Speaker 1: Act One of Psyche by Moliere, translated by Charles Heron Wall.
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Speaker 2: Persons Represented Jupiter read by Allam Mapstone.
Speaker 3: Venus read by Eva Davis, Cupid and Love read by
Speaker 3: Thomas Peter.
Speaker 2: Zephyr read by Allam Mapstone.
Speaker 4: Eggial A Grace writ by Caroline.
Speaker 5: Faini A Grace read by Sandra Schmidt.
Speaker 2: The King read by Allam Mapstone.
Speaker 6: Psyche read by Leanya.
Speaker 7: Eglora read by t. J. Burns.
Speaker 8: Ciddyp read by.
Speaker 9: Sonia Cleomenes, A Prince Psyche's Lover read by Major toast.
Speaker 10: Arganau A Prince Psyche's Lover read by Rob Marlandcus.
Speaker 11: Captain of the Guards read by James Current.
Speaker 2: River Gold read by Allan Mapstone.
Speaker 3: Cupid read by Eva Davis, Flora read by Phone.
Speaker 12: Vertumnus, God of Trees and Fruit red by.
Speaker 2: Nima Palemon, God of Streams read by Alan Mapstone.
Speaker 13: Nymph, Chorus of Divinities read by Abbaye.
Speaker 14: Woman read by April six zero nine zero.
Speaker 12: First Man read by.
Speaker 15: Nima Second Man read by step the.
Speaker 2: King read by Allam Mapstone.
Speaker 1: Stage directions read by Tod Prolog. The front of the
Speaker 1: stage represents a rustic spot, while at the back the
Speaker 1: sea can be seen in the distance. Scene one Flora
Speaker 1: appears in the center of the stage, attended by Vitunus,
Speaker 1: God of trees and fruit, and by Palamon, God of
Speaker 1: the streams. Each of these gods conducts a troop of divinities.
Speaker 1: One leads in his train Dryads and Sylvans, and the
Speaker 1: other river gods and Naiads. Flora sings the following lines
Speaker 1: to invite Venus to descend upon Earth.
Speaker 16: The din of battle is stayed. The mightiest King of Earth,
Speaker 16: his arms sight has laid of peace is now to birth,
Speaker 16: descentau lovely Venus and blissful hours.
Speaker 1: Grantus, Vertumnus and Palamon, and the divinities who attend them
Speaker 1: join their voices to that of Flora and sing the
Speaker 1: following words chorus of Divinities of the Earth and Streams,
Speaker 1: composed of Flora, Nymphs, Palamon, Vertumnus, Sylvans, Fawns, Dryads and Naiads.
Speaker 13: A peace profounding has given us rest breast.
Speaker 1: Then has formed an entry of the ballet composed of
Speaker 1: two dryads, four Sylvans, two river gods, and two naiads,
Speaker 1: after which for Tumnus and Palamon sing the following dialogue.
Speaker 12: You yield, keep beauty stern to sigh tis now your turn.
Speaker 2: She you, the queen above, She comes to breathe soft love.
Speaker 12: A fair one stern frye ne'er winds, a faithful sigh to.
Speaker 2: Wu has beauty arms, but gentleness hath greater charms. To
Speaker 2: Wu has beauty arms, but gentleness has greater charms.
Speaker 12: Seek not your hearts to shield to pine his law,
Speaker 12: and ye must yield.
Speaker 2: Is ought more worthless born than hearts. That love will scorn.
Speaker 12: A fair one stern for eye ne'er winds, a faithful sigh.
Speaker 2: To Wu has beauty arms, but gentleness hath greater charms.
Speaker 2: To wuss arms, but gentleness has greater charms.
Speaker 1: Flora answers the dialogue of her Tumnus and Palamon by
Speaker 1: the following minuet, and the other divinities join their dances
Speaker 1: to the song.
Speaker 16: Does wisdom say in youth's heyday, sweet love, for go
Speaker 16: be yup in haste these pleasures taste of earth below.
Speaker 16: Youth's wisdom too is love to woo and love to know.
Speaker 16: If love disarms, it is by charms. So yield your
Speaker 16: arms for madness against his starts, to seek to shield
Speaker 16: your hearts. What air the bond of lover fond to
Speaker 16: sweeter chain than freedom's gain.
Speaker 1: Venus descends from Heaven, attended by Cupid, her son, and
Speaker 1: two graces called and Finney, and the divinities of the
Speaker 1: earth and the streams once more unite their songs and
Speaker 1: continue by their dances to show their joy at her approach.
Speaker 1: Chorus of all the divinities of the earth and the streams.
Speaker 12: Joy and givest.
Speaker 1: Stressed, descend thenus in her chariot.
Speaker 3: Sea, Cease all your songs of joy. Such rare honors
Speaker 3: do not belong to me. And the homage which in
Speaker 3: your consideration you now pay me, ought to be reserved
Speaker 3: for lovelier terms. To pay your court to me is
Speaker 3: a custom indeed too old. Everything has its turn, and
Speaker 3: Venus is no longer the fasten. There are rising charms
Speaker 3: to which they all carry their incense. Psyche, the beaute
Speaker 3: Psyche today has taken my place. Already Now the whole
Speaker 3: world hastens to worship her, And it is too great
Speaker 3: a boon that in the midst of my disgrace, I
Speaker 3: still find someone who stoops to honor me. Our desserts
Speaker 3: are not even fairly weighed together, but all are ready
Speaker 3: to abandon me. While of the numerous train of privileged
Speaker 3: graces whose care and friendship followed me everywhere, I have
Speaker 3: now only two of the smaller ones who cling to
Speaker 3: me out of mere pity. I pray you let these
Speaker 3: dark abodes lend their solitude to the anguish of my
Speaker 3: heart and suffer me behind my fame and grief. In
Speaker 3: the midst of their.
Speaker 1: Gloom, Flora and the other deities withdraw, and Venus with
Speaker 1: her retinue, descends from her chariot Scene two Venus Cupid,
Speaker 1: Ajulae Faine Cupid.
Speaker 4: We know not what to do, Goddess, while we see
Speaker 4: you overwhelmed by this grief. Our respect bids us be silent.
Speaker 4: Our zeal would have us speak.
Speaker 3: Speak, But if your cares would please me, leave all
Speaker 3: your advice for a fitter time and speak of my wrath.
Speaker 3: But to own me right. That was the keenest insul
Speaker 3: my divinity could ever receive. But revenge I shall have.
Speaker 3: If gods have any power.
Speaker 5: You, wisdom, you discernment, are greater than ours in deciding
Speaker 5: what may be worthy of you. Yet methinks a mighty
Speaker 5: goddess should not dusk give way to wrath.
Speaker 3: That is the very reason of my extreme anger. The
Speaker 3: greater the brilliancy of my rank, the deeper the insult.
Speaker 3: If I did not stand on so lofty a height,
Speaker 3: the indignation of my heart will not be so violent.
Speaker 3: I the daughter of the thunderer, mother of the love
Speaker 3: inspiring God, I the sweetest yearning of heaven and Earth,
Speaker 3: who received birth only to charm. I who have seen
Speaker 3: everything that hath breath utter so many vows at my shrines,
Speaker 3: and by immortal rights, have held the sovereign sway of
Speaker 3: beauty in all ages. I whose eyes have forced two
Speaker 3: mighty gods to yield me the prize of beauty. I
Speaker 3: see my rights and my victory disputed by wretch and mortal.
Speaker 3: Shall the ridiculous excess, a foolish obstinacy, go so far
Speaker 3: as to oppose to me a little girl? Shall I
Speaker 3: constantly hear a rash verdict on the beauty of her
Speaker 3: features and of mine? And from the loftiest heaven, where
Speaker 3: I shall I hear it said to the prejudiced world,
Speaker 3: see is fairer than Venus.
Speaker 4: This is the way with mortals, This is the style
Speaker 4: of mankind. They are impertinent in their comparisons in.
Speaker 5: The century in which we live. They cannot praise without
Speaker 5: insulting great names.
Speaker 3: Ah, how well does the insolent rigor of these words?
Speaker 3: Then Juno and Pallace and come for their hearts, for
Speaker 3: the dazzling glory which the famous apple has won me.
Speaker 3: I see them rejoicing at my sorrow, assuming every moment
Speaker 3: a cruel smile, and with fixed gaze, carefully seeking the
Speaker 3: confusion that lurks in my eyes. Their triumphant joy, when
Speaker 3: this affront is keenest felt, seems to tell me boast Venus,
Speaker 3: Boast the charms of thy features. By the verdict of
Speaker 3: one man was the victory made over us. But by
Speaker 3: the judgment of all, a mere mortal snatches it from you. Ah,
Speaker 3: that blow, the direst it pierces my heart. I cannot
Speaker 3: bear its unequaled severity. The pleasure of my rivals is
Speaker 3: too great an addition to my poignant grief. My son,
Speaker 3: if ever my feelings had any weight with you, if
Speaker 3: ever I have been dear to you. If you bear
Speaker 3: a heart that can share the resentment of a mother
Speaker 3: who loves you so tenderly, use here your utmost power
Speaker 3: to support my interests and cause Psyche to feel the
Speaker 3: shafts of my revenge through your own darts, to render
Speaker 3: her miserable. Here's the dart that will please me most,
Speaker 3: one of those in which lurks the keenest venom, and
Speaker 3: which you hurl in your wrath. See that he loves
Speaker 3: even to madness, the basest and lowest of mortals, And
Speaker 3: let her hear the cruel torture of love unreturned.
