Max. (To Carlotta, as he looks at theatre)
A noble building! Fair and magnificent!
Car. How yonder gardens gleam beneath the lights
Like some soft dream of worlds we do not know!
Max. And all is yours, my sweet,—all planned by you!
O love, you shall be mistress of a land
The fairest ever smiled up to the sun!
What say you, Charles? Does not this hour repay
Even the sacrifice of Miramar?
Car. (Smiling) Nay, he longs still for the old nooks and books.
Char. Let me admit it. This mistress Pleasure, sir,
Though she is fair is not so wondrous fair
As goddess Knowledge. Beautiful as bride
To her lord’s eye is she to worshippers,
Who seek and woo her till she yieldeth up
Her locked virginity—the Truth!
Max. (Affectionately) Ay, Charles,
Get knowledge if thou canst, and yet despair not,
For none so poor but virtue may be his;
And though your knowledge is earth’s silver key
That opens man’s and nature’s heart,
’T is golden virtue opens Heaven and shows
The God among his stars.... But, come, dear friends!
Pleasure is a true goddess too. We ’ll show
Her fair respect. (All go into theatre but Charles, who drops back unnoticed)
Char. He constantly unmasks me
And knows it not. Knowledge! ’T is withered leaves
Amid a world of dewy boughs! Knowledge!
To one school will I go—one book I ’ll read,
The school of love, the page of woman’s eye,
And I ’ll know more than sages and divines
Who study stars and Scripture!...
‘For none so poor but virtue may be his’
O noble soul, had I been true to thee
I now could open thy deceivéd eyes.
Crime seals my lips. I can but pray
This empire built on blood may stand. We are
The creatures of our deeds, more bound to them
Than slave to master, for the terms of service
Are fast indentured in the soul and know
No razure!... But I will find Aseffa! Then,
Though sin should set a darkness on my life
To draw each night out to a winter’s length
That constant storms from sallow leaf to green,
Still love’s sweet lamp shall light me! In my heart
’T will be as day!
(Enter Aseffa veiled, her dress covered with a black cloak. An attendant following. She tries to cross over to side entrance of theatre. A guard stops her)
Asef. I am a singer.
Guard. Show
Your pass.