Pelléas et Mélisande | Page 7

Close your eyes and try to sleep. I shall stay here all night....

GOLAUD.
No, no; I do not wish you to tire yourself so. I do not need anything; I
shall sleep like a child.... What is the matter, Mélisande? Why do you
weep all at once?...
MÉLISANDE _(bursting into tears)._
I am ... I am ill too....
GOLAUD.
Thou art ill?... What ails thee, then; what ails thee, Mélisande?...
MÉLISANDE.
I do not know.... I am ill here.... I had rather tell you to-day; my lord,
my lord, I am not happy here....
GOLAUD.
Why, what has happened, Mélisande? What is it?... And I suspecting
nothing.... What has happened?... Some one has done thee harm?...
Some one has given thee offence?
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; no one has done me the least harm.... It is not that.... It is not
that.... But I can live here no longer. I do not know why.... I would go
away, go away!... I shall die if I am left here....
GOLAUD.
But something has happened? You must be hiding something from
me?... Tell me the whole truth, Mélisande.... Is it the King?... Is it my
mother?... Is it Pélléas?...
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; it is not Pélléas. It is not anybody.... You could not understand
me....
GOLAUD.
Why should I not understand?... If you tell me nothing, what will you
have me do?... Tell me everything and I shall understand everything.
MÉLISANDE.
I do not know myself what it is.... I do not know just what it is.... If I
could tell you, I would tell you.... It is something stronger than I....
GOLAUD.
Come; be reasonable, Mélisande.--What would you have me do?--You
are no longer a child.--Is it I whom you would leave?
MÉLISANDE.
Oh! no, no; it is not that.... I would go away with you.... It is here that I

can live no longer.... I feel that I shall not live a long while....
GOLAUD.
But there must be a reason nevertheless. You will be thought mad. It
will be thought child's dreams.--Come, is it Pélléas, perhaps?--I think
he does not often speak to you.
MÉLISANDE.
Yes, yes; he speaks to me sometimes. I think he does not like me; I
have seen it in his eyes.... But he speaks to me when he meets me....
GOLAUD.
You must not take it ill of him. He has always been so. He is a little
strange. And just now he is sad; he thinks of his friend Marcellus, who
is at the point of death, and whom he cannot go to see.... He will
change, he will change, you will see; he is young....
MÉLISANDE.
But it is not that ... it is not that....
GOLAUD.
What is it, then?--Can you not get used to the life one leads here? Is it
too gloomy here?--It is true the castle is very old and very sombre.... It
is very cold, and very deep. And all those who dwell in it, are already
old. And the country may seem gloomy too, with all its forests, all its
old forests without light. But that may all be enlivened if we will. And
then, joy, joy, one does not have it every day; we must take things as
they come. But tell me something; no matter what; I will do everything
you could wish....
MÉLISANDE.
Yes, yes; it is true.... You never see the sky here. I saw it for the first
time this morning....
GOLAUD.
It is that, then, that makes you weep, my poor Mélisande?--It is only
that, then?--You weep, not to see the sky?--Come, come, you are no
longer at the age when one may weep for such things.... And then, is
not the summer yonder? You will see the sky every day.--And then,
next year.... Come, give me your hand; give me both your little hands.
[_He takes her hands._] Oh! oh! these little hands that I could crush
like flowers....--Hold! where is the ring I gave you?
MÉLISANDE.
The ring?

GOLAUD.
Yes; our wedding-ring, where is it?
MÉLISANDE.
I think.... I think it has fallen....
GOLAUD.
Fallen?--Where has it fallen?--You have not lost it?
MÉLISANDE.
No, no; it fell ... it must have fallen.... But I know where it is....
GOLAUD.
Where is it?
MÉLISANDE.
You know ... you know well ... the grotto by the seashore?...
GOLAUD.
Yes.
MÉLISANDE.
Well then, it is there.... It must be it is there.... Yes, yes; I remember.... I
went there this morning to pick up shells for little Yniold.... There were
some very fine ones.... It slipped from my finger ... then the sea came in;
and I had to go out before I had found it.
GOLAUD.
Are you sure it is there?
MÉLISANDE.
Yes, yes; quite sure.... I felt it slip ... then,