Speaker 17: And the world nothing is heard but complaints of cupid. Everywhere,
Speaker 17: a thousand freaks are laid to my charge, And you
Speaker 17: cannot believe the evil and the foolish things which are
Speaker 17: daily said of me. If to assist your wrath.
Speaker 3: Becan no longer resist your mother's wishes, use reasoning only
Speaker 3: to find the shortest method of offering a sacrifice to
Speaker 3: my outraged glory.
Speaker 6: Let your departure be your.
Speaker 3: Only answer to my entreaties, And do not see my
Speaker 3: face again until you have avenged me.
Speaker 1: Cubid flies off, and venus withdraws with the two graces.
Speaker 1: The scenery changes to a large town with palaces and
Speaker 1: houses of different architecture on both sides of the stage.
Speaker 1: Act one, Scene one Aglora SIDEPPI, My.
Speaker 7: Sister, there are sorrows which are rendered creator by keeping
Speaker 7: them to ourselves. Let us speak freely of our joint distress,
Speaker 7: and give vent in our conversations to the poignant grief
Speaker 7: which fills our hearts. We our sisters in misfortune, and
Speaker 7: your heart and mine have so much in common that
Speaker 7: we can unite them, and in our just complaints, murmur
Speaker 7: with common lament against the cruelty of our fate, My sister,
Speaker 7: what secret fatality makes the whole world bow before our
Speaker 7: younger sisters charms? And how is it that amongst so
Speaker 7: many different princes who are brought by fortune to this place,
Speaker 7: not one has any love for us? What must we
Speaker 7: see them on all sides, pressing forward to lay their
Speaker 7: hearts at her feet, whilst they pass our charms slightingly?
Speaker 7: By What spell has Heaven cast over our eyes? What
Speaker 7: have they done to the gods that they are thus
Speaker 7: left without homage amidst all the glorious tribute of which
Speaker 7: others proudly boast. Can there be for us, my sister,
Speaker 7: any greater trial than to see how all harts distain
Speaker 7: our beauty? And how the fortunate Psyche insolently reigns with
Speaker 7: full sway over the crowd of lovers who ever attend her.
Speaker 8: How, my sister, our fate is enough to be brief
Speaker 8: one of reason, and all the ills of nature are
Speaker 8: nothing in comparison.
Speaker 7: Ah At times I can almost shed tears over it.
Speaker 7: It takes away my happiness and my rest. My constancy
Speaker 7: finds itself powerless against such a misfortune. My mind is
Speaker 7: forever dwelling over it, and the ill success of our
Speaker 7: charms and the triumph of Psyche are ever before my eyes.
Speaker 7: At night unceasingly comes to me the remembrance of it,
Speaker 7: and nothing can banish the cruel picture. As soon as
Speaker 7: sweet slumber comes to deliver me from it, it is
Speaker 7: immediately recalled to my memory by some dream which startles
Speaker 7: me from my sleep.
Speaker 8: That is just what I suffer from, my sister. All
Speaker 8: that you say, I see myself, and you depict everything
Speaker 8: that I experience.
Speaker 7: Well, let us discuss the matter. What all powerful charms
Speaker 7: have been bestowed upon her. Tell me how by the
Speaker 7: least of her looks she has acquired honor in the
Speaker 7: great art of pleasing? What you is there in her
Speaker 7: person that can inspire such passion? What right of sway
Speaker 7: over all hearts? Has her beauty given her? She has
Speaker 7: some comeliness, some of the brilliancy of youth. We are
Speaker 7: all agreed upon that, and I do not gainsay it.
Speaker 7: But must we yield to her because we are her
Speaker 7: seniors by a few years? Must we therefore consider ourselves
Speaker 7: quite commonplace? Are we made so as to excite derision?
Speaker 7: Have we no charms, no power of pleasing, no complexion,
Speaker 7: no good eyes, no dignity and bearing by which we
Speaker 7: may win arts? Do me the favorite sister to speak
Speaker 7: to me? Frankly? Am I, in your opinion, so fashioned
Speaker 7: that my merit is below hers? And do you think
Speaker 7: that that she surpasses me in her attire?
Speaker 8: You, my sister, by no means. Yesterday at the hunt
Speaker 8: I compared you and her for a long time, and
Speaker 8: without flattery, you appeared to me the more beautiful. But
Speaker 8: tell me, truly, sister, without blandishment, Am I deceiving myself
Speaker 8: when I think that I am so framed as to
Speaker 8: deserve the glory of a conquest.
Speaker 7: You, my sister, you possess without disguise, everything that can
Speaker 7: excite a loving passion. Your least actions are full of
Speaker 7: a charm which moves my soul, and I would be
Speaker 7: your lover if I were not a woman.
Speaker 8: Whence comes it then, that she bears off the palm
Speaker 8: from us, that at the first glance all hearts give
Speaker 8: up the struggle, and that no tribute of size and
Speaker 8: vowses pay to our loveliness.
Speaker 7: All the women with one voice find her attractions but
Speaker 7: small and sister, I have discovered the cause of the
Speaker 7: number of lovers she holds in thrall.
Speaker 8: I guess it. We may presume that some mystery is
Speaker 8: hidden under it. This secret of captivating everybody is not
Speaker 8: an ordinary effect of nature. That Hessalian art must be
Speaker 8: mixed up in it. And doubtless someone has given to
Speaker 8: her a charm by which she makes herself beloved.
Speaker 7: My opinion is founded on a more solid basis, And
Speaker 7: the charms by which she draws all hearts to herself
Speaker 7: are a demeanor at all times, free of reserve, caressing words,
Speaker 7: and looks a smile full of sweetness, which invites everyone
Speaker 7: and promises them nothing but favors. Our glory is departed,
Speaker 7: and that lofty pride, which, by a full observance of
Speaker 7: noble trials exacted a proof of the constancy of our lovers,
Speaker 7: exists no longer. We have degenerated and are now reduced
Speaker 7: to hope for nothing unless we throw ourselves into the
Speaker 7: arms of the men.
Speaker 8: Yes, that is the secret, and I see that you
Speaker 8: understand it better than I. It is because weakling too
Speaker 8: much to Modesty's sister, that no lovers come to us.
Speaker 8: It is because we try to sustain too strictly the
Speaker 8: honor of our sex and of our birth men. Nowadays,
Speaker 8: like what comes easily to them, hope attracts them more
Speaker 8: than love. And that is how Psyche deprives us of
Speaker 8: all the lovers we see under her sway. Let us
Speaker 8: follow her example and suit ourselves to the times. Let
Speaker 8: us stoop, sister, to make advances, and let us no
Speaker 8: longer keep to those dull morals which rob us of
Speaker 8: the fruits of our best years.
Speaker 7: I approve of this idea, and we have an opportunity
Speaker 7: of making a first trial of it upon the two
Speaker 7: princes who have last arrived their charming sister, and to
Speaker 7: me their whole person. Have you noticed them?
Speaker 8: Ah, both are formed in such a mold, my soul.
Speaker 8: They are perfect, my sister.
Speaker 7: I think we might seek their affections without dishonor to ourselves.
Speaker 8: I think that without shame, a beautiful princess might bestow
Speaker 8: her heart upon them.
Speaker 7: Here they both are. I admire their manners and attire.
Speaker 8: They in no way fall as short of all that
Speaker 8: we have said of them.
Speaker 1: Scene two cleomenes agenor Aglora said Eppy.
Speaker 7: Wherefore, princes, wherefore do you thus hasten away? Does our
Speaker 7: appearance fill you with fear?
Speaker 9: We were led to believe, Madam, that the Princess Psyche
Speaker 9: might be here?
Speaker 7: Has this place no longer any charm for you? If
Speaker 7: it is not adorned by her presence?
Speaker 10: This place may be pleasant enough, But in our impatience
Speaker 10: we would find the Princess Psyche.
Speaker 8: Something very important, must doubtless be urging you both to
Speaker 8: seek her.
Speaker 9: The motive is powerful enough, since our happiness depends entirely
Speaker 9: upon her.
Speaker 7: Might we be allowed to inquire into the secret implied
Speaker 7: by these words?
Speaker 9: We do not pretend to make a mystery of it. Indeed,
Speaker 9: it would show itself in spite of us, And the secret, Madam,
Speaker 9: does not last long when it is love.
Speaker 8: Without further words, Princess, it means that you are both
Speaker 8: in love with Psyche.
