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MESCHIA: That wasn’t a sunbeam! It was… to tell the truth, I haven’t thought of a name for what it was yet.
MESCHIANE: I fell in love with you then. Enter the AUTARCH.
AUTARCH: Who are you?
MESCHIA: As far as that goes, who are you?
AUTARCH: The owner of this garden.
MESCHIA bows, and MESCHIANE curtsies, though she has no skirt to hold.
MESCHIA: We were speaking to one of your servants only a moment ago. Now that I come to think of it, I am astonished at how much he resembled your august Self. Save that he was… ah…
AUTARCH: Younger?
MESCHIA: In appearance, at least.
AUTARCH: Well, it is inevitable, I suppose. Not that I am attempting to excuse it now. But I was young, and though it would be better to confine oneself to women nearer one’s own station, still there are times — as you would understand, young man, if you had ever been in my position — when a little maid or country girl, who can be wooed with a handful of silver or a bolt of velvet, and will not demand, at the most inconvenient moment, the death of some rival or an ambassadorship for her husband… Well, when a little person like that becomes a most enticing proposition.
While the AUTARCH has been speaking, JAHI has been creeping up behind MESCHIA. Now she lays a hand on his shoulder.
JAHI: Now you see that he, whom you have esteemed your divinity, would countenance and advise all I have proposed of you. Before the New Sun rises, let us make a new begi
AUTARCH: Here’s a lovely creature. How is it, child, that I see the bright flames of candles reflected in each eye, while your sister there still puffs cold tinder?
JAHI: She is no sister of mine!
AUTARCH: Your adversary then. But come with me. I will give these two my leave to camp here, and you shall wear a rich gown this night, and your mouth shall run with wine, and that slender figure shall be rendered a shade less graceful, perhaps, by larks stuffed with almonds and candied figs.
JAHI: Go away, old man.
AUTARCH: What! Do you know who I am?
JAHI: I am the only one here who does. You are a ghost and less, a column of ashes upheld by the wind.
AUTARCH: I see, she is mad. What does she want you to do, friend?
MESCHIA: (Relieved.) You hold no resentment toward her? That is good of you.
AUTARCH: None at all! Why, a mad mistress should be a most interesting experience — I am looking forward to it, believe me, and there are few things to look forward to when you’ve seen and done all I have. She doesn’t bite, does she? I mean, not hard?
MESCHIANE: She does, and her fangs run with venom.
JAHI springs forward to claw her.
MESCHIANE darts offstage, pursued.
AUTARCH: I shall have my piquenaires search the garden for them.
MESCHIA: Don’t worry, they’ll both be back soon. You’ll see. Meanwhile I am, actually, glad to have a moment alone with you like this. There are some things I’ve been wanting to ask you.
AUTARCH: I grant no favors after six — that’s a rule I’ve had to make to keep my sanity. I’m sure you understand.
MESCHIA: (Somewhat taken aback.) That’s good to know. But I wasn’t going to ask for something, really. Only for information, for divine wisdom.
AUTARCH: In that case, go ahead. But I warn you, you must pay a price. I mean to have that demented angel for my own tonight.
MESCHIA drops to his knees.
MESCHIA: There is something I have never understood. Why must I talk to you when you know my every thought? My first question was: Knowing her to be of that brood you have banished, should I not still do what she proposes? For she knows I know, and it is in my heart to believe that she puts forward right action in the thought that I will spurn it because it comes from her.
AUTARCH: (Aside.) He is mad too, I see, and because of my yellow robes thinks me divine. (To MESCHIA:) A little adultery never hurt any man. Unless of course it was his wife’s.
MESCHIA: Then mine would hurt her? I—
Enter the CONTESSA and her MAID.
CONTESSA: My Sovereign Lord! What do you do here?
MESCHIA: I am at prayer, daughter. Take off your shoes at least, for this is holy ground.
CONTESSA: Liege, who is this fool?
AUTARCH: A madman I found wandering with two women as mad as he.
CONTESSA: Then they outnumber us, unless my maid be sane.
MAID: Your Grace—
CONTESSA: Which I doubt. This afternoon she laid out a purple stole with my green capote. I was to look like a post decked with morning-glories, it would seem.
MESCHIA, who has been growing angrier as she speaks, strikes her, knocking her down. Unseen behind him, the AUTARCH flees.
MESCHIA: Brat! Don’t trifle with holy things when I am near, or dare do anything but what I tell you.
MAID: Who are you, sir?
MESCHIA: I am the parent of the human race, my child. And you are my child, as she is.
MAID: I hope you will forgive her — and me. We had heard you were dead.
MESCHIA: That requires no apology. Most are, after all. But I have come round again, as you see, to welcome the new dawn.
NOD: (Speaking and moving after his long silence and immobility.) We have come too early.
MESCHIA: (Pointing.) A giant! A giant!
CONTESSA: Oh! Solange! Kyneburga!
MAID: I’m here, Your Grace. Lybe is here.
NOD: Too early for the New Sun by some time still.
CONTESSA: (Begi
MESCHIA: (Seeing that NOD intends no violence.) Bad dreams. But it will be the best thing for you, you understand that, don’t you?
CONTESSA: (Recovering a little.) What I don’t understand is how you, who suddenly seem so wise, could mistake the Autarch for the Universal Mind.
MESCHIA: I know that you are my daughters in the old creation. You must be, since you are human women, and I have had none in this.
NOD: His son will take my daughter to wife. It is an honor our family has done little to deserve — we are only humble people, the children of Gea — but we will be exalted. I will be… What will I be, Meschia? The father-in-law of your son. It may be, if you don’t object, that someday my wife and I will visit our daughter on the same day you come to see him. You wouldn’t refuse us, would you, a place at the table? We would sit on the floor, naturally.
MESCHIA: Of course not. The dog does that already — or will, when we see him. (To the CONTESSA:) Has it not struck you that I may know more of him you call the Universal Mind than your Autarch does of himself? Not only your Universal Mind, but many lesser powers wear our humanity like a cloak when they will, sometimes only as concerns two or three of us. We who are worn are seldom aware that, seeming ourselves to ourselves, we are yet Demiurge, Paraclete, or Fiend to another.
CONTESSA: That is wisdom I have gained late, if I must fade with the New Sun’s rising. Is it past midnight?
MAID: Nearly so, Your Grace.
CONTESSA: (Pointing to the audience.) All these fair folk — what will befall them?
MESCHIA: What befalls leaves when their year is past, and they are driven by the wind?
CONTESSA: If—
MESCHIA turns to watch the eastern sky, as though for the first sign of dawn.
CONTESSA: If—
MESCHIA: If what?
CONTESSA: If my body held a part of yours — drops of liquescent tissue locked in my loins…
MESCHIA: If it did, you might wander Urth for a time longer, a lost thing that could never find its way home. But I will not bed you. Do you think that you are more than a corpse? You are less.
MAID faints.
CONTESSA: You say you are the father of all things human. It must be so, for you are death to woman.
The stage darkens. When the light returns, MESCHIANE and JAHI are lying together beneath a rowan tree. There is a door in the hillside behind them. JAHI’S lip is split and puffed, giving her a pouting look. Blood trickles from it to her chin.