This Etext is for private use only. No republication for profit in print or other media may be made without the express consent of the Copyright Holder. The Copyright Holder is especially concerned about performance rights in any media on stage, cinema, or television, or audio or any other media, including readings for which an entrance fee or the like is charge. Permissions should be addressed to: Frank Morlock, 6006 Greenbelt Rd, #312, Greenbelt, MD 20770, USA or frankmorlock@msn.com. Other works by this author may be found at http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/personnage.asp?key=130
EText by Dagny
1857 Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock C 2003
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CHARACTERS:
FRANCOIS VILLON, aged 50
STEWART, Captain of Scotch Archers, aged 30
GOSSOYN, companion of Villon
JEAN GAUTHIER, an innkeeper
AIKA, a Moroccan gypsy girl, aged 17
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The action takes place in Tours in 1473, on the 25th of August (Saint Louis's Day).
++++++++++++++++++++++++
The stage represents the main hall of the inn of the faubourg. It's night outside, the blinds are half shut. The street and house opposite can be seen with some illumination.
AT RISE, distant uproar of a party and music can be heard. Three or four drinkers are seated here and there at the back of the stage.
GAUTHIER: (to his waiters) Attention! Attention! Are you
deaf?
The fest continues and everybody's leaving.
Midnight is just sounding at Saint Martin of Tours.
My clientele hereabouts is going to return in a crowd.
RECITATIF:
The Children of Sans-Souci are here in our neighborhood
Where Louis XI, may God protect his life!
Has made them, in honor of his fest,
Play a farce by Villon,
A lad of wit, very dishonest,
Who'll hang tomorrow, so they say.
(Enter a cavalier, well turned out, enveloped in his cloak.)
GAUTHIER: (noticing the Captain)
A cloak in the month of August?
Somebody in love, no question. (going to him)
What good can I do for milord?
STEWART: Listen!
The Maugrabins lodge with you?
GAUTHIER: Yes, milord.
STEWART: They have a young girl with them?
GAUTHIER: Girls? They've got more than one very nice one,
And they all lodge with me.
STEWART: (interrupting him) Shut up.
GAUTHIER: It's done.
STEWART: One amongst them,
A brunette with sweet blue eyes, teeth white and beautiful,
Is of their number, right?
Who wears on each of her arms
Two bracelets, alike in every respect,
Made of silver and rose coral?
GAUTHIER: Yes, milord, her name is Aika.
STEWART: I want to consult her. Where to wait for her?
GAUTHIER: (hesitating) Why? (Stewart takes a small gold chain
from his neck and hurls it at him. Gauthier, suddenly obsequious, says,
pointing to a little stairway on the right) There—
You will see her.
STEWART: (finger on his lips) Very careful!
GAUTHIER: (pointing to the necklace) My tongue is enchained.
(He leads Captain Stewart to the door at the right.)
GAUTHIER: (alone for a moment at the door at the back)
Ah! The uproar's getting closer and the singing, too.
The fest is over.
And here come the Children of San-Souci!
GOSSOYN AND THE CHILDREN OF SANS-SOUCI: (erupting onto the
stage)
If he is on his round machine,
A frank good-for-nothing,
Who, jeering at the whole world,
Clings to nothing,
Having neither bread, nor money, nor farthing,
Good for nothing who doesn't work,
And drinks without truce or mercy,
He's a Child of San Souci.
If he's a wise guy beloved by the ladies,
A plain jolly fellow
More seducing under his rags
Than Cupid,
To lady or virgin, nun or town lady,
If he's a bird that can't be tamed,
His deep voice—which he softens—
He's a Child of San-Souci.
GOSSOYN: (to his companions) RECITATIF
What a misfortune, my friends,
That this poor Villon won't be at the party.
Our troupe now is like a body without its head!
Before reaching Paris tomorrow
We'll all go see him hang.
Won't that teach us
How by the gallows one climbs to paradise? (they are near the
table by the right)
Let's sing in his honor his gay DE PROFUNDIS.
He would sing it with us himself
If he could drink with us the supreme cup.
DE PROFUNDIS BURLESQUE
Choked by the yoke! Choked by the rope!
We have to die—Let's die gaily!