Speaker 10: We are both under her sway, and we go with
Speaker 10: one accord to declare our passion to her.
Speaker 7: It is certainly something quite new and rather odd to
Speaker 7: see too, who rivals so well? Agreed?
Speaker 9: It is true that the thing is rare, but it
Speaker 9: is not impossible for two perfect friends.
Speaker 8: In this spot? Is she the only fair one? And
Speaker 8: can you find none other with whom to divide your admiration.
Speaker 7: Amongst all the nobly born? Is she the only one
Speaker 7: whom your eyes deem worthy of your tenderness?
Speaker 9: Do we reason? When we fall in love? Do we
Speaker 9: choose the object of our attachment? And when we bestow
Speaker 9: our hearts? Do we weigh the right of the fair
Speaker 9: one to fascinate us?
Speaker 10: Without having the power of choosing? We follow in such
Speaker 10: a passion something which delights us. And when love touches
Speaker 10: a heart, we have no reasons to give.
Speaker 7: Indeed, I pity the painful troubles to which I see
Speaker 7: your hearts expose themselves. You love one whose bright charms
Speaker 7: will mingle grief with the hopes they hold out to you,
Speaker 7: and whose heart will not fulfill all that her eyes promise.
Speaker 8: The hope which calls you into the rank of her lovers,
Speaker 8: will experience many disappointments in the favors she bestows, and
Speaker 8: the fitful changes of her inconstant heart will cause you
Speaker 8: many painful hours.
Speaker 7: A clear discernment of your worth makes us pity the
Speaker 7: fate into which this passion will lead you. And if
Speaker 7: you wished, you could both find a more constant heart
Speaker 7: and charms as great a.
Speaker 8: Choice sweeter by half can rescue your mutual friendship from love.
Speaker 8: And there is such a rare merrit apparent in you
Speaker 8: both that a gentle counsel good out of pity save
Speaker 8: your hearts from what they are preparing for themselves.
Speaker 9: This generous advice shows us a kindness which touches our hearts,
Speaker 9: But Heaven, Madam reduces us to the misfortune of not
Speaker 9: being able to profit by it.
Speaker 10: Your illustrious pity would in vain dissuade us from a
Speaker 10: love of which we both dread.
Speaker 17: The result.
Speaker 10: What our friendship, Madam has not done, cannot be affected
Speaker 10: by any other means.
Speaker 8: The power of Psyche must have.
Speaker 5: Here. She is.
Speaker 1: Scene three Psyche sideppi oglora, cleomenes argenore.
Speaker 8: Come sister, and enjoy what is offered to you.
Speaker 7: Prepare your charms to receive here a new triumph.
Speaker 8: Those two princes have both so well felt the power
Speaker 8: of her beauty that their lips are eager to declare it.
Speaker 6: I little thought myself to be the cause of their pensiveness,
Speaker 6: and I should have expected it to be quite otherwise
Speaker 6: when I found them talking to you.
Speaker 7: We have neither sufficient rank nor beauty to make us
Speaker 7: deserving of their love and solicitude. But they favor us
Speaker 7: with the honor of their confidence.
Speaker 1: Clomeny to Psyche.
Speaker 9: The avowal which we would make to your divine charms, Madam,
Speaker 9: is no doubt a rash one. But so many hearts
Speaker 9: on the point of expiring, are by such a vows
Speaker 9: obliged to displease you, that you have ceased to punish
Speaker 9: them by the terrors of your wrath. You see in
Speaker 9: us two friends who were joined in childhood by a
Speaker 9: happy similarity of feeling, and this tender union has been
Speaker 9: strengthened by a hundred contests of esteem and gratitude. The
Speaker 9: attachment of our friendship has been proved in the severe
Speaker 9: assaults of unfavorable fortune, the contempt of death, the sight
Speaker 9: of torture, and the glorious splendor of mutual good offices.
Speaker 9: But whatever trials it may have endured, to day witnesses
Speaker 9: its greatest triumph. And nothing proves so much its tried
Speaker 9: fidelity as its duration through the rivalry of love. Yes,
Speaker 9: in spite of so many charms, its constancy subjects our
Speaker 9: vows to the laws it gives us. It comes with
Speaker 9: sweet and entire deference to submit the success of our
Speaker 9: passion to your choice, and to give a weight to
Speaker 9: our competition, which may bring the balance of state reasons
Speaker 9: to favor the choice of one of us. This friendship
Speaker 9: intends of free will to unite our two estates to
Speaker 9: the fortune of the happy one.
Speaker 10: Yes, Madam, we wish to make of these two estates,
Speaker 10: which we propose to unite under your happy choice, a
Speaker 10: help towards obtaining you The sacrifice which we make to
Speaker 10: the King, your father, in order to ensure this happiness
Speaker 10: has nothing difficult in it to our loving hearts, and
Speaker 10: it will be a necessary gift that the rejected unfortunate
Speaker 10: should make over to the one who is fortunate, a
Speaker 10: power which you will no longer know how to enjoy.
Speaker 6: Princes, you both displayed to my eyes a choice so
Speaker 6: precious and dazzling that it would satisfy the proudest heart.
Speaker 6: But your passion, your friendship, your supreme virtue, all increase
Speaker 6: the value of your vows of fidelity, and make it
Speaker 6: a merit that I should oppose myself to what you
Speaker 6: ask of me. I must not listen to my heart
Speaker 6: only before engaging in such a unionion, But my hand
Speaker 6: must await my father's decision before it can dispose of itself.
Speaker 6: And my sisters have rights superior to mine. But if
Speaker 6: I were referred absolutely to my own wishes, you might
Speaker 6: both have too great a share in them, and my
Speaker 6: entire esteem be so evenly balanced between you that I
Speaker 6: should not be able to decide in favor of either.
Speaker 6: I would indeed respond with most affectionate interest to the
Speaker 6: ardor of your suit. But amid so much merit, two
Speaker 6: hearts are too much for me, one heart too little
Speaker 6: for you. The accomplishments of my dearest wishes would be
Speaker 6: to me a burden, were it granted to me by
Speaker 6: your love. Yes, Princes, I should greatly prefer you to
Speaker 6: all those whose love will follow yours. But I could
Speaker 6: never have the heart to prefer one of you to
Speaker 6: the other. My tenderness would be too great a sacrifice
Speaker 6: to the one whom I might choose, and I should
Speaker 6: think myself barbarously unjust to inflict so great a wrong
Speaker 6: upon the other. Indeed, you both possess such greatness of
Speaker 6: soul that it would be wrong to make either of
Speaker 6: you miserable, And you must seek in love the means
Speaker 6: of being both happy. If your heart's honored me enough
Speaker 6: to give me the right of disposing of them. I
Speaker 6: have two sisters well fitted to please, who might make
Speaker 6: your destinies happy, and whom friendship endears to me enough
Speaker 6: for me to wish that you should be their husbands.
Speaker 9: Kenna Hart, whose love alas is extreme, consent to be
Speaker 9: given away by her at loves. We yield up our
Speaker 9: two hearts, Madam, to your divine charms, even should you
Speaker 9: doom them to death. But we beg you not to
Speaker 9: make them over to anyone but yourself.
Speaker 10: It would be too unjust to the princesses. Madam and
Speaker 10: too poor a tribute to her charms if we should
Speaker 10: give to them the remains of a former affection. Only
Speaker 10: the faith full purity of a first love deserves to
Speaker 10: aspire to the honor to which your kindness invites us.
Speaker 10: For each of your sister's merits a love which has
Speaker 10: sighed for her alone.
Speaker 7: It seems to me, Princes without any offense, that before
Speaker 7: thus refusing, you might wait until our intentions had been declared.
Speaker 7: Do you think our hearts so susceptible and tender? And
Speaker 7: when people propose your offering yourselves to us, are you
Speaker 7: so sure of being accepted?
Speaker 8: I think our sentiments are lofty enough to lead us
Speaker 8: to refuse a heart which one soliciting, and we wish
Speaker 8: to conquer our lovers by the power of our own merit.
Speaker 1: Scene four, Psyche aglora SIDEPPI leomenate argenore, likeus, like us
Speaker 1: to psyche.
Speaker 11: Madame, What is the matter the King? What request your presence?
Speaker 6: What am I to order from your agitation?
Speaker 11: You will know it only too soon.
Speaker 6: Alas how you excite my fears about the King, fear.
Speaker 11: Only for yourself. You are the one to be pitied.
Speaker 6: I can praise Heaven and be no longer anxious when
Speaker 6: I know that I am the only one in danger.
Speaker 6: But tell me, like us, what alarms.
Speaker 11: You suffer me, Madame, to obey him who sent me hither,
Speaker 11: and I beg of you learn from his lips what
Speaker 11: troubles me.
Speaker 6: Thus let us go and hear what this is which
Speaker 6: makes them fear that my courage will fail me.
Speaker 1: Scene five are glora, said deppy, like us.
