Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays

by Unknown

Fill it and return.

[The negro removes a large candle from one of the baskets and hands it to the First Chinese; then takes the jug and the lantern and enters the trees to the left. The First Chinese lights the candle and places it on the ground near the water bottle.]

Third Chinese. There is a seclusion of porcelain
That humanity never invades.

First Chinese [with sarcasm]. Porcelain!

Third Chinese. It is like the seclusion of sunrise,
Before it shines on any house.

First Chinese. Pooh!

Second Chinese. This candle is the sun;
This bottle is earth:
It is an illustration
Used by generations of hermits.
The point of difference from reality
Is this:
That, in this illustration,
The earth remains of one color—
It remains red,
It remains what it is.
But when the sun shines on the earth,
In reality
It does not shine on a thing that remains
What it was yesterday.
The sun rises
On whatever the earth happens to be.

Third Chinese. And there are indeterminate moments
Before it rises,
Like this, [With a backward gesture.]
Before one can tell
What the bottle is going to be—
Porcelain, Venetian glass,
Egyptian ...
Well, there are moments
When the candle, sputtering up,
Finds itself in seclusion, [He raises the candle in the air.]
And shines, perhaps, for the beauty of shining.
That is the seclusion of sunrise
Before it shines on any house. [Replacing the candle.]

First Chinese [wagging his head]. As abstract as porcelain.

Second Chinese. Such seclusion knows beauty
As the court knew it.
The court woke
In its windless pavilions,
And gazed on chosen mornings,
As it gazed
On chosen porcelain.
What the court saw was always of the same color,
And well shaped,
And seen in a clear light. [He points to the candle.]
It never woke to see,
And never knew,
The flawed jars,
The weak colors,
The contorted glass.
It never knew
The poor lights. [He opens his book significantly.]
When the court knew beauty only,
And in seclusion,
It had neither love nor wisdom.
These came through poverty
And wretchedness,
Through suffering and pity. [He pauses.]
It is the invasion of humanity
That counts.