A LITTLE DRAMA IN FOUR SCENES.
1898.
I dedicate this play1 to the gentleman who, on the evening of June 24th, 1898, turned back in Shaftesbury Avenue to give a halfpenny to a little girl, and thereby suggested to me the idea here rendered.
I. THE ANGEL OF PITY.
II. THE ANGEL OF LOVE.
III. THE ANGEL OF DEATH.
IV. THE FORM OF THE FOURTH WAS LIKE THE SON OF GOD.2
ESME VAUGHAN.
MR. VAUGHAN ("her Father").
MR. BRANDON ("Father of Percy").
A FRIEND TO VAUGHAN.
Butler, Footmen, etc., etc.
"Shaftesbury Avenue, 8.30 p.m. A gentleman walking with a friend, both in
evening dress. A little ragged girl. A young man. The gentleman
stops and gives the little girl a halfpenny. The young man smiles.
"The gentleman notices the smile, and sees how great a sadness underlies
it."
VAUGHAN.
["Turning to the young man."]
AND you -- what are you doing here?
Excuse my rudeness -- you seem so sad. {57A}
PERCY.
I am sad to-night. I am very lonely in this place.
VAUGHAN.
There are plenty of people about.
PERCY.
People -- mere shells, husks of the golden wheat that might grow even
here.
VAUGHAN.
Why do you stay here?
PERCY.
I cannot think at home.
VAUGHAN.
Why think, if thinking makes you sad?
PERCY.
That I may write. I have not long to live, and I must write, write
always.
FRIEND ["aside to Vaughan"].
Il me semble qu'il a faim.
PERCY.
I am hungry for a little love, a little pity. To-night you have shown
me your soul, and I am not hungry any more. {57B}
VAUGHAN.
But, boy, you are starving physically. Come home with me and have some
dinner. Only my daughter will be there.
PERCY.
You are very kind. Thank you.
FRIEND ["aside"]
He is a gentleman.
VAUGHAN.
But what are you doing to be alone in London?
PERCY.
Where should I go?
VAUGHAN.
Your father --
PERCY.
Has shown me the door.
VAUGHAN.
How have you quarrelled?
PERCY.
Because I must write.
VAUGHAN.
What do you write about that he dislikes?
PERCY.
He calls it waste of time.
VAUGHAN.
He may be right. What do you write about?
PERCY.
I write about all the horrible things I see, and try to find beauty in
them, or to make beauty; and I write about all the beautiful things I only
dream of. I love them all; yes, even that woman yonder. {58A}
VAUGHAN.
Do you find beauty in her?
PERCY.
No, but I see in her history a poem, to which I trust that God will
write an end.
VAUGHAN.
What end can come but evi?
PERCY.
O! if I had not hope for her I should have none for myself.
VAUGHAN.
How? Have you then fallen?
PERCY.
Oh, yes, I have fallen. I am older every hour. I have wasted time, I
have wasted love.
VAUGHAN.
Perhaps it is not all waste after all. There is a use for everything,
nothing is destroyed -- believe so, anyhow!
FRIEND.
What about this dinner of yours, Vaughan? Esme will think us a long
while gone.
VAUGHAN.
Hansom! ["Exeunt."
"A year later. VAUGHAN'S house in Mayfair. PERCY's bedroom. Moonlight
streams through an open window in the corridor. PERCY asleep. He
dreams uneasily, and after a little wakes up with a start and a cry."
PERCY.
OH! I had such a bad dream. I dreamt I was straining out after a
beautiful bird, and suddenly it stopped, and then I held it in {58B} my
hands, and it was happy, and then I dropped down somehow into the darkness
and the bird had gone -- only it got so confused, and I woke up. I hear
steps!
ESME. ["in corridor"].
Did you call, Percy? I heard a cry as if you were in pain.
PERCY.
Esme, I will come and talk to you in the moonlight. I want to say
something that I couldn't say before, because my heart choked me.
ESME.
Come out, Percy, the moon is so white, looking out of the black sky.
The sky is quite black near the moon; only far down where there are no
more bright stars it is a deep, deep blue. It is bluer and deeper than
the sea.
PERCY.
It is like your eyes. ["Comes out into corridor."] Esme! I have
looked into your eyes as your eyes look into Heaven, and there I have
found my Heaven. O serene depths! O faultless face of my desire! O
white brow too clear! I sin against your holiness by my presence. Only
the moon should see you, Esme.
ESME ["half in tears"].
You don't mean like that, Percy, quite. Why do you say that?
"Enter" VAUGHAN "in shadow. He draws back and stands watching."
PERCY.