Speaker 7: If your orders do not extend to us, tell us
Speaker 7: what great misfortune is hidden under your sadness.
Speaker 11: Alas here for yourself, princesses, the great misfortune which is
Speaker 11: known to the whole court. These are the very words which,
Speaker 11: through the oracle Destiny has spoken to the King, and
Speaker 11: which grief Madame has engraven in my heart. No one
Speaker 11: must think to lead Psyche to hymen shrine. But all
Speaker 11: who earnest speed in pompous, mournful line hide to the
Speaker 11: mountain crest, must take her there to await forlorn in
Speaker 11: deep unrest, a monster who envenoms all decree by fate
Speaker 11: her husband, A serpent whose dark, poisonous breath enraged ever
Speaker 11: hold the world in thrall, shaking the heavens high and
Speaker 11: realms of death. After so severe a degree, I leave
Speaker 11: you to judge for yourselves. If the gods could have
Speaker 11: manifest their wrath in a more cruel and fearful manner.
Speaker 1: Scene seven, A glora said, Eppy.
Speaker 8: How does this sudden misfortune into which destiny has plunged
Speaker 8: Psyche affect you's sister?
Speaker 7: But how does it affect you, sister.
Speaker 8: To speak the truth? My heart is not very much
Speaker 8: grieved at it.
Speaker 7: My heart feels something which very much resembles joy. Let
Speaker 7: us go. Fate has sent us a calamity which we
Speaker 7: can consider as a blessing.
Speaker 1: First interlude. The scenery changes to horrible rocks and shows
Speaker 1: a dreadful cavern in the distance. It is in this
Speaker 1: desert that Psyche, in obedience to the oracle, is to
Speaker 1: be exposed. A band of afflicted people come to bewail
Speaker 1: her death. Some give utterance to their pity by touching
Speaker 1: complaints and mournful lays, while the rest expressed their grief
Speaker 1: by a dance full of every mark of the most
Speaker 1: violent despair. Wailings sung by a woman and two men.
Speaker 14: Ah weep with me, ye forests, the mighty rocks of
Speaker 14: hardest adamant ye springs, Ye beasts lament the fate of
Speaker 14: one so fair, a.
Speaker 18: La star grief without relief, cruel death fell.
Speaker 17: Decree of fate that.
Speaker 15: Such beauty, Oh.
Speaker 12: Heaven and stars.
Speaker 14: Behold and sigh my sad sad lay repeat Ye caverns
Speaker 14: deep with notes of sorrow greet her death. The mountains
Speaker 14: steep re echo woods in silent hills, my grief and
Speaker 14: yee soft rippling rills.
Speaker 15: Ah la star grief without relief.
Speaker 17: Cruel death fell, decree.
Speaker 18: Of state that dooms to die. Beauty rare, Heaven's high
Speaker 18: and stars and sigh.
Speaker 15: Who then eternal gods will doom a guiltless maid to
Speaker 15: lasting gloom. Oh this diar rigor heaven shames, Hell's unrelenting flames,
Speaker 15: cruel will of God's severe Why this hard decree to
Speaker 15: crush a heart so free from guilt or stain?
Speaker 17: Oh fell on her air?
Speaker 15: A maid who showers bliss.
Speaker 18: She the sad earth with grace and would give life
Speaker 18: for pain.
Speaker 14: All tears are idle, all size Heaven wills it so
Speaker 14: she dies. Whene'er the gods their powers wield, all man
Speaker 14: can do is but yield.
Speaker 15: A last star grief without relief.
Speaker 17: Cruel death fell decree.
Speaker 1: End of Act one, Act two of Psyche by Moliere,
Speaker 1: translated by Charles Heron Wall. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act two,
Speaker 1: Scene one. The King Psyche a glora Sir DEEPPI, like
Speaker 1: us and followers.
Speaker 6: The cause of your tears, my lord is dear to me.
Speaker 6: But you are too kind when you allow our father's
Speaker 6: love to overmaster the duties of a great king. The
Speaker 6: homage which here you paid nature is fraught with too
Speaker 6: much injury to the rank which you hold. I must
Speaker 6: decline its touching favors. Check somewhat the sway of your
Speaker 6: grief over your wisdom, and seize to honor my destiny
Speaker 6: with tears which, springing from a king's heart, show weakness.
Speaker 2: Ah, my daughter, close not my eyes to these tears.
Speaker 2: My grief is reasonable, even though it be extreme, when
Speaker 2: such a loss as mine must endure forever. Wisdom herself,
Speaker 2: believe me, may weep tis in vain that pride of
Speaker 2: regal sway business being sensible to such calamities as vain
Speaker 2: for reason to come to our help, and desire us
Speaker 2: to see with unmoved eyes the death of what we love.
Speaker 2: The effort required is barbarous in the eyes of the universe,
Speaker 2: tis brutality rather than highest virtue. In this misfortune, I
Speaker 2: will not wear a show of insensibility and hide the
Speaker 2: grief I feel. I renounce the vanity of this fierce
Speaker 2: callousness known as fortitude. And whatever be the name given
Speaker 2: to the keen pain, the pangs of which I feel,
Speaker 2: I will exhibit it, my daughter, to the gaze of all,
Speaker 2: and in the heart of a king, display that of
Speaker 2: a man.
Speaker 6: I deserve not this violent grief seek, I pray to
Speaker 6: resist the claims that assert over your heart, whose might
Speaker 6: a thousand events have marked what, my Lord, you must abandon,
Speaker 6: that kingly firmness of which, under the blows of his
Speaker 6: fortune you have shown such perfect proofs.
Speaker 2: In numberless occasions. Firmness is easy all revolutions to which
Speaker 2: ruthless fortune can expose us loss of rank, persecution, envy's venom,
Speaker 2: hatred's dart present nothing which the will of a soul
Speaker 2: but a little swayed by reason, cannot easily brave. But
Speaker 2: those rigors which crush the heart under the weight of
Speaker 2: bitter grief are are the cruel darts of those severe
Speaker 2: decrees of fate, which deprive us forever of our loved ones.
Speaker 2: Against such ills, reason offers no available weapons. These are
Speaker 2: the direst blows that the gods, in their wrath, can
Speaker 2: hurl against us.
Speaker 6: My Lord, one consolation is still left to you. Your
Speaker 6: marriage has been race with more than one gift from
Speaker 6: the gods, and by hiding me from your sight, they,
Speaker 6: with open favor, deprive you of nothing but what they
Speaker 6: have not carefully made good for you. Enough remains to
Speaker 6: relieve your sorrow. And this law of heaven, which you
Speaker 6: call cruel, leaves sufficient room in the two princesses, my sisters,
Speaker 6: for paternal love, wherein to place all its kindness.
Speaker 2: Are empty comfort to my sorrow. There is naught that
Speaker 2: can console me for thy loss. My grief fills my soul.
Speaker 2: I am conscious of nothing else, And in presence of
Speaker 2: such cruel destiny, I look to what I lose and
Speaker 2: see not what I still retain.
Speaker 6: My Lord, you know better than myself that we must
Speaker 6: rule our will by that of heaven, And in this
Speaker 6: sad farewell. I can only say to you that which
Speaker 6: you can much better say to others. These gods are
Speaker 6: sovereign lords of the gifts they deign to offer us.
Speaker 6: They leave them in our hands so long only as
Speaker 6: it pleases them. When they withdraw them, we leave no
Speaker 6: right to murmur over the favors which their hands refuse
Speaker 6: any longer to pour upon us. My Lord, I am
Speaker 6: a gift they have offered to your vows. And when
Speaker 6: by this decree they wish to take me back, they
Speaker 6: deprive you of nothing that you do not hold from them.
Speaker 6: And it is without a murmur that you must resign me.
Speaker 2: Ah seek I pray better foundations for the comfort thy
Speaker 2: heart would offer me. Do not, by the fallacy of
Speaker 2: thy reasoning, increase the burden of the piercing grief which
Speaker 2: now torments me. Dost thou imagine that thou givest me
Speaker 2: a powerful reason why I should not complain of this
Speaker 2: decree of heaven, and in this proceeding of the gods
Speaker 2: of which thou biddest me be satisfied. Dost thou not
Speaker 2: clearly see a deadly severity. Consider the state in which
Speaker 2: the gods force me to resign THEE and that in
Speaker 2: which my happlest heart received THEE. Thou shalt know then
Speaker 2: that they take from me much more than they gave
Speaker 2: from them. I received in THEE my daughter, a gift
Speaker 2: I did not ask for. Then I found in it
Speaker 2: but few charms and without joy. I saw my family
Speaker 2: increased by it. But my heart and my eyes have
Speaker 2: made a sweet habit of this gift. Fifteen years of care,
Speaker 2: of watchfulness, of study have I employed to render it
Speaker 2: precious to me. I have decked it with the lovely
Speaker 2: wealth of a thousand brilliant virtues. I have enshrined in
Speaker 2: it by assiduous care, the rarest treasures that wisdom yields
Speaker 2: to it, clings the tenderness of my soul. I have
Speaker 2: made it the charm, the joy of this heart, the
Speaker 2: solace of my wearied senses, the sweet hope of my
Speaker 2: old age. All this they take from me. These gods
Speaker 2: and thou wouldst have me utter no complaint concerning this
Speaker 2: dire edict, from which I suffer ah with too much rigor.