Heaven in its mercy
Doesn't forbid the pastime
To the few days it grants us.
Choked by the yoke! Choked by the rope!
The devil is wicked—But thank God
Hell is not more terrible
Than it is in this world here
The life a wretch leads
The devil is wicked—defy the devil!
CHORUS: They'll hang Villon
Let heaven have his soul!
God who reclaims him
Will work his pardon!
Around the branches
Where his bones will hang
May clement angels
With their white wings
Fan the winds
For his rest!
THE WHOLE CHORUS (repeating with Gossoyn)
Choked by the yoke!—etc, etc.
GOSSOYN: (calling and rapping on the table)
Supper! Supper! Old scoundrel, Jean Gauthier;
Can't you hear us, cursed innkeeper?
GAUTHIER: (returning) No use rapping, shouting.
For the last three days your bunch
Has been lunching, dining and supping at my place.
The time has come to pay me!
THE SANS-SOUCI: Supper!
GAUTHIER: Money!
THE SANS-SOUCI: (getting ready to leave) Goodbye, my colleague!
GAUTHIER: (trying to stop them)
Before moving out, you will pay me I hope.
THE SAN-SOUCI: (elbowing him) To the devil!
GAUTHIER: Help! Help!
GOSSOYN: (seizing a jug as if to break it) You want to yell,
well!
You won't have yelled out for nothing.
GAUTHIER: (at one side) Help! help!
SANS-SOUCI: (at the other side) Drink, drink, drink!
(The Waiters and the San-Souci come and go. Villon abruptly enters into their midst.)
VILLON: Hey, Master Brawler,
Are they squabbling without me? I'm coming to take my share!
THE SANS-SOUCI: (astonished and delighted) Villon! It's Villon!
VILLON: Yes. But tell me the story.
THE SANS-SOUCI: He refuses us drink.
GAUTHIER: They don't want to pay me!
VILLON: (stopping them with a gesture) One moment! (in a
coaxing tone and taking Gauthier softly by the waist)
Now then, dear Gauthier!
GAUTHIER: (testy) No.
VILLON: (very sweetly) In that case, Gauthier no longer loves me?
GAUTHIER: No, no!
VILLON: (persisting) Give me credit, and I swear to, in the name—
GAUTHIER: (interrupting him) No! No! No!
VILLON: (making his attack) No! No! No!
GAUTHIER: No! A hundred times no!
VILLON: If I really begged you, you would say yes all the same.
GAUTHIER: Who? Me? I dare you!
VILLON: Well! I'm going to make you a bet.
If you say yes, we are even?
GAUTHIER: I will always say no! So be it!
VILLON: (to all ) You be the judges.
GAUTHIER: (resigned) Speak!
VILLON: (SONG)
Can one pick the grapes
That hang from a neighbor's trellis?
GAUTHIER: No! No!
VILLON: To do wrong to his fellow creatures?
Beat the watchmen? Cheat at cards?
GAUTHIER: No! No! No! No!
VILLON: In the end, can one, to laugh at the devil,
Make a face at God?
GAUTHIER: No! No! No! No! No! No!
VILLON: And when he's at home nothing makes you find fault?
If he's too demanding,
Indeed because he has no more money,
Must he pay his host?
THE SANS-SOUCI: No! A hundred times no!
GAUTHIER: (coming forward thoughtlessly)
Yes, indeed! Yes, indeed! Yes!
CHORUS: Hooray! He lost!
GAUTHIER: Triple idiot! I've been had!
THE SANS-SOUCI: To us the key to the fields! And head towards Paris!
VILLON: (stopping them) Stop! Look at this round purse!
ALL: (surprised) A purse!
GAUTHIER: (surprised) Of gold!
VILLON: (throwing Gauthier's cap on the ground)
Say who's coming back to you
And hats off before these rich men!
It's I who will pay for everybody! (he gives money to Gauthier)
I've got an appetite!
So serve us supper, but try, my colleague,
To make the wine decent, the most expensive and abundant,
Royal supper, divine supper, Villonesque supper! I've spoken!
ALL: Supper! Supper!
GAUTHIER: (To his waiters) Hurry, lads, hurry!