Oh, you are crying, my heart! Do you cry because I have spoken and
touched with fire the sweet child-love we have lived in all this year? Or
is it that you do no understand? Or are you sorry? Or are you glad?
{59A}
ESME.
I am very, very glad. ["They kiss. A little cloud passes across the
moon without dimming its brightness." Percy! Percy!
PERCY.
My wife, my own wife, will you kiss me?
ESME.
I am too happy to kiss you!
PERCY.
Esme, my Esme. And we will write our poem now together.
ESME.
I cannot write; we will live our poem now together.
PERCY.
Dear heart, dear heart! And she will give us light, our dear moon out
yonder, always a pure cold light: and our life shall answer a purer,
warmer flame. She is like a maiden covered with lilies; your lilies have
kissed roses.
ESME.
And when the moon's light fails, the light of your song.
PERCY.
Let that light be drawn from Heaven too!
ESME.
Oh, Percy, I am so glad, so glad!
PERCY.
Esme!
ESME.
When will you begin your great poem -- now? {59B}
PERCY ["as if in pain"].
Ah! my poem. I am in despair! It is so great, and I am so little; it
is so pure, and I am so dull of understanding. When I write I feel as it
were the breath of an angel covering me with holiness, and I know -- then!
But now -- I only write mechanically. I force myself. To-day I tore up
all I wrote last night.
ESME.
Let us ask God to send you the angel, shell we?
["They kneel, with arms intertwined, at the open window, and bow their
heads silently." VAUGHAN "also prays, with arms outspread in
blessing. Curtain."
"Six months later."
"The dining-room." PERCY, VAUGHAN,
ESME "at diner."
"Enter" BUTLER.
BUTLER.
If you please, sir, a gentleman has called; he says he must see you at
once.
VAUGHAN.
Have you told him we are at dinner?
BUTLER.
Yes, sir; but he would not take that; begging your pardon, sir, he said
it was only an excuse, and he wouldn't stand any nonsense.
VAUGHAN.
An excuse! Who is the fellow? {60A}
BUTLER.
I think he is a friend of Mr. Percy's, sir.
PERCY ["alarmed"[.
It might be my father. ["Aside."] And I could have finished to-night -
the very last word. Something has been singing in me all day.
VAUGHAN.
I will come and speak to him.
["Exit. The voices are heard outside."
BRANDON ["Stout, purple, "knobbed," and ill-tempered"].
Yes, sir. Either I see my son now, or I fetch in a policeman.
Kidnapper! Yes, sir, that's what I call you! Yes, sir! my name "is"
Brandon. And your damned name is Vaughan, sir! And I'll drag your damned
name through a police-court, sir, as soon as -- as -- Where's my son?
["Is heard to move towards dining-room."
VAUGHAN.
John! shut that door. Mr. Brandon, my daughter is at dinner in that
room. I cannot allow you to enter
BRANDON.
That's where he is, you scoundrel. Out of the way, fool! ["Knocking"
JOHN "over, bursts the door open and enters."] There you are, you
snivelling little swine. My God! to think that damned puppy's my son!
Come out of it!
VAUGHAN ["who has entered and rung the bell for the servants"].
I shall have you locked up for assaulting my servant. {60B}
BRANDON.
And you for abducting my son. He's coming with me now or there'll be a
fuss. Mark my words, you rascal!
["Enter two Footmen."
VAUGHAN.
Seize that man. ["They seize and hold him after a struggle."] Esme go
away to your room; this is no place for you. Now, sir, say all you have
to say!
[ESME "waits in the doorway."
BRANDON.
Give me my son, and be damned to you! That's all; and it's plain
enough, I hope.
PERCY.
Father, I am leaving Mr. Vaughan's house, as I shall only get him into
trouble if I stay. But I will not come home with you, you who broke my
mother's heart, and turned me from your doors penniless.
BRANDON.
Unnatural puppy!
PERCY.
My mother's spirit forgives you, and in my heart is no longer the desire
for vengeance. So far have I risen, but not far enough to forget that you
are the most abominable villain that plagues God's beautiful world with
his infesting life.
BRANDON ["with sudden calmness"]..
This to his father! What does the Bible say, you wretch? {61A}
PERCY ["To" VAUGHAN].
I will go, my true new father. Kiss Esme for me a hundred times!
BRANDON ["breaking from Footmen"].
Damn you; that's your game, is it? No, you go with me, Sir Poet.
["Rushing at his son, strikes." PERCY, "warding of the unexpected blow,
staggers." BRANDON, "maddened by the idea of fighting, snatches up
a knife and drives it into his heart. He falls with a low cry."
