The Very Old Blind Woman. They are sitting beside me, on a rock.
First Blind Man. I am sitting on dead leaves.
Third Blind Man. And the beautiful blind girl, where is she?
The Very Old Blind Woman. She is near them that pray.
Second Blind Man. Where is the mad woman, and her child?
The Young Blind Girl. He sleeps; do not awaken him!
First Blind Man. Oh! How far away you are from us! I thought you were opposite me!
Third Blind Man. We know—nearly—all we need to know. Let us chat a little, while we wait for the priest to come back.[13]
Many an inexperienced dramatist fails to see the force of these words of Maeterlinck: “An old man, seated in his armchair, waiting patiently, with his lamp beside him—submitting with bent head to the presence of his soul and his destiny—motionless as he is does yet live in reality a deeper, more human, and more universal life than the lover who strangles his mistress, the captain who conquers in battle, or the husband who ‘avenges his honor.’” If an audience can be made to feel and understand the strong but contained emotion of this motionless figure, he is rich dramatic material.