(Gauthier leaves, elbowed a bit, in the greatest confusion. The Children of San-Souci remain alone, grouped picturesquely, some around pots, others around Villon, they are all celebrating.)
GOSSOYN: So, you weren't hanged?
VILLON: Not yet, this time.
But if it didn't happen it's only by a hair's breadth!
GOSSOYN: Only two questions and we'll leave you alone
VILLON: Go on, my boys!
GOSSOYN: I see you again;
But how come you are free?
VILLON: Oh! The King gave me mercy,
For his celebration, would you believe it?
Thanks to ten verse in my best style.
Giving me in addition this efficacious mercy. (pointing to this
purse which he jingles joyfully)
ALL: The King! Long live the King!
GOSSOYN: But what had you done?
VILLON: God be thanked, my children, neither crime nor felony.
A mad prank, a fatal piece of luck.
I will tell you all about it later—
I wish to tell you yet a certain story
Which came to me in prison and it's not to be believed.
For me, Villon, I'm afraid
Of having left my heart there!
Listen up!
ALL: Let's listen! It's some good story!
VILLON: (AIR)
I was in a sad and silent cell,
With black bread and water, bored for all companionship,
Through the gaping air-hole, a radiant sun
Which seemed to mock me and tire my eyes,
And the gibbet in sight!
Ah! If at least I had a jug of wine!
The two of us will defer the number of the hours.
It was too hot, really;
As for me I'm thirsty even in the shade
Wine—to forget! Wine—My God! Suddenly,
Outside the pinnacles and lower than my bars,
I heard a sweet and charming voice, a voice
Of a Seraphin—of a young girl.
It was a song that was bizarre and naive at the same time.
(seeming to search in his memory)
Sheep bells, tambourine, oboes,
Gayety, madness and tenderness! (resuming his tale)
Archers, citizens and other folks of no account
Applauded the charmer in chorus.
Then, I bethought me to expose my distress
In a couplet just like hers.
A silence followed, then, at last, something
From the top of the air-hole, right at my feet,
A rose coral bracelet,
Bordered in silver—Here it is!
Vision—fugitive image,
A bracelet—that's all. Still—poor dreamer.
I've kept it here; this mysterious pledge
That fell to me from heaven rejuvenated my heart! (coming to
himself suddenly)
What's it to my life,
This phantom of a memory?
Hey! Mock, kids, of woes to come. (putting the jug on the
table)
The present suffices us.
(Gauthier enters with his waiters and the prepared supper.)
GAUTHIER: His grandeur is served.
(The Sans-Souci rush to tables and set to eating with conviction, and without speaking, on a movement by the orchestra.)
GOSSOYN: By God! What eloquent silence!
CHORUS: All that's heard
Is the perfect accord of napkins
And forks.
Let's not disturb this eloquent silence.
(Another movement by the orchestra.)
GOSSOYN: (after a pause)
Friends, for once in our lives, we're going to have
A supper that we don't have to go in debt for.
ALL: (one after the other) Bread!
Waiter! Friend! Water! Fie! Wine!
Only evil folk drink red water.
GOSSOYN: Do you hear the uproar increase?
CHORUS: Tonight,
No boredom,
Wine makes tongues talkative,
More chattering,
Gay remarks cross in the uproar.
GOSSOYN: (alone) But there aren't enough of us
To really laugh.
The wine is losing at this rate
Its fiery sound. (to Gauthier)
Isn't there in your house
Some fellow
Who will do us justice
Without ceremony?
GAUTHIER: Yes! I have some Maugrabins
From Granada,
All guys much inclined
To fine wines!
GOSSOYN: Let them come without delay,
Comrade,
To take part
In the departure supper.
We're going to banquet
While waiting for them,
Make them hurry up,
All leave!
Our companions of the inn, make them come down here.
As for peasants all have the right to come up.
(Gauthier leaves.)
REFRAIN BY CHORUS: Let's laugh, let's drink, let's sing,
colleagues,
Let's clink our glasses.
ALL TOGETHER: We're going to drink and dance until break of day!
A PORTION OF THE CHORUS AT THE SAME TIME: To our master,
To old Francois Villon,
This noble ancestor
Of the chanson!
ALL: We are going to drink and dance until dawn.