Speaker 2: Their power tramples upon the affections of our heart. To
Speaker 2: withdraw their gift. Have they not waited till I had
Speaker 2: made it my all wrongther if it was their purpose
Speaker 2: to remove it, had it not been better to give
Speaker 2: me nothing?
Speaker 6: My Lord, dread the wrath of these gods, whom you
Speaker 6: dare upbraid.
Speaker 2: After this blow, what more can they inflict on me?
Speaker 6: Oh, my Lord, I tremble for your sins, of which
Speaker 6: I am the cause. I hate myself for this.
Speaker 2: Ah, let them bear with my legitimate complaint. Tis pain
Speaker 2: enough for me to obey them. It ought to suffice
Speaker 2: them that my heart abandons thee to the barbarous respect.
Speaker 2: We must bear them without claiming. Also to control the
Speaker 2: grief that so frightful a decree calls forth. My just
Speaker 2: despair can know no bounds. My grief, My grief, I
Speaker 2: will nurse it forever. I will feel forever the loss
Speaker 2: I sustain of Heaven's rigor. I will always raise high
Speaker 2: my complaint until death. I will unceasingly weep for that
Speaker 2: than which the whole world could give me naught more precious.
Speaker 6: Oh, I pray you, my Lord, spare my weakness. I
Speaker 6: need constancy in these circumstances. Add not to the excess
Speaker 6: of my grief by the tears of your fondness. My
Speaker 6: sorrow alone is deep enough. My fate and your grief
Speaker 6: are too much for my heart.
Speaker 2: True, I must spare THEE my disconsolate trouble. The fatal
Speaker 2: moment has come. I must tear myself from THEE. But
Speaker 2: how can I utter this dreadful word? And yet I must?
Speaker 2: Heaven commands it. An unavoidable cruelty forces me to leave
Speaker 2: THEE in this fatal spot. Farewell, I go.
Speaker 1: Farewell Scene two psyche a Glora, Sir DEEPPI follow the.
Speaker 6: King, my sisters, dry his tears, solace his grief. You
Speaker 6: would fill him with alarm were you to expose yourself
Speaker 6: to my misfortune, preserve for him whatever he possesses. Still,
Speaker 6: the serpent, I expect, might prove hurtful to you and
Speaker 6: draw you in the same fate as myself. Nay, through
Speaker 6: your death might cause me a second death. Me alone
Speaker 6: has Heaven condemned to his poisonous breath. Nothing could save me,
Speaker 6: and I need no example to.
Speaker 7: Die gradeous net. This cruel privilege of mingling our tears
Speaker 7: with your sorrows suffer our size to answer your least
Speaker 7: sighe except this less pledge of our tender love test.
Speaker 6: But to lose yourselves to no purpose.
Speaker 8: Tis to hope for a miracle in your favor, or
Speaker 8: to accompany you to the tomb?
Speaker 6: What rim is there for hope after such an oracle?
Speaker 7: An oracle has ever veiled in obscurity. The more we
Speaker 7: believe that we know its meaning, the less do we
Speaker 7: understand it. Perhaps, after all, you must expect from it
Speaker 7: nothing but glory and happiness. Suffer us, dear sister, to
Speaker 7: behold this mortal dread deceived by a worthy issue, or
Speaker 7: at least let us die with you, if Heaven does
Speaker 7: not show itself more propitious to our prayers.
Speaker 6: Dear sister, lend a readier air to nature's voice, which
Speaker 6: summons you to stand by the king. You love me
Speaker 6: too much, and duty murmurs. You know its unavoidable laws.
Speaker 6: A father ought to be dare to you than myself
Speaker 6: become both the mainstays of his old age. A thousand kings,
Speaker 6: a thousand rival kings cherish love for you. You both
Speaker 6: owe your father, a son in law, and grandchildren. A
Speaker 6: thousand kings vie with each other to whisper their vows
Speaker 6: to you. Me alone, the oracle demands, and alone too,
Speaker 6: I will die, if I can without weakness, or if
Speaker 6: not at least without you, as witnesses of that little
Speaker 6: which nature has.
Speaker 7: Left me, then by sharing your woe we annoy you.
Speaker 8: I dare go somewhat further. We offend you.
Speaker 6: No, but you add to my torture and perhaps increase
Speaker 6: the wrath of heaven.
Speaker 7: It is your will we go. May that same Heaven,
Speaker 7: more just and less severe, decree for you the fate
Speaker 7: we desire, and for which our sincere friendship, in spite
Speaker 7: of you and of the Oracle, still.
Speaker 6: Hopes Fowell this hope, these vows, my sisters, none of
Speaker 6: the gods will ever fulfill.
Speaker 1: Scene three Psyche alone.
Speaker 6: Alone, at last, I can look on this terrible change, which,
Speaker 6: from the summit of highest glory hurls me to the tomb.
Speaker 6: This glory was without parallel, Its sheens spread from pole
Speaker 6: to pole. All kings seemed created to love me. All
Speaker 6: their subjects, looking upon me as a goddess, were but
Speaker 6: now beginning to accustom me to the incense. They never
Speaker 6: ceased to offer. Sighs followed me, for which I gave
Speaker 6: nought in return. My soul remained fancy free while it
Speaker 6: captivated so many, and in the midst of so much love,
Speaker 6: was queen of all hearts, and yet mistress of my own?
Speaker 6: Oh Heaven, hast thou counted a crime? This want of feeling,
Speaker 6: all this severity which thou dost exhibit. Is it because
Speaker 6: in return for their vows? I have given nothing but esteem?
Speaker 6: If such be thy law? Why didst thou not create
Speaker 6: in me that which merit and love creating others? But
Speaker 6: what do I see here?
Speaker 1: Scene four Cleomenes Igenore.
Speaker 9: Psyche beholding us two friends, two rivals, who only wish
Speaker 9: to expose our life to save yours?
Speaker 6: Can I listen to you when I've refused? Two sisters, princess,
Speaker 6: think you that you could defend me against heaven? To
Speaker 6: surrender yourselves to the serpent who's coming I must await
Speaker 6: here is but to despair ill becoming great hearts. And
Speaker 6: to die when I die is to overwhelm a sensitive
Speaker 6: soul that already has but too many sorrows.
Speaker 10: A serpent is not invincible. Cadmus, who loved no one,
Speaker 10: slew Mar's own reptile. We love, and love makes everything
Speaker 10: possible for the heart that follows his standard, for the
Speaker 10: hand of whose darts he is himself the guide.
Speaker 6: Do you expect his aide in behalf of an ungrateful
Speaker 6: one whom all his shafts have been unable to wound.
Speaker 6: Think you he can stay his vengeance when it's bursting forth,
Speaker 6: and help you to release me from its stroke. Even
Speaker 6: if you should serve me, even if you should restore
Speaker 6: me to life, what reward do you hope for from
Speaker 6: that which knows no love?
Speaker 9: It is not by the hope of so lovely a
Speaker 9: reward that we are animated. We seek only to obey
Speaker 9: the dictates of a love that dares not presume, whatever
Speaker 9: its efforts may be, that it can be so fortunate
Speaker 9: as to please you, so worthy as to kindle within
Speaker 9: you a responsive flame.
Speaker 10: Live, fair, princess, and live for another. We will behold
Speaker 10: it with a jealous eye. We will die of it, yet,
Speaker 10: of a death sweeter far than if we had to
Speaker 10: see you die. If we cannot save your life by
Speaker 10: the loss of ours, whatever love you may prefer to ours,
Speaker 10: we are ready to die of grief and of love.
Speaker 6: Live Princes live, and no longer seek to ward off
Speaker 6: or to share my fate. I believe I have told
Speaker 6: you Heaven seeks me alone, Me alone, has it condemned me?
Speaker 6: Thinks I hear already the deadly hissing of its minister,
Speaker 6: who even now draws nigh my dread pictures him to me,
Speaker 6: ever offers him to my view. Fear has mastered all
Speaker 6: my feelings under its influence. I see him on the
Speaker 6: summit of this rock. I sink for very weakness, and
Speaker 6: my thinking heart scarce keeps up a remnant of courage. Farewell, princess,
Speaker 6: flee lest he poison you.
Speaker 10: We have seen nothing as yet to astonish us. And
Speaker 10: since you deem your death so nigh, if strength fail you,
Speaker 10: we have both arms and hearts, which hope never forsakes it.
Speaker 10: Maybe a rival has dictated this oracle, and gold has
Speaker 10: made its interpreter speak. It would be no miracle if
Speaker 10: a man has answered in the stead of a dumb deity.
