Betrothal — Act 1
1918 CHARACTERS
(_arranged in the order of their entrance on the stage_) TYLTYL
THE FAIRY BÉRYLUNE
MILETTE (the Wood-cutter's Daughter) BELLINE (the Butcher's Daughter) ROSELLE (the Inn-keeper's Daughter) AIMETTE (the Miller's Daughter) JALLINE (the Beggar's Daughter) ROSARELLE (the Mayor's Daughter) JOY (the Veiled Girl, or the White Phantom) DESTINY
THE MISER
LIGHT
SOME USUAL THOUGHTS
GRANNY TYL
GAFFER TYL
THE GREAT MENDICANT
THE GREAT PEASANT
THE RICH ANCESTOR
THE SICK ANCESTOR
THE DRUNKEN ANCESTOR
THE MURDERER ANCESTOR
THE GREAT ANCESTOR
OTHER ANCESTORS
SOME OF TYLTYL'S "ME'S"
VARIOUS CHILDREN IN THE ABODE OF THE CHILDREN
THE FIVE LITTLE ONES
THE SMALLEST OF THEM ALL
MUMMY TYL
MYTYL
DADDY TYL
THE NEIGHBOUR
ACT I
_Scene_ 1 _The Wood-cutter's Cottage_.
ACT II
2 _Outside the Door_.
3 _The Miser's Cave_.
4 _A Closet in the Fairy's Palace_.
5 _A Ballroom in the Fairy's Palace_.
ACT III
6 _Before the Curtain representing Rocks_.
7 _The Abode of the Ancestors_.
ACT IV
8 _Before the Curtain representing the Milky Way_.
9 _The Abode of the Children_.
ACT V
10 _Before the Curtain representing the Edge of a Forest_.
11 _The Awakening_.
THE BETROTHAL; OR THE BLUE BIRD CHOOSES
ACT I SCENE I
_The Wood-cutter's Cottage_ _The cottage-scene in The Blue Bird: the interior of a wood-cutter's cabin, simple and rustic in appearance, but in no way poverty-stricken.
A recessed fireplace containing the dying embers of a wood-fire.
Kitchen-utensils, a cupboard, a bread-pan, a grandfather's clock, a spinning-wheel, a water-tap, etc. A dog and a cat asleep.
A large blue-and-white sugar-loaf.
On the wall hangs a round cage containing a blue bird.
At the back, two windows with closed shutters.
On the left is the front-door, with a big latch to it.
A ladder leads up to a loft.
But there is only one bed_, TYLTYL'S; _he is now sixteen years of age.
It is dark; the scene is lit only by a few moonbeams which filter through the shutters_.
TYLTYL _is sound asleep_.
(_A knock at the door_.
) TYLTYL
(_Waking with a start_.
) Who's there?
(_Another knock_.
) Wait till I put on my breeches.
The door's bolted.
I'll come and open it.
THE FAIRY
(_Behind the door.
_) Don't trouble, don't trouble!...
It's only me!...
How do you do?
(_The door has opened of its own accord and_ THE FAIRY BÉRYLUNE _enters under the guise of an old woman, as in the first scene of the Blue Bird.
At the same time the room is filled with a strange brightness, which remains after the door is closed again_.
) TYLTYL
(_In surprise_.
) Who are you?
THE FAIRY
Don't you know me?
Why, Tyltyl, it's hardly seven years since we said good-bye to each other!
TYLTYL
(_Bewildered and vainly searching his memory_.
) Yes, yes, I remember ...
and I know what you mean....
THE FAIRY
Yes, but you don't quite grasp who I am and you don't remember anything at all.
You haven't changed, I see: just the same careless, ungrateful, wool-gathering little fellow that you always were!...
But you have grown taller and stronger, my lad, and quite handsome!
If I were not a fairy, I should never have known you!
Yes, really quite handsome!...
But are you aware of it?
It doesn't seem to have occurred to you!