(At the end of the chorus an uproar of tambourines can be heard outside; the Children of Sans-Souci turn towards the door at the back, where, amidst Moorish men and women, a young Gypsy girl appears, surrounded with shouting. Aika! Aika! Villon looks at her arrival with surprise and seems struck by a sudden memory.)
AIKA: My mother had some shames,
And I have shames as well;
But as for mine, I don't feel them,
Hai! Lu! Li!
But as for mine, I don't feel them,
Hers alone are the ones I feel!
VILLON: (aside, very moved) It's really she—O my God!
AIKA: If you pass the graveyard, child,
Were it twenty years from now!
Say my name in a prayer.
Hai! Lu! Li!
Say my name in a prayer
And my bones will shout: Merci!
VILLON: (very moved, rising, bracelet in hand)
Blessed angel, sweet foreigner,
O you that I find again here
From the depths of my misery
Hai! Lu! Li!
O you who received my prayer,
Hear my voice shout: Merci! (he hands her the bracelet)
AIKA: This bracelet?
VILLON: It's the one that your tutelary hand
Threw, one of these recent days,
Into the castle of Plessis-les-Tours,
Into the cell of a poor devil!
It was a talisman, it brought me luck.
First of all, I'm free, and now, I've seen you again,
Dear child—
(He extends the bracelet as if to return it to her; Aika repulses it gracefully.)
AIKA: Keep it always!
VILLON: I accept, with all my heart,
Thanks! (to all)
Let our feast be interrupted for a while,
So as to revive brilliantly in her honor! I intend
That all the world be happy!
Children, take this gold—women, some glee!
You will have ribbons and jewels!—Bounty!
(He throws his gold as a gift, the children and women dispute gaily. Then, during the ensemble which follows, Villon takes Aika aside and presses her excitedly. Aika, seduced by the air and manners of Villon lets herself go little by little. Animated scene.)
CHORUS: Villon is amorous!
He's throwing gold out the window—etc.
AIKA: (responding to Villon who has spoken to her during the
chorus)
Why are they mocking? Your voice is sincere,
And I know you're brave and strong;
The one that I will love will be like that—Still,
What's to be done? We must leave and follow our fate!
VILLON: What! So soon?
AIKA: I must.
VILLON: When will I see you again?
AIKA: Who knows. (to the Moors)
Let's finish the preparations for the departure.
VILLON: But we can, at least, for our part,
Help you in a friendly way, and be a part of your train.
Won't you consent to it, Aika?
AIKA: So be it!
(Villon starts to leave the last with Aika.)
GAUTHIER: (to Aika, in a mysterious manner.) Hey!
I must speak to you briefly.
AIKA: Well, speak!
GAUTHIER: Yes, indeed!
But to you alone.
VILLON: In that case, I am one too many, my master?
GAUTHIER: Not at all, for me—but for someone else, perhaps!
VILLON: (rapidly in a jealous tone, aside)
Who can wish Aika ill?
Oh! I'm going to find out.
(He leaves surlily. Aika goes toward Gauthier who has gone to the door at the right, and furtively led in the young officer.)
GAUTHIER: (to Stewart, before leaving) There she is!
(Captain Stewart, without his cape, in the elegant costume of a Captain of the Scotch Guards.)
STEWART: COUPLETS
I
Listen to me; I'm coming to you my darling,
Heart trembling like a young school boy.
But my secret, O sweet sorceress!
Is not one that can be confided to you!
Point out to me some supreme elixir
To disarm and conquer a heart.
One suffers too much from love only if one loves.
I love and I intend to make myself loved.
AIKA:
II
Gifts, oaths, little attentions, flattery,
They cost nothing—Listen to the bachelors!
For them love is gallantry;
But a girl puts more manners into it.
It's only an elixir, a sovereign balm.
You know it as well as me,
When one wants to be loved by a woman,
It's loving her in good faith.
STEWART: Come on, the sorceress, a coquette;
She's a girl, after all! This vice completes her,
And that grace is one she lacks, on honor!
I love her more that way!
AIKA: (pushing him away) Easy, milord!
STEWART: You recognized me, naughty girl?
AIKA: Isn't it you who for the last week
Commanded at Plessis-les-Tours
The grey archers of The Scottish Guard?
Captain Stewart!
