day of Ascension! I have placed it there on the threshold, That you may not sin against this gentle Lamb of Christ who here finds refuge, Seeking safety in this fireplace.
[_The reapers, struck silent and deeply impressed, uncover their heads._]
I saw there standing behind her The angel who guards her, silent, These eyes that shall see life eternal Saw her angel that stood there weeping. Look, brothers in Christ, I swear it! Turn back to your wheat-fields and reap them, Harm you not one who has harmed you never! Nor let the false enemy beguile you Any longer with his potions. Reapers of Norca, heaven bless you! May the sheaves in your hands be doubled! And may Santo Giovanni's head severed Be shown unto you at the sunrise, If, for this, to-night you ascend the hill Plaia. And wish ye no harm unto me, the shepherd, To me, Aligi, our Saviour's servant!
[_The kneeling women continue the litanies, _CANDIA_ invoking, the others responding._]
CANDIA and CHORUS OF THE KINDRED
Mater purissima, Mother of Purity, ora pro nobis. pray for us. Mater castissima, Mother of Chastity, ora pro nobis. pray for us. Mater inviolata, Mother Inviolate, ora pro nobis. pray for us.
[_The reapers bow themselves, touch the cross with their hands and then touch their lips and silently withdraw toward the glittering fields outside, _ALIGI_ leaning against the jamb of the door following with his eyes their departure, the silence meanwhile broken only by voices coming from the country pathways outside._]
FIRST VOICE
O! turn back, Lazaro di Roio.
ANOTHER VOICE
Turn back, turn back, Lazaro!
[_The shepherd, startled and shading his face with his hands, looks toward the path._]
CANDIA and THE WOMEN
Virgo veneranda, Virgin venerated, Virgo predicanda, Virgin admonishing, Virgo potens, Virgin potential, ora pro nobis. pray for us.
ALIGI
Father, father, what is this? Why are you bandaged? Why are you bleeding, father? Speak out and tell me, O ye men of the Lord! Who wounded him?
[LAZARO _appears at the door with his head bandaged, two men in white linen supporting him. _CANDIA_ stops praying, rises to her feet and goes to the entrance._]
ALIGI
Father, halt there! The cross lies there on the door-sill, You cannot pass through without kneeling down. If this blood be unjust blood you cannot pass through.
[_The two men sustain the tottering man and he falls guiltily on his knees outside the doorway._]
CANDIA
O daughters, my daughters, 't was true then! O weep, my daughters! let mourning enfold us!
[_The daughters embrace their mother. The kindred before rising put their hampers down on the ground. _MILA_ takes up her mantle and still kneeling wraps herself up in it, hiding her face. Almost creeping, she approaches the door toward the jamb opposite that where _ALIGI_ leans. Silently and swiftly she rises and leans against the wall, and stands there wrapt and motionless, watching her chance to disappear._]
ACT II.
_A mountain cavern is seen partially protected by rough boards, straw, and twigs and opening wide upon a stony mountain path. From the wide opening are seen green pastures, snow-clad peaks, and passing clouds. In the cavern are pallets made of sheep-pelts, small, rude wooden tables, pouches and skins, filled and empty, a rude bench for wood turning and carving, with an axe upon it, a draw-knife, plane, rasps, and other tools, and near them finished pieces; distaffs, spoons and ladles, mortars and pestles, musical instruments, and candlesticks. A large block of the trunk of a walnut tree has at its base the bark, and above, in full relief, the figure of an angel hewn into shape to the waist, with the two wings almost finished. Before the image of the Virgin in a depression of the cavern like a niche, a lamp is burning. A shepherd's bagpipe hangs close by. The bells of the sheep wandering in the stillness of the mountain may be heard. The day is closing and it is about the time of the autumnal equinox._
_The treasure-seeker, _MALDE_, and _ANNA ONNA_, the old herb-gatherer, are lying asleep on the pelts, in their rags. _COSMA_, the saint, dressed in a long friar's frock, is also asleep, but in a sitting posture with his arms clasped about his knees and his chin bowed over on them. _ALIGI_ is seated on a little bench, intent upon carving with his tools the walnut block. _MILA DI CODRA_ is seated opposite, gazing at him._
MILA
Bided mute the patron angel From the walnut woodblock carven, Deaf the wood stayed, secret, sacred, Saint Onofrio vouchsafed nothing.
