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‹Better GutenbergPelléas and Mélisande and Other PlaysScene IV — Before the Castle. Enter Geneviève and Mélisande · 6 of 30Contents›

Pelléas and Mélisande and Other Plays

by Maurice Maeterlinck

6 of 30 · Contents · Download EPUB

Scene IV Before the Castle. Enter Geneviève and Mélisande

Mélisande

It is gloomy in the gardens. And what forests, what forests all about the palaces!…

Geneviève

Yes; that astonished me too when I came hither; it astonishes everybody. There are places where you never see the sun. But one gets used to it so quickly…. It is long ago, it is long ago…. It is nearly forty years that I have lived here…. Look toward the other side, you will have the light of the sea….

Mélisande

I hear a noise below us….

Geneviève

Yes; it is some one coming up toward us…. Ah! it is Pélléas…. He seems still tired from having waited so long for you….

Mélisande

He has not seen us.

Geneviève

I think he has seen us but does not know what he should do…. Pélléas, Pélléas, is it thou?…

Enter PÉLLÉAS

Pélléas

Yes!… I was coming toward the sea….

Geneviève

So were we; we were seeking the light. It is a little lighter here than elsewhere; and yet the sea is gloomy.

Pélléas

We shall have a storm to-night. There has been one every night for some time, and yet it is so calm now…. One might embark unwittingly and come back no more.

Mélisande

Something is leaving the port….

Pélléas

It must be a big ship…. The lights are very high, we shall see it in a moment, when it enters the band of light….

Geneviève

I do not know whether we shall be able to see it … there is still a fog on the sea….

Pélléas

The fog seems to be rising slowly….

Mélisande

Yes; I see a little light down there, which I had not seen….

Pélléas

It is a lighthouse; there are others we cannot see yet.

Mélisande

The ship is in the light…. It is already very far away….

Pélléas

It is a foreign ship. It looks larger than ours….

Mélisande

It is the ship that brought me here!…

Pélléas

It flies away under full sail….

Mélisande

It is the ship that brought me here. It has great sails…. I recognized it by its sails.

Pélléas

There will be a rough sea to-night.

Mélisande

Why does it go away to-night?… You can hardly see it any longer…. Perhaps it will be wrecked….

Pélléas

The sight falls very quickly…. [A silence.

Geneviève

No one speaks any more?… You have nothing more to say to each other?… It is time to go in. Pélléas, show Mélisande the way. I mast go see little Yniold a moment. [Exit.

Pélléas

Nothing can be seen any longer on the sea….

Mélisande

I see more lights.

Pélléas

It is the other lighthouses…. Do you hear the sea?… It is the wind rising…. Let us go down this way. Will you give me your hand?

Mélisande

See, see, my hands are full….

Pélléas

I will hold you by the arm, the road is steep and it is very gloomy there…. I am going away perhaps to-morrow….

Mélisande

Oh!… why do you go away? [Exeunt.

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