Scene V. There must have been some peculiar condition attached to the ring. At the same hour that it fell in the fountain Golo's horse shied while hunting so that he was hurt and now lies wounded in bed. Mélisande is taking care of him. She tells Golo that she did not feel well the day before. She is oppressed by a certain foreboding, she does not know what it is. Golo seizes her hands to console her and sees that the ring is missing. Then he drives her out into the night to look for it. "Sooner would I give away everything I have, my fortune and goods, rather than have lost the precious ring." Pelléas will help her.
Scene VI. Before a grotto in the rocks. Mélisande has deceived Golo by telling him that the ring has slipped from her hand into the sea. So Pelléas must now lead her to this grotto in order that she may know at least the place in which she can claim that she lost the ring. A dreadful place in which the shudder of death stalks.
Act III. Scene VII. A tower in the castle. At the window of the tower Mélisande is standing combing her hair that she has let down. Then Pelléas comes along the road that winds around under her window. Pelléas is coming to say farewell. Early the next morning he is going away. So Mélisande will at least once more reach out her hand to him that he may press it to his lips. Love weaves a web about the twain with an ever thicker netting without their noticing it. Their hands do not touch but as Mélisande leans forward so far her long hair falls over Pelléas's head and fills the youth with passionate feelings. Their words become warmer—then Golo comes near and reproves their "childishness."
Copyright photo by Davis & Sanford Co.
Mary Garden as Mélisande in “Pelléas and Mélisande”
Scene VIII. In the vault under the castle. Like a gloomy menace Golo leads Pelléas into these underground rooms where the breeze of death blows. Seized with shuddering they go out. On the terrace at the entrance to the vault Golo in earnest words warns Pelléas to keep away from Mélisande and to refrain from confidential conversations with her.
Scene IX. Before the castle. In vain Golo has sought to quiet himself by saying that it was all only childishness. Jealousy devours his heart. So now he seeks with hypocritical calm his little son Yniold, offspring of his first marriage, to inquire about the intimacy of Pelléas and Mélisande. The child cannot tell him of anything improper yet Golo feels how it is with the couple. And he feels that he himself is old, much older than Pelléas and Mélisande.