Pelléas et Mélisande | Page 6

abandoned spring. It seems to have
been a miraculous spring,--it opened the eyes of the blind,--they still
call it "Blind Man's Spring."
MÉLISANDE.
It no longer opens the eyes of the blind?
PÉLLÉAS.
Since the King has been nearly blind himself, no one comes any
more....
MÉLISANDE.
How alone one is here!... There is no sound.
PÉLLÉAS.
There is always a wonderful silence here.... One could hear the water
sleep.... Will you sit down on the edge of the marble basin? There is
one linden where the sun never comes....
MÉLISANDE.
I am going to lie down on the marble.--I should like to see the bottom
of the water....
PÉLLÉAS.
No one has ever seen it.--It is as deep, perhaps, as the sea.--It is not
known whence it comes.--Perhaps it comes from the bottom of the
earth....
MÉLISANDE.
If there were anything shining at the bottom, perhaps one could see it....
PÉLLÉAS.
Do not lean over so....
MÉLISANDE.
I would like to touch the water....
PÉLLÉAS.

Have a care of slipping.... I will hold your hand....
MÉLISANDE.
No, no, I would plunge both hands in it.... You would say my hands
were sick to-day....
PÉLLÉAS.
Oh! oh! take care! take care! Mélisande!... Mélisande!...--Oh! your
hair!...
MÉLISANDE _(starting upright)._ I cannot,... I cannot reach it....
PÉLLÉAS.
Your hair dipped in the water....
MÉLISANDE.
Yes, it is longer than my arms.... It is longer than I.... [_A silence._
PÉLLÉAS.
It was at the brink of a spring, too, that he found you?
MÉLISANDE.
Yes....
PÉLLÉAS.
What did he say to you?
MÉLISANDE.
Nothing;--I no longer remember....
PÉLLÉAS.
Was he quite near you?
MÉLISANDE.
Yes; he would have kissed me.
PÉLLÉAS.
And you would not?
MÉLISANDE.
No.
PÉLLÉAS.
Why would you not?
MÉLISANDE.
Oh! oh! I saw something pass at the bottom of the water....
PÉLLÉAS.
Take care! take care!--You will fall! What are you playing with?
MÉLISANDE.
With the ring he gave me....
PÉLLÉAS.

Take care; you will lose it....
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; I am sure of my hands....
PÉLLÉAS.
Do not play so, over so deep a water....
MÉLISANDE.
My hands do not tremble.
PÉLLÉAS.
How it shines in the sunlight I--Do not throw it so high in the air....
MÉLISANDE.
Oh!...
PÉLLÉAS.
It has fallen?
MÉLISANDE.
It has fallen into the water!...
PÉLLÉAS.
Where is it? where is it?...
MÉLISANDE.
I do not see it sink?...
PÉLLÉAS.
I think I see it shine....
MÉLISANDE.
My ring?
PÉLLÉAS.
Yes, yes; down yonder....
MÉLISANDE.
Oh! oh! It is so far away from us!... no, no, that is not it ... that is not
it.... It is lost ... lost.... There is nothing any more but a great circle on
the water.... What shall we do? What shall we do now?...
PÉLLÉAS.
You need not be so troubled for a ring. It is nothing.... We shall find it
again, perhaps. Or else we will find another....
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; we shall never find it again; we shall never find any others
either.... And yet I thought I had it in my hands.... I had already shut my
hands, and it is fallen in spite of all.... I threw it too high, toward the
sun....

PÉLLÉAS.
Come, come, we will come back another day;... come, it is time. They
will come to meet us. It was striking noon at the moment the ring fell.
MÉLISANDE.
What shall we say to Golaud if he ask where it is?
PÉLLÉAS.
The truth, the truth, the truth.... [_Exeunt._

SCENE II.--_An apartment in the castle._ GOLAUD _discovered,
stretched upon his bed;_ MÉLISANDE, by his bedside.
GOLAUD.
Ah! ah! all goes well; it will amount to nothing. But I cannot
understand how it came to pass. I was hunting quietly in the forest. All
at once my horse ran away, without cause. Did he see anything
unusual?... I had just heard the twelve strokes of noon. At the twelfth
stroke he suddenly took fright and ran like a blind madman against a
tree. I heard no more. I do not yet know what happened. I fell, and he
must have fallen on me. I thought I had the whole forest on my breast; I
thought my heart was crushed. But my heart is sound. It is nothing,
apparently....
MÉLISANDE.
Would you like a little water?
GOLAUD.
Thanks, thanks; I am not thirsty.
MÉLISANDE.
Would you like another pillow?... There is a little spot of blood on this.
GOLAUD.
No, no; it is not worth while. I bled at the mouth just now. I shall bleed
again perhaps....
MÉLISANDE.
Are you quite sure?... You are not suffering too much?
GOLAUD.
No, no; I have seen a good many more like this. I was made of iron and
blood.... These are not the little bones of a child; do not alarm
yourself....
MÉLISANDE.