TYLTYL
We only had one tiny looking-glass in the house, about as big as your hand.
Mytyl took it and keeps it in her room.
THE FAIRY
So Mytyl has a room of her own now?
TYLTYL
Yes, she sleeps next door, under the stairs, and I here, in the kitchen.
Shall I wake her?
THE FAIRY
(_Growing suddenly and unreasonably angry, as on her former visit_.
) There's no need to do anything of the sort!...
I have nothing to do with her; her hour has not struck; and, when it does I shall be quite capable of finding her, without being shown the way as though I were blind!...
In the meantime, I want nobody's advice....
TYLTYL
(_In dismay_.
) But ma'am, I didn't know....
THE FAIRY
That will do....
(_Recovering her temper as suddenly as she lost it_.
) By the way, how old are you?
TYLTYL
I shall be sixteen a fortnight after Epiphany.
THE FAIRY
(_Growing angry again_.
) A fortnight after Epiphany!...
What a way of reckoning!...
And here am I without my almanack, having left it with Destiny last time I called on him, fifty years ago!...
I don't know where I stand....
However, never mind: I'll make the calculation when we see him, for we shall have to get it exactly right....
And what have you been doing these seven years since we met?
TYLTYL
I have been working in the forest with daddy.
THE FAIRY
That means you've been helping him cut down trees.
I don't like that very much.
You call that working, do you?
Ah, well, men evidently can't live without destroying the last things of beauty that remain on the earth!...
So let's talk of something else....
(_Mysteriously_.
) Can any one hear us?
TYLTYL
I don't think so.
THE FAIRY
(_Growing angry once more_.
) It doesn't matter what you think, but whether you're sure.
What I have to say is tremendously important ...
and strictly private.
Come here, quite close, so that I can whisper it....
Whom are you in love with?
TYLTYL
(_In amazement_.
) Whom am I in love with?
THE FAIRY
(_Still cross and quite forgetting the importance of speaking in a low voice_.
) Yes, yes!
I'm not talking Greek, am I?
I want to know if you're in love with any one.
TYLTYL
Yes, certainly; I love everybody: my parents, my friends, my sister, my neighbours, all the people I know.
THE FAIRY
Now oblige me and don't play the fool....
You know perfectly well what I mean....
I'm asking whether there's any one girl among those you meet whom you love more than the rest.
TYLTYL
(_Blushing and considering_.
) I don't know....
THE FAIRY
(_Angrier than ever_.
) What do you mean; you don't know?
Who does know, if you don't?
At your age a boy ought to think of nothing else: if he doesn't, he's a booby, a nincompoop and not worth bothering about!...
There's nothing to blush at: it's when one's not in love that one should feel ashamed....
You and I are miles away just now from the falsehood of words: we are with the truth of our thoughts, which is a very different thing....
Come, among all the girls you've met....
TYLTYL
(_Timidly_.
) I don't meet very many....
THE FAIRY
That's no reason; it's not necessary to meet them by the dozen.
Very often it's enough if you come across just one: when you've nobody else, you love that one and are not to be pitied....
But come, among those close by....
TYLTYL
There aren't any close by....
THE FAIRY
There are at the neighbours'.
TYLTYL
There are hardly any neighbours....
THE FAIRY
There are girls in the village, in the town, way back in the forest and in every house.
You find them everywhere when your heart's awake....
Which is the prettiest?
TYLTYL
Well, they're all very pretty.
THE FAIRY
How many do you know?
TYLTYL
Four in the village, one in the forest and one by the bridge.
THE FAIRY
Oho!
That's not bad, for a beginning!
TYLTYL
We don't see many people here, you know.
THE FAIRY
You're not the baby one would think....
But tell me, between ourselves, do they love you too?
TYLTYL
They haven't told me so; they don't know that I love them.
THE FAIRY
But these are things which it isn't necessary to know or to tell!...
You see that at once when you're living in the truth.
A look is enough;
there's no mistaking it; and the words which people say merely hide the real ones which the heart has spoken....