Speaker 10: And everywhere we have but too many examples that temples,
Speaker 10: no less than other places, are the abode of the wicked.
Speaker 9: Suffer us to oppose to the cowardly ravisher, to whom
Speaker 9: sacrilege abandons you a love that Heaven has chosen for
Speaker 9: the defender of the only fair one, for whom we
Speaker 9: wish to live. If we dare not aspire to her possession,
Speaker 9: at least in the midst of her danger. Allow us
Speaker 9: to follow the ordor and dictates of our passion.
Speaker 6: These dictates, this extreme ardor with which your hearts are filled.
Speaker 6: In my behalf, I paid them in behalf of others,
Speaker 6: in behalf of my sisters. Live for them, since I
Speaker 6: tie lament the cruel rigor of my fate, and by
Speaker 6: your death, do not give my sisters new ground for sorrow.
Speaker 6: These are my last wishes, and in all ages the
Speaker 6: orders of the dying have been received as a law.
Speaker 6: Princess once more, Princess, live for my sisters. So long
Speaker 6: as you love me, you must obey me. Do not
Speaker 6: drive me to hate you and to look upon you
Speaker 6: as rebels for being too faithful to me. Go leave
Speaker 6: me to die alone in this pot where I have
Speaker 6: no voice left except to say farewell. But I feel
Speaker 6: myself lifted up, and the air opens a road. Whence
Speaker 6: you will no longer hear this dying voice. Farewell, Princess,
Speaker 6: farewell for the last time. See can you doubt my destiny?
Speaker 1: Psyche is borne through the air by two zephyrs.
Speaker 10: We lose sight of her. Prince let us both seek
Speaker 10: on the summits of this rock some means of following her.
Speaker 9: Let us seek those of not surviving her.
Speaker 1: Scene five, Love in the air.
Speaker 17: Die then rivals of a jealous God, whose wrath you
Speaker 17: have deserved since your heart was sensible to the same charms,
Speaker 17: and thou Vulcan fashion a thousand brilliant ornaments to adorn
Speaker 17: the palace where Love will dry Psyche's tears and yield
Speaker 17: himself as slave.
Speaker 1: Second interlude. The scene changes to a splendid terrace surrounded
Speaker 1: by pillars emblazoned with golden figures. The whole represents a
Speaker 1: magnificent palace which Love designs for Psyche. Six cyclops, accompanied
Speaker 1: by four fairies, introduce a ballet, and, whilst keeping time,
Speaker 1: give the last touches to four huge silver vases which
Speaker 1: the fairies have brought. The ballet is twice interrupted by
Speaker 1: this recitation of Vulcan, which he gives out in two parts.
Speaker 12: Part one, hasten these seats prepare for Heaven's gentlest God,
Speaker 12: no strength, no effort, spear with mighty zeal and constant care.
Speaker 12: Do now, my lads, what must be done when Love
Speaker 12: commands us? See what haste too? Great can be great love.
Speaker 12: No lazy hand will brook. So work with might and main,
Speaker 12: Your ancient hammers, ply and sparks will swiftly fly beneath
Speaker 12: your arms that reign the fast resounding blows, while zeal
Speaker 12: to please him glows within your heaving breast.
Speaker 1: Part two.
Speaker 12: Then serve a God so kind who loves great zeal
Speaker 12: to find no strength, no effort, spear with my mighty
Speaker 12: zeal and constant care. Do now, my lads, what must
Speaker 12: be done when love commands us? See what haste too
Speaker 12: great can be great love? No lazy hand can brook.
Speaker 12: So work with might and maine. Your ancient hammers, ply
Speaker 12: and sparks will swiftly fly beneath your arms that reign
Speaker 12: the fast resounding blows, while zeal to please him glows
Speaker 12: within your heaving breast.
Speaker 1: End of Act two, Act three of Psyche by Moliere,
Speaker 1: translated by Charles Heron Wall. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act
Speaker 1: three seen one love ever.
Speaker 2: Yes right gallantly have I acquitted myself of your errand
Speaker 2: and from the summit of that rock. I have softly
Speaker 2: borne this beauty through the air to this enchanted palace,
Speaker 2: where with full freedom you can decree her fate. Yet
Speaker 2: you astonish me by this mighty change in your appearance.
Speaker 2: That figure, that countenance, that costume perfectly conceal your real being,
Speaker 2: and I defy the most cunning to see in you
Speaker 2: to day. The God of love.
Speaker 17: Tis because I do not wish to be known to
Speaker 17: psyche Tis my heart, my heart alone. I wish to
Speaker 17: unfold nothing more than the sweet raptures of this keen
Speaker 17: passion which her charms excite within it, to express its
Speaker 17: gentle pining, and to hide what may be from those
Speaker 17: eyes that impose on me their will. I have assumed
Speaker 17: this form which thou seest you.
Speaker 2: Are a master in everything. This is how I know it.
Speaker 2: Often the gods, when in love, have been seen assuming
Speaker 2: various disguises, seeking to alleviate the pleasing wound inflicted on
Speaker 2: all hearts by your fiery darts. But in good sense
Speaker 2: you outstrip them. Yours is the form necessary for succeeding
Speaker 2: with the lovely sex for whom we sigh yes. The
Speaker 2: assistance derived from that form is powerful, and apart from
Speaker 2: rank and wit. Whoever finds the means of being so
Speaker 2: fashioned does not sigh in vain.
Speaker 17: I have decided, my dear Zephyr, to remain always thus,
Speaker 17: and the oldest of all loves cannot be blamed for this.
Speaker 17: It is time to issue from this long infancy that
Speaker 17: wears out my patience. It is time, thenceforth, that I
Speaker 17: should be grown up.
Speaker 2: You are right, you cannot better do, and you are
Speaker 2: initiated into a mystery that demands no childish powers.
Speaker 17: This change will no doubt vex my mother.
Speaker 2: I foresee some anger in that quarter. Although disputes about
Speaker 2: age ought not to exist among immortals, yet your mother
Speaker 2: Venus shares the spirit of beauties who do not like
Speaker 2: grown up children. But whereat I fancy her offended, is
Speaker 2: the line of conduct you are pursuing, and tis a
Speaker 2: strange method of avenging her to love the beauty she
Speaker 2: wished to see punished, this hatred to which she expects
Speaker 2: the power of a son generally feared by the gods
Speaker 2: to answer.
Speaker 17: Let us drop this discourse, Zephyr, tell me, whether thy
Speaker 17: eyes do not find Psyche the fairest woman in the world.
Speaker 17: Is there art on the earth?
Speaker 10: Art?
Speaker 17: In heaven that could seize from her the glorious title
Speaker 17: of naschless beauty. But I see her, my dear zephyr,
Speaker 17: wandering at the splendors of the spot.
Speaker 2: You can show yourself to put an end to her
Speaker 2: torture and unfold to her her glorious destiny. Speak to
Speaker 2: one another, all that sighs, lips and glances can speak
Speaker 2: as a discreet confidant. I know my duty and will
Speaker 2: not interrupt lover's secrets.
Speaker 1: Scene too, psyche Alone, Where.
Speaker 6: Am I, and in a spot I deemed desire it?
Speaker 6: What skilled hand has reared? This palace, which art and
Speaker 6: nature decked with the rarest gifts of the I could
Speaker 6: ever admire? Everything smiles, shines, sparkles in this garden, in
Speaker 6: these apartments, whose pompous furniture presents nothing that does not
Speaker 6: charm and flatter the beholder. And whithersoever my fears lead me,
Speaker 6: I see under my feet nought but gold or flowers.
Speaker 6: Can Heaven have formed this world of wonders for the
Speaker 6: abode of a servant. And when by this sight it
Speaker 6: amuses and stays the unequaled rigor of my jealous fate,
Speaker 6: does it wish to show that a repentil it. Oh No,
Speaker 6: this is the darkest, the keenest shaft of its hatred,
Speaker 6: so fertile in its cruelties, This hatred, by a renewed
Speaker 6: and unparalleled sternness, lays before my gaze. The choice it
Speaker 6: is made of all that is fairest in the world,
Speaker 6: only that I may leave it with deeper regret. How
Speaker 6: foolish is my hope if it fancies it can thus
Speaker 6: alleviate my pain. Every moment that my death is delayed
Speaker 6: becomes a new misfortune for me. The more it stays
Speaker 6: it's coming, the oftener I die, leave me no longer
Speaker 6: to pine. Come take thy victim, monster, whose mission it
Speaker 6: is to slay me? Wouldst thou have me? Seek thee?
Speaker 6: And I must rouse the fury to devour me? If
Speaker 6: Heaven wills my death, If my life be a crime,
Speaker 6: dare at length to seize whatever little remains of it.
Speaker 6: I am tired of murmuring against a lawful penalty. I
Speaker 6: am weary of sighs. Come that I may end the
Speaker 6: death I am dying.
Speaker 1: Scene three, Love psyche Zephyr.
