Jurgen: A Play in Three Acts. James Branch Cabell

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      Well—our hero had to go away for a while—and before long he learned that his lady had married Hetman Michael.

      Dorothy

      Isn’t that strange? There is a Hetman Michael that my family is plaguing me to marry. But I won’t. (thoughtfully) Anyway, go on.

      Jurgen

      There’s nothing further to tell, really. The boy became a pawnbroker and married a shrew—and suffered ever after until a devil befriended him and carried off his wife.

      Dorothy (disappointed)

      So his life was ruined!

      Jurgen

      To be perfectly honest, no more than most. He met her again in her married state and decided she was rather dull and stupid—yet—well—he could not retain his composure in her presence.

      Dorothy (interested)

      So he still loved her!

      Jurgen

      My child, you are incurably romantic. He hated her—naturally.

      Dorothy (bawling)

      Oh—couldn’t they have become lovers?

      Jurgen

      No, it did not work out. She took many lovers—and he, the legend tells, had many affaires de coeur—but never did these two become lovers.

      Dorothy

      What an awful, cynical, stupid story. I am going to leave you.

      Jurgen (quickly)

      No. Now that I have found you again it would not be possible to lose you. Not so long as there is Justice upon Earth. Why, there is no imaginable God who would permit a boy to be robbed of so noble a dream twice.

      Dorothy

      You—upset me. It seems to me you are my Jurgen—yet you are not my Jurgen.

      Jurgen

      But truly, I am Jurgen, and I have won back that first love whom every man must lose no matter whom he marries. Had I known you awaited me in this garden of youth—between dawn and sunrise—I would have had the heart to live. Surely, you are a reparation. I will not let you go—for you and you alone are my heart’s desire.

      Dorothy

      Hands off, old lecher! I can’t stand an old man!

      (Jurgen is pushed off balance and she escapes.)

      Jurgen

      Well, I am answered—yet, I know it is not the final answer. Am I so changed?

      (Enter Old Monk.)

      Old Monk

      Good and evil keep exact accounts, and the face of every man is their ledger.

      Jurgen

      What is Dorothy doing here?

      Old Monk

      Why, all women a man has ever loved live here—for very obvious reasons.

      Jurgen

      That is a hard saying, friend. This is a world that never was. Was Dorothy la Désirée an imaginary creature?

      Old Monk

      Poet! Do you not know she was your masterpiece? Actually, she was a shallow little bitch with passable looks and a bad temper—consider what a goddess you made from such material.

      Jurgen

      Who can be proud of such folly? Yet—who can regret it? My heart will keep the memory of that bliss until life ends.

      Old Monk

      There is something in that, Jurgen.

      Jurgen

      What is the good of revisiting one’s youth if one is no longer young?

      Old Monk

      Do you think that will help?

      Jurgen

      It can’t hurt.

      Old Monk

      So be it. All who see you now will see you to be Jurgen as you were twenty years ago. Only your mirror will tell you the truth.

      Jurgen

      How can I thank you?

      Old Monk

      It is my pleasure. I like experiments.

      (The Old Monk exits.)

      Jurgen

      Well, it’s certainly nice to be young again. Now, where did he go? Oh, well. Hmm, my shadow certainly isn’t that of a young man. Let’s hope no one notices. Look at these doomed people. There is my mother Azra—she never had any confidence in me—the only woman, I suspect who really understood me. She will die in ten years—and I won’t learn of it for several months. Ah, but these things are not yet—and besides, these things are inevitable. Why think about it. Yet the inevitability of all this is decidedly not fair. And there is Rainault Vinsauf laughing. In six years he will have his throat cut like a pig while held by three Burgundians. I wonder if he would laugh quite so loudly now if he knew that. And I shall forget all about him, although he is worth three of me. How can they laugh? Still, they may be wise in not glooming over what is inevitable; and I certainly cannot go so far as to say they are wrong—but still—at the same time—

      (Enter Dorothy. She runs to him.)

      Dorothy

      There you are. I met the most horrible man.

      Jurgen

      My heart’s desire, I am sad tonight, for I am thinking of what life will do to us, and what offal the years will make of you and me.

      Dorothy

      Sweetheart, do we not know you are to be an Emperor and conquer the Holy Land?

      Jurgen

      We are more now than we will ever be. Our splendor will be wasted. And such wastage is not fair.

      Dorothy

      First, you will conquer France; then you will preach a Crusade and lead an army against the infidels.

      Jurgen

      No, heart’s desire—I shall be quite otherwise.

      Dorothy

      How СКАЧАТЬ