But I'm in a hurry: would you like me to make them come here?
TYLTYL
(_Terrified_.
) Make them come here?
They wouldn't want to!
They hardly know me.
They know I'm poor.
They don't know where I live, especially those in the village: they never come this way....
It's an hour's walk from the church to the house; the roads are bad; it's dark....
THE FAIRY
Dear, dear, anything more?
Don't let us talk about that.
Remember, we've done with untruths.
I've only to lift my finger and they'll come....
TYLTYL
But I'm not even sure that they've noticed me at all.
THE FAIRY
Have you looked at them?
TYLTYL
Yes, sometimes....
THE FAIRY
And have they looked back at you?
TYLTYL
Yes, sometimes....
THE FAIRY
Well, that's enough; that's the truth; and one doesn't need anything more.
You'll find that's the way people tell each other in the world where I'm going to take you, the world of real things.
The rest doesn't matter....
They make no mistake.
You'll see, once we are there, how well they know all that has to be known; for what we see is nothing: it is what we do not see that makes the world go round....
And now, watch me!...
I'm taking the little green hat out of my bag again!...
Do you remember it?
TYLTYL
Yes, but it's bigger....
THE FAIRY
(_Angrily_.
) Of course it's bigger!
So's your head: they grew up together....
Always making those unnecessary remarks!...
TYLTYL
And the diamond has changed colour.
I should call it blue....
THE FAIRY
But, you see, it isn't the diamond!
This time we're not concerned with the souls of Bread, Sugar and other simple and unimportant things.
We have to choose the great and only love of your life; for each man has only one.
If he misses it, he wanders miserably over the face of the earth.
The search goes on till he dies, with the great duty unfulfilled which he owes to all those who are within him.
But he seldom has an idea of this.
He walks along, his eyes shut; seizes some woman whom he chances to meet in the dark; and shows her to his friends as proudly as though the gates of Paradise were opening.
He fancies himself alone in the world and imagines that in his own heart all things begin and end....
Which is absurd....
But no more of that!
Is everything ready?
Put on your hat and turn the sapphire; then they'll come in....
TYLTYL
(_Scared_.
) But I'm not dressed!...
Wait, wait!...
What shall I put on?...
Oh, what luck!...
There are my Sunday clothes on the chair: my breeches--they're almost new--and my clean shirt!...
(_He dresses hurriedly_.
) THE FAIRY
Come, come, have done!
All this doesn't matter; they won't mind your clothes....
You're not going to meet a lot of silly children.
You won't find them the same as they were in the other life, because this is the real one; and it's the truth in them that you'll see here.
TYLTYL
(_Very uneasy_.
) Will they all come in together?
There are six of them, at least: I can't remember....
Suppose they started quarrelling and pulling one another's hair?
THE FAIRY
Just the least bit conceited, aren't you?
TYLTYL
No, but I'm afraid of their making a noise, because of daddy.
THE FAIRY
Haven't I told you again and again, we're no longer in the world below!...
Can't you feel that the air is much purer and the light quite different?...
We are now in a sphere in which men and women don't quarrel or wish one another harm.
All of that was merely make-believe and doesn't exist deep down....
If some of them are unhappy because you hesitate in your choice, they will none the less hope on until the end;
and they know very well that where there is love there must also be sorrow....
TYLTYL
How will they come in?
THE FAIRY
Upon my word, I don't know.
Each of them will do what occurs to her: one will choose the window, another the roof, the wall, the cellar or the chimney ...
one or two even will come in by the door; but those are the least interesting: they lack imagination....
However, we shall see when the time comes.
We've talked enough; time presses; come, turn the sapphire....
TYLTYL
(_Trying to gain time, in order to conceal his terror_.
) Which way round am I to turn it?
THE FAIRY
The same as with the diamond, from right to left....
(_Looking at_ TYLTYL.
) Goodness me, how pale you are!...
What has come over you?