Speaker 17: Behold this serpent, this pitiless monster, whom a wonderful oracle
Speaker 17: has prepared for you, and who perhaps does not inspire
Speaker 17: such dread as you had imagined.
Speaker 6: You, My lord, you are that monster who so spoke
Speaker 6: the oracle threatens my sad life, You, who seem rather
Speaker 6: a god deigning miraculously to come yourself to my rescue.
Speaker 17: What need of help in the midst of an empire,
Speaker 17: where all that breathe only awaits your look to do
Speaker 17: its bidding, Where I am the only monster you have
Speaker 17: to fear.
Speaker 6: But small is the fear that a monster like you inspires,
Speaker 6: And if it has any venom, a soul has little
Speaker 6: reason to venture on a least complaint against a pleasing poison,
Speaker 6: the cure of which all the heart with dread scarce
Speaker 6: do I behold you than already my calmed fears suffer
Speaker 6: the image of death to vanish, And I feel I
Speaker 6: know not what unknown fire flow through my roseen veins.
Speaker 6: Esteem I've felt and kindness, friendship, gratitude, Compassion's innocent sorrows
Speaker 6: have made me know its power, and I have not
Speaker 6: yet felt what I now feel. I know not what
Speaker 6: it is, but I know that it fills me with
Speaker 6: delight and causes me no long the longer I gaze
Speaker 6: on you, the more I feel the spell. Nothing that
Speaker 6: I have ever felt had the same effect. And I
Speaker 6: would tell you, my lord, that I love you. Did
Speaker 6: I know what love is? Turn the not away those
Speaker 6: eyes that poison me, Those eyes so tender, so piercing,
Speaker 6: yet so loving, that look as if they shared the
Speaker 6: confusion they cause me. Alas the more dangerous they prove,
Speaker 6: the more fondly I cling to them. What decree of
Speaker 6: heaven is it which I cannot understand? That forces me
Speaker 6: to tell you more than I should, I, whose modesty
Speaker 6: ought at least to wait that you explain the confusion
Speaker 6: that I seek is within you. You sigh, my lord,
Speaker 6: as I sigh, Your senses, like mine, seem amazed. Tis
Speaker 6: my duty to be silent concerning this, yours to speak it.
Speaker 6: Yet it tis I who tell this to you.
Speaker 17: Your heart is psyche, has ever been too insensible, And
Speaker 17: you must not wonder if to repair the insult, Love
Speaker 17: now pays himself with usury for that which your soul
Speaker 17: ought to have granted him. The time is common which
Speaker 17: your lips must breathe, those sighs so long restrained, And
Speaker 17: while it draws you from that fierce humor, an endless rapture,
Speaker 17: as sweet as it is unknown, must wound you as
Speaker 17: deeply as it ought to have wounded you during those
Speaker 17: golden days. The course of which your unfeeling soul has profaned.
Speaker 6: Not to love is done a great crime.
Speaker 17: Do you suffer a hard punishment for it?
Speaker 6: The punishment is mild?
Speaker 17: Indeed, the penalty is suited to the offense, and love
Speaker 17: on this glorious day avenges himself of lack of love
Speaker 17: by an excess of love.
Speaker 6: Would I have been punished before? My life's happiness lies
Speaker 6: in it. I ought to blush at it, or to
Speaker 6: whisper it low. But this torture has too many charms
Speaker 6: suffer me to say and to repeat it aloud. Though
Speaker 6: I say it a hundred times, I would never blush
Speaker 6: for it. It is not I who speak, and the
Speaker 6: wonderful Empire, the amiable violence of your presence sway my
Speaker 6: voice as soon as I begin to speak. Vainly does
Speaker 6: my modesty take secret offense at it?
Speaker 15: Vainly?
Speaker 6: Would my sex and decency bind me to other laws?
Speaker 6: It is your eyes that dictate my answer, and my
Speaker 6: lips the slaves of their almighty power no longer consult
Speaker 6: me on this self respect I owe.
Speaker 17: Myself, fair psyche. Believe what these eyes tell you. Let
Speaker 17: yours vie with each other in instructing me of all
Speaker 17: your emotions. Trust this sighing heart, which, so long as
Speaker 17: yours will answer, will tell you more by a sigh
Speaker 17: than a hundred looks can express. Taste, the sweetest language,
Speaker 17: the most powerful, the truest of all.
Speaker 6: The understanding of it was due to both our hearts
Speaker 6: to make them equally satisfied. I have sighed, you've understood me.
Speaker 6: You sigh, and I heard you. But release me from doubt,
Speaker 6: my lord, and tell me if by the same road
Speaker 6: Zephyr has led you hither after me, to tell me
Speaker 6: what I hear. Now? When I arrived here were you expected?
Speaker 6: And when you speak to him? Are you obeyed?
Speaker 17: The empire I exercise over this sweet climate is as
Speaker 17: sovereign as yours is over my heart. Love is favorable
Speaker 17: to me, and tis for his sake that Eolus has
Speaker 17: placed Zephyr under my command. It was Love, who, to
Speaker 17: reward my passion, dictated this oracle by which your fair
Speaker 17: days that were threatened have been released from a throng
Speaker 17: of lovers, and which has freed me from the lasting
Speaker 17: obstacle of so many ardent signs that were unworthy of
Speaker 17: being addressed to you. Ask not of me what this
Speaker 17: region be, nor the name of its ruler. You shall
Speaker 17: know it in time. My object is to win you,
Speaker 17: but I wish to do so by my services, my
Speaker 17: seduous care, my constant vows, by a lover sacrifice of
Speaker 17: all that I am, of all my power can effect.
Speaker 17: The splendor of my rank must not solicit you for me.
Speaker 17: Neither must I make a merit of my power. And
Speaker 17: though sovereign lord of this blissful realm, I wish to
Speaker 17: owe you, psyche to nothing but my love. Come with me, princess,
Speaker 17: and admire its marvels. Prepare your eyes and ears to
Speaker 17: the charms that will offer you. You shall gaze on
Speaker 17: woods and meads, contesting their beauties with gold and gems.
Speaker 17: You shall hear nothing but sweet concerts. A hundred beauties
Speaker 17: shall serve you here without envy. They shall worship you,
Speaker 17: and every moment with the humble and raptured soul, shall
Speaker 17: solicit the honor of your commands.
Speaker 6: My will wait upon yours. I can no longer have
Speaker 6: one of my own, but at any rate. Your oracle
Speaker 6: has severed me from two sisters, and the King, my father,
Speaker 6: who my supposed death has all three reduced to bewail me.
Speaker 6: Suffer my sisters to be witnesses of my glory and
Speaker 6: your love for me, to dissipate the error which overwhelms
Speaker 6: their soul with mortal sorrow. Lend them too, as he
Speaker 6: did me, Zephya's wings, that they may facilitate their access
Speaker 6: to your empire as they did mine. Let them see
Speaker 6: where I live. Let them wonder at the success of
Speaker 6: my loss.
Speaker 17: You do not yield me all your soul, Psyche, This
Speaker 17: affectionate remembrance of a father and two sisters snatches from
Speaker 17: me part of that which I crave for my passion.
Speaker 17: Only have no eyes for anyone but for me, who
Speaker 17: have none but for you. Let love for me and
Speaker 17: the desire of pleasing me be your only thought. And
Speaker 17: when such cares dare divert you from it.
Speaker 6: Can you be jealous of affection for King?
Speaker 17: I am jealous, my Psyche, jealous of all nature. The
Speaker 17: sun's rays kiss you too often. Your tresses are too
Speaker 17: sensible to the wooing of the breeze. No sooner does
Speaker 17: it caress them than I murmur. The very air which
Speaker 17: you breathe passes with too much pleasure between your lips,
Speaker 17: your robes cling too closely to your form. I know
Speaker 17: not what bewilt is me, and I dread amidst your sighs,
Speaker 17: some stray one, But you would see your sisters begard
Speaker 17: zephyr psychic commands. I cannot forbid.
Speaker 1: Scene for love, Psyche.
Speaker 17: When you shall show them this blissful seat, make them
Speaker 17: a thousand gifts from these treasures, Lavish on them endearments, caresses,
Speaker 17: and if possible, exhaust that tendernesses that blood demands, so
Speaker 17: that you may yield yourself entirely to love. I shall
Speaker 17: not importune you with my presence. But let not your
Speaker 17: meeting be too long, remembering that you rob me of
Speaker 17: whatever attention you pay them.
Speaker 6: Your love grants me a favor which twere not possible
Speaker 6: for me to your abuse.
Speaker 17: Still, let us visit these gardens, this palace where you
Speaker 17: will meet not but which will pale before your dazzling charms.
Speaker 17: And you little cupids, you young zephyrs, whose souls are
Speaker 17: but soft size, vie with each other in showing what
Speaker 17: joy you feel at the appearance of My Princess.
Speaker 1: Third interlude entry of ballet, composed of four cupids and
Speaker 1: four zephyrs, twice interrupted by a dialogue sung by a
Speaker 1: cupid and a zephyr.