VAUGHAN "dashes forward and strikes" BRANDON "heavily. He falls;
footmen drag him off insensible"
VAUGHAN ["bending over" PERCY].
Are you hurt?
PERCY.
Oh, hardly hurt at all! Only my head a little, and I wanted so to
finish the poem to-night.
ESME.
Let me come to him, father. Oh, Percy, Percy, look at me, look at me;
you're not hurt, are you?
PERCY.
Am I ever hurt with your arms round me?
ESME.
Oh, but you grow whiter; you must be hurt.
VAUGHAN.
A knife! He must have stabbed him. Fetch a doctor, one of you, sharp!
["Exit a man." {61B}
ESME.
It is his heart; see, my hand is all covered with blood. Give me a
handkerchief. Here, I will staunch the wound. ["She attempts to prevent
the bleeding with her handkerchief."] Oh! Percy! ["A pause"] Oh! Percy!
PERCY.
I am going away, Esme. I shall see you often. When you think of me I
shall always be with you. One day you will come to me, Esme! Kiss me!
Your kisses must finish my poem. One day your pen must finish it.
ESME.
You know I cannot write a line. Oh, how sorry I am for that!
PERCY ["to" VAUGHAN].
Good-by, my dear, dear friend. Take care of Esme for me. I shall watch
over her myself, I and God together. She is so frail and white, and she
understands. She sees my soul, and Heaven is always open to her eyes when
she looks up, and she is so beautiful. Will it seem long, Esme, till we
kiss again beyond the moon there -- it is the moon, isn't it, come to see
that Esme is not too sad about my dying? Be kind to her always, moon,
when I am gone beyond you! You must finish my poem, Esme; there is only
a little to do. Kiss me the last time! Good-bye, my dear friends. I
wish I could take your hands, but I am so weak. Kiss me, Esme, quickly.
I feel the voice of God come like a shudder in my blood; I must go to Him.
Esme! Esme! Esme! I am so happy! ["Dies."
[ESME flings herself passionately on to the body, weeping and kissing
the dead face. Curtain. {62A}
"The next morning. ESME in bed asleep."
"Enter" VAUGHAN.
VAUGHAN.
POOR child, poor child, how are you? You have not slept, I know. Why,
she is still asleep! Hush! How calmly and regularly she breathes! How
fresh she looks! How she smiles! It is wonderful! It is impossible!
Esme! Esme! it is a pity you cannot always sleep so, and never wake up to
the cruel sorrow of yesterday. Ah me! When we all thought to be so
happy. And in a month he would have married her: in a day he would have
finished the poem. What a wonderful poem it was! One could hear, above
the angels that sang, the voice of God in that awful music that made his
lines quiver and shimmer like live coals. And the end was to have been so
perfect: there was on the last passage of his work a hush, a silence
almost as if the world -- his world -- awaited the voice of some great
one. And now the silence is not broken. Perhaps men were not ready for
those final chords. Perhaps to hear them would be to pass where he has
passed! But oh! the pity! To leave his greatest task undone! To be
stricken down in the last charge, a good soldier to the end! Would God he
could come back only for an hour to put the keystone to his palace that he
built of running brooks and trees and buds and the sound of the sea, and
all the lights of heaven to widow it. [ESME'S "eyes open."] Esme! you
must wake up and kiss father!
ESME ["half awake"].
He sang to me all night, not his voice only, but a deeper voice that I
understood so well as I never understood, a voice like his poem, only more
beautiful even than that, and I can't remember one word, only that he
kissed me all the night; and there was as it were a vapour, an incense-
cloud, about me, and I could not see -- and I am so happy. {62B}
VAUGHAN.
Esme, I am here, your father.
ESME.
Ah! it comes back. He is dead. Oh, God! Oh, God! And we were to have
been married a month to-day.
VAUGHAN.
And he left the poem and could not finish it. {63A}
ESME ["pointing to scattered papers on a table"].
What have you been doing with those papers, father?
VAUGHAN ["astonished"].
They are not mine, child. I did not see them till you showed me.
["Taking papers."] Why, they are in your handwriting; what are they?
["Reading, gradually becomes aware that something strange has happened."]
It is finished - it is finished! ["Curtain." {63B}
{full page below}
Preface | Aceldama: A Place To Bury Strangers In | The Tale of Archais | Songs of the Spirit | The Poem | Jephthah | Mysteries: Lyrical And Dramatic | Jezebel, and Other Tragic Poems | An Appeal to the American Republic | The Fatal Force | The Mother’s Tragedy | The Temple of the Holy Ghost
The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley | Volume I | Volume II | Volume III