STEWART: Yes, you know all my names.
Beautiful child, it is me myself
Who is coming at your knees to tell you that I love you.
AIKA: You don't know me well, milord
VILLON: (hidden, aside) Let's listen.
AIKA: I come from a proscribed race,
Without family, ancestors or position;
Living under heaven that shelters her,
Like the birds of God.
You a from a proud race,
Lord, what would I be in your eyes?
I, who dream in my poverty
Of a brave and sincere companion
And not a proud master!
STEWART: (with great elegance)
I am young, I am rich—be more tractable!
Do you want to drag after
Some poor devil,
A miserable existence for good,
You, so perfectly made for love?
You need robes of brocade
With violet pearls,
With golden belts—
Come! Later it will be too late!
AIKA: (jumping away from him) Leave me, milord!
STEWART: (holding her) Ah! That's enough of that!
Mary or Magdalene,
Virgin or Gypsy, I am taking you with me,
And despite you, I will make your fortune! (pulling her)
Come!—Are you going to come!
VILLON: (rushing between them) Too much fire, Captain!
AIKA: (aside) He was there! My God! Thanks!
STEWART: Indeed, what's this character here want with me?
Why, I recognize you—it's really you! Comrade,
Come on, admit it, it's really you
Who, this morning, thanks to the King's bounty
Avoided prison, the rope and the strapado?
VILLON: (with a cold rage) Yes, master.
STEWART: (with growing irony, to Aika) Good God! the worthy
knight
Who takes arms for the beauty!
VILLON: And who will really force you to bow
To the respect he has for her!
STEWART: Master Villon is lyrical to excess!
VILLON: Master Villon is preventing your success!
STEWART: At least he has the trick of really displeasing me!
VILLON: What! I have the honor of getting under your collar?
STEWART: (hand on his sword) Make room for me, or if not,
I am going to chastise you!
VILLON: (seizing a torch) Well! Let's battle then!
That's also my profession!
STEWART: (dagger in hand) Insolent! Make way for us!
VILLON: (with energy) No!
(They have both assumed menacing postures.)
AIKA: (throwing herself between them, in an outburst)
Stop! (then more softly)
Mercy! Stop!
For me, so much discussion and wild love,
That's too much honor, truly!
Your wife, gentlemen—I am not yours.
So leave me in freedom.
I don't love either one of you!
STEWART: (bursting into laughter) Either one of us—truly!
Seduced by your beautiful eyes, I wanted to seduce you,
But I hadn't seen the rival that's now before me!
I abandon you to him—As for me, I'm withdrawing,
For it was too much honor I was doing you.
VILLON: All my blood leaves my heart
At the cruel words she just spoke!
AIKA: Like him, I am a martyr.
But for his life, already trembling,
I had to say those cruel words, etc.
(Stewart leaves shrugging his shoulders with disdain.)
GRAND DUO
AIKA: (softly approaching Villon who has fallen into an
armchair)
Friend, are you angry with me?
What's wrong with you now?
VILLON: (bitterly) Me? nothing!
Thanks much!
AIKA: I suppose,
That it was up to me,
To stop a battle that I alone was the cause of?
VILLON: What did it matter to you, anyway,
If you don't love either one of us?
You said it.
AIKA: Who knows?
VILLON: Then, perhaps it's as much
The defense of the good apostle
That you pray to than to ours!
Thanks for the pity that follows my heels.
What do you care for if you don't love me!
AIKA: (forcefully, after a hesitation) And if I loved you!
VILLON: Me! Great God! That's a dream!
AIKA: Unjust ingrate! And if, quite low,
Trembling for your life, even at the price of a lie,
I wanted to save you, to keep you for myself?
VILLON: Don't snatch from me, Virgin in whom I believe,
The rapture in which her voice plunges me!
AIKA: CANTABLE
Yes, it's not today I first loved you.
It's been a long while my heart belonged to you.
Go! A love more powerful than mine,
By attracting me, brought you closer to me.
Didn't you see a poor Gypsy girl slip
My friendly shade between death and you?
Ah! its not today I first loved you, etc.
VILLON: (resuming) Yes, I loved you unknown to myself,
And it's my heart that's revealing itself to me.