Till said one apart, a third one (O have pity on us, Patron!) Till said one apart, the fair one, Lo! my heart all willing, waiting! Would he quaff a draught of marvel? Let him take my heart's blood, quaff it! But of this make no avowal, But of this make no revealing.
Suddenly the stump budded branches, Out of the mouth a branch sprang budding, Every finger budded branches, Saint Onofrio all grew green again!
[_She bends over to gather the chips and shavings around the carved block._]
ALIGI
O Mila, this too is hewn from the stump of a walnut, Grow green will it, Mila?--Grow green again?
MILA [_still bent over_]
"Would he quaff a draught of marvel Let him take my heart's blood."
ALIGI
Grow green will it, Mila?--Grow green again?
MILA
"But of this make no avowal, But of this make no revealing."
ALIGI
Mila, Mila, let a miracle now absolve us! And may the mute patron angel grant us protection. 'T is for him that I work, but not with my chisel, Ah! for him do I work with my soul in my fingers! But what are you seeking? What have you lost there?
MILA
I but gather the shavings, that in fire we burn them With each a grain of pure incense being added. Make haste, then, Aligi, for the time is nearing. The moonlight of September fleeting, lessening; All of the shepherds now are leaving, departing, Some on to Puglia fare, some Romeward faring;-- And whither then will my love his footsteps be turning? Wherever he journeys still may his pathway Go facing fresh pastures and springs, not winds keen and chilling, And of me may he think when the night overtakes him!
ALIGI
Romeward faring then shall go Aligi, Onward to Rome whither all roads are leading, His flock along with him to lofty Rome, To beg an indulgence of the Vicar, Of the Holy Vicar of Christ our Saviour, For he of all shepherds is the Shepherd. Not to Puglia land will go Aligi, But to our blest Lady of Schiavonia, Sending to her by Alai of Averna These two candlesticks of cypress wood, only, And with them merely two humble tapers, So she forget not a lowly sinner She, our Lady, who guardeth the sea-shore. Then when this angel shall be all finished, Aligi upon a mule's back will load it, And step by step will he wend on with it.
MILA
O hasten, O hasten! for the time is ripening. From the girdle downward very nearly Sunk in the wood yet and lost is the angel; The feet are held fast in the knots, the hands without fingers, The eyes with the forehead still level. You hastened indeed his wings to give him, Feather by feather, yet forth he flies not!
ALIGI
Gostanzo will aid me in this, the painter, Gostanzo di Bisegna; the painter is he Who tells stories on wood in color. Unto him I have spoken already, And he will give unto me fine colors. Perhaps, too, the good monks at the abbey, For a yearling, a little fine gold leaf For the wings and the bosom will give me.
MILA
O hasten! Hasten! The time is rip'ning, Longer than day is the night already, From the valley the shades rise more quickly, And unawares they shut down around us. Soon the eye will guide the hand no longer, And unsuccored of art will grope the blind chisel!
[COSMA _stirs in his sleep and moans. From a distance the sacred songs of pilgrims crossing the mountain are heard._]
Cosma is dreaming. Who knows what he's dreaming! Listen, listen, the songs of the pilgrims Who across the mountain go journeying, May be to Santa Maria della Potenza, Aligi,--toward your own country,--toward Your own home, where your mother is sitting. And may be they will pass by very near, And your mother will hear, and Ornella, Mayhap, and they'll say: "These must be pilgrims Coming down from the place of the shepherds; And yet no loving token is sent us!"
[ALIGi _is bending over his work carving the lower part of the block. Giving a blow with the axe he leaves the iron in the wood and comes forward anxiously._]
ALIGI
Ah! Why, why will you touch where the heart is hurting? Oh! Mila, I will speed on, overtake their cross-bearer And beg him bear onward my loving thoughts with them. And yet, Mila, yet--Oh! how shall I say it, Mila?
MELA