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قراءة كتاب Clair de Lune A Play in Two Acts and Six Scenes
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Clair de Lune A Play in Two Acts and Six Scenes
cambric.
Prince
Why do you dislike Josephine?
Queen
I do not dislike her, but she behaves unbecomingly. She is very arrogant. Arrogance does not become a bastard.
Prince [in a teasing vein]
You do dislike her. You hate her, even though she is your half-sister, but I find her enchanting. I adore her cold, slender finger tips and the perfection of her contemptuous profile. She moves exactly like a swan.
Queen [trying to control her emotion]
At last you are giving yourself entirely away. I am hearing what I know. Ugh! how doubly unpleasant!
Prince
Why should I not give myself away to you, Cousin?
Queen
You mean I am powerless to harm either of you.
Prince
Why should you wish to harm us?
Queen
There are many things you might not understand; for instance, there is a love that is half hatred. It is sprinkled into life in a rather strange manner—by wounds. However, I am becoming sentimental and I hate sentimentality. It reminds me of people with colds in their heads who have lost their pocket handkerchiefs.
Prince [in evident uneasiness]
Madame, your eloquence is remarkable, but to say that you are mysterious is all that I dare to say.
Queen
You dare to say what you want to say [bitterly]. You have courage enough to satisfy your curiosities like everybody else, but I have always noticed that when people are not curious their manners become extraordinary. However, we are forgetting about the fête. Let us call Phedro.
Prince [bowing]
With pleasure.
[He calls. Phedro emerges after a few seconds at an entirely different angle from the place where he was concealed.]
Phedro
Majesty.
Queen
[Addressing him in a peremptory voice.]
It is my wish that you should think of something bizarre to be included in the festivities of tonight. The Prince and myself do not seem able to put our minds on it.
Phedro
I think most certainly, Majesty, there should be something bizarre about these festivities, but Majesty——
[He makes her a low bow.]
Queen [interrogatively]
Yes?
Phedro [sliding up to her]
Could I beg a moment alone with your Majesty? For it would be my humble view that both fiancés share the surprise.
Queen
[Turning to the Prince with a gesture of dismissal.]
Go along, Charles. At any rate you have a sort of sleight-of-hand manner of looking at your watch that makes me rather nervous.
Prince
[Taking her hand, and becoming mischievously eloquent with relief.]
Then, au revoir, my Cousin. When this garish day is drowned in the sapphire pool of night, and we are all like pallid flowers tossed