ENSEMBLE
AIKA: Ah! Despite myself I'm letting myself be dragged away;
A strange charm intoxicates and oppresses me!
If I am doing ill, you must pardon me;
Villon, take pity on my youth.
VILLON: A new heaven comes to shine on me
That would have made of you its gold and riches.
Go, as for me, I will have my blood to give you!
My blood, my life, and all its tendernesses!
AIKA: Well, I have faith in your heart, in your arms.
Your wit dazzles me, your audacity intoxicates me.
VILLON: Oh! I love you!
AIKA: (completely carried away)
Let's leave—March! I'm going to follow you!
VILLON: (stopping, thoughtful, a silence)
Eh, what! It's you who will follow me? (aside, with a profound
tone)
Before this innocence and this young life,
Who is unaware of it and deserves pardon,
I feel my heart gripped by melancholy,
For my own misery and my destitution!
Alas!
AIKA: What's holding him back?
What's wrong with you?
Let's leave!
VILLON: What do I hear?
To leave! Oh, no!
To drag her into my degradation,
Forever chained to my heels!
Aika, your youth is too far from mine.
AIKA: Then it's my youth that will return yours to you!
VILLON: (profoundly) Alas! Alas!
ROMANCE:
Would the fates,
Which enchained you so far from me,
In the time of my good days,
Never have dragged me to you!
O charming days, exempt from pain,
Wherein, I would have been able to awaken, adoring you,
Where are they, sovereign Virgin,
Where are the snows of years gone by?
AIKA: (Softly) Love will return to you
The springtime you are weeping for
And its sweetest hours,
Love will bring them to you.
VILLON: Oh! Begone! I beg you
Your love is breaking my heart.
Alas! My life is done with.
You are coming too late for my happiness!
Leave me alone in the shadow where I've crawled.
Listening to you, my dreams of gold have fled.
Where are they, sovereign Virgin,
Where are the snows of years gone by?
Goodbye! In your tribe find a family;
Remember the absent one and only be his daughter. (with effort)
Goodbye!
AIKA: You're kicking me out?
VILLON: Begone! I know myself.
Oh! Begone! Begone!
AIKA: (upset and stupefied, with great submissiveness)
I'm going away
(Aika distances herself, Villon falls overwhelmed into an armchair. Aika looks at him one last time, leaves slowly, blowing him a kiss.)
VILLON: (alone) She's moving away, she's leaving me!
Is this possible? No! Aika, it's over with!
Courage! But I've got to leave, and leave quickly,
To put a world between us because my heart is weakening!
(calling)
Come, children, come! Let's take the field!
Let's leave on the hour, my friends.
(Enter the Children of Sans-Souci still a little drunk.)
GOSSOYN: Where's Aika?
VILLON: Her road is toward Spain,
Ours is toward Paris! (Then, alone at the front of the stage,
Villon looks at the bracelet she left him, and says, aside, with a sob)
Poor Aika! my dearest thought!
You're no longer here. And I'm the one that kicked you out!
(after a silence)
I loved her, and I love her—and there she is leaving!
GOSSOYN: (surprised) She's leaving?
VILLON: Listen!
(At this moment, behind the shutters which are open and which allow the rays of dawn to penetrate the room, one perceives the troupe of Moors leaving with their varts, etc. Aika can be heard singing the Gypsy song. Profound silence.)
AIKA: (In the wings) If you think of the foreigner,
Friend, were it twenty years from now!
Say her name in a prayer
Hai! Lu! Li!
And her heart will shout: Merci!
VILLON: (rolling Aika's bracelet in his fingers, deeply
moved)
Goodbye, my last youth! (forcefully to the Children of
Sans-Souci)
Day's come, time presses us!
Come on, some of your best wine, Jean Gauthier,
And pour us once more the parting cup.
For us, intoxication and madness! (cup in hand)
Ah, kids, let's mock at the cares to come.
It's too much to sadden you with my melancholy.
To the devil with pains one can numb
With the wine of forgetfulness—wine, that's pleasure!
REFRAIN AND FINAL CHORUS: No more boredom
Today!
Let's laugh, let's drink, let's sing, colleagues.
Clink our glasses
To the noble ancestor of chanson,
To Villon!
CURTAIN