Speaker 2: Ye, gentle youth, follow love, sweet and tender, glow in
Speaker 2: happy days and fair from passion's joys. Do not forbear
Speaker 2: tis to deceive, They tell you, A, you should avoid
Speaker 2: the wooing sigh and fear the pressing suit. Tis now
Speaker 2: the time to learn what fires within you burn, or
Speaker 2: gentle hearts in turn with love must glow, and greater
Speaker 2: charms that burn. A greater debt will low a youthful
Speaker 2: heart and tender at last must yield surrender, or gentle
Speaker 2: hearts in turn.
Speaker 6: With love must glow, and.
Speaker 2: Greater charms that burn. A created to debt, will.
Speaker 3: What boots to play the truant's part, and shield yourselves
Speaker 3: against the dart. The sunny day is flown and gone.
Speaker 3: The hour lost may now be one.
Speaker 19: Or gentle hearts in turn, with love and burn debt.
Speaker 19: Great love hath potent charms to him. We yield our arms.
Speaker 19: His cares and sorrows sweet have too their joy though
Speaker 19: fleet to follow him or hearts would court a thousand
Speaker 19: darts if we would taste his deep delight. Ah, we
Speaker 19: must pine till fades the light before our eyes. A
Speaker 19: worthless life, it is when love feels not the heart
Speaker 19: it fame would move in love.
Speaker 6: If we must grieve and sigh, A moment's.
Speaker 3: Bliss still well repays the ills and woes of many days.
Speaker 2: Midst hopes and fears, and mystery and tears. We cannot
Speaker 2: without the touch of pain bliss seek again in love.
Speaker 3: If we must grieve and sigh a moment's bliss still
Speaker 3: well repays and of many days. Better deed is there
Speaker 3: to do than strive to please and softly woo. A
Speaker 3: lover's part is sweetest care, And this it is that
Speaker 3: all must bear.
Speaker 2: In love.
Speaker 19: If we must grieve and sigh, a moment's bliss.
Speaker 2: Well repays the ills and woes many days.
Speaker 1: And of Act three. Act four of Psyche by Moliere,
Speaker 1: translated by Charles Heron Wall. This is a LibriVox recording.
Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Act
Speaker 1: four the scene changes to a splendid palace in the
Speaker 1: interior of which is seen at the end of a
Speaker 1: long vestibule, A lovely garden, in which are many trees
Speaker 1: laden with all kinds of fruit seene one aglora SIDEPPI.
Speaker 7: I can bear it no longer, my sister, I have
Speaker 7: seen too many wonders. Future times will scarcely conceive them.
Speaker 7: This sun that sees all and lays all before our
Speaker 7: gaze never beheld the light, this dazzling palace, and the
Speaker 7: stately equippage are all a display hateful to me. Shame
Speaker 7: as well as spite, overwhelmed me. How cruelly fortune has
Speaker 7: treated us. See how her inconsiderate bounty blindly lavishes, exhausts,
Speaker 7: and unites her efforts to make all these treasures the
Speaker 7: lot of a younger's sister.
Speaker 8: I share all your feelings. Your griefs are mine in
Speaker 8: this delightful spot. All that displeases you wounds me. All
Speaker 8: of which you consider a deadly insult, oppresses me no
Speaker 8: less than yourself, and leaves bitterness within my breast and
Speaker 8: blushes on my brow.
Speaker 7: No, oh, my sister, no living queen in her own
Speaker 7: realm speaks in such sovereign tones as psyche in these
Speaker 7: abodes here we see her obeyed with scrupulous exactitude, and
Speaker 7: the yearning study of her will seeks it even in
Speaker 7: her eyes. A thousand beauties throng around her, and seemed
Speaker 7: to say to our jealous looks, whatever your charms may be,
Speaker 7: she is still fairer, and we who serve her are
Speaker 7: fairer than you. She orders, it is done, none refuse none.
Speaker 7: Rebel Flora, clinging to her steps, lavishes her sweetish charms
Speaker 7: around her. Zephyr flies to execute her orders, and his
Speaker 7: mistress and he, too much a prey to her charms,
Speaker 7: forget their own love and their eagerness to serve her.
Speaker 8: She has gone odds at her services. Soon she will
Speaker 8: have altars. Our sway extends over weak mortals, only whose
Speaker 8: continual capricent impudence, rebelling secretly from us, oppose either murmurs
Speaker 8: or stratagem to our will.
Speaker 7: It was but little, indeed, that at our court so
Speaker 7: many hearts contended for her, preferring her to us. It
Speaker 7: was not enough that she was there worship night and
Speaker 7: day by a crowd of lovers, when we were comforting
Speaker 7: ourselves with seeing her on the brink of the grave.
Speaker 7: By the sudden order of the oracle. She thought fit
Speaker 7: to display before us the miracle of her new destiny,
Speaker 7: and has chosen our eyes to be the witness of
Speaker 7: that which, at the bottom of our hearts we least desire.
Speaker 8: What a above all, fills my heart with despair is
Speaker 8: to see this lover, so perfect, so born to please
Speaker 8: a captive under her sway. Were it in our power
Speaker 8: to choose from so many monarchs, should we find one
Speaker 8: who bears such a noble mien. To see your wishes
Speaker 8: fulfilled beyond expectation is oftentimes a blistered and genderus unhappiness.
Speaker 8: There is no splendid train, no proud palace, but opens
Speaker 8: some door to incurable ills. But to possess a lover
Speaker 8: of perfect merit, to see yourself dearly beloved by him,
Speaker 8: is a happiness so lofty, so exquisite, that its worth
Speaker 8: cannot be expressed.
Speaker 7: No more of this, my sister, the thought of it
Speaker 7: with us. Let us rather think of revenge. Let us
Speaker 7: find the means of breaking the spell that fosters this
Speaker 7: affection between him and her. She comes, I have darts
Speaker 7: ready such as she shall find difficult to parry.
Speaker 1: Scene two. Psyche A Glora said eppy, I come.
Speaker 6: To bid you farewell. My lover wishes you a departure.
Speaker 6: He can no longer endure that you should deprive him
Speaker 6: of a particle of a joy he feels in being
Speaker 6: alone to contemplate me. The merest look, the slightest word,
Speaker 6: is a treasure for his love, and I rob him
Speaker 6: with it. When I granted to my sisters in favor
Speaker 6: of the ties.
Speaker 7: Of blood, jealousy is very keen, and these nice sentiments
Speaker 7: well deserve that he who shows such tenderness for you
Speaker 7: should be considered above the generality of lovers. I speak
Speaker 7: thus because I do not know him, nor do you
Speaker 7: know his name, or that of those to whom he
Speaker 7: owes the light. This alarms us. I hold him to
Speaker 7: be a mighty prince whose power is extreme, far above
Speaker 7: kingly sway. His treasure, which he has strewn beneath your feet,
Speaker 7: would put abundance herself to the blush. Your love for
Speaker 7: him is as keen as his for you. You are his delight.
Speaker 7: He is yours. Your happiness, my sister, would be perfect
Speaker 7: if you but knew whom you love?
Speaker 6: What cowhi He loves me. The more he sees me,
Speaker 6: the more I please him. There are no pleasures which
Speaker 6: delight the soul, But anticipate my wishes to sound the
Speaker 6: cools of your alarm. When all hair obeys my will?
Speaker 7: What boots it that all bows? Do you hear? If
Speaker 7: this lover ever conceals what he is, if we are alarmed,
Speaker 7: it is for your interest alone, vain It is that
Speaker 7: everything meets you with a smile and brings delight. True
Speaker 7: love scorns reserve, And whoever persists in concealment is conscious
Speaker 7: that he is in some way open to reproach. Should
Speaker 7: this suitor prove fickle? For often change in love is pleasing,
Speaker 7: And between ourselves, I dare say that, however dazzling the
Speaker 7: flesh of your charms, there are others as fair as you.
Speaker 7: If I say, another beauty should bind him under new thralls,
Speaker 7: If in the state in which you are now alone
Speaker 7: and defenseless at his mercy, he should go so far
Speaker 7: as to offer violence on whom should the king wreak
Speaker 7: his vengeance for this change or this insolence?
Speaker 6: You fill me with dread kind heaven? Can I be
Speaker 6: so unfortunate?
Speaker 8: Who knows? But that timens not say no more?
Speaker 6: I could not bear it.
Speaker 7: I have but one word more to say. This prince
Speaker 7: who loves you, sways the winds, gives us suffer's wings
Speaker 7: for a chariot, and every moment lavishes on you new pleasures.
Speaker 7: When he thus openly breaks the order of nature, may
Speaker 7: perhaps mingle some little imposture with so much love. Perhaps
Speaker 7: this palace is nothing more than an enchantment. These guilt ceilings,
Speaker 7: these mountains of wealth with which he buys your affection,
Speaker 7: so soon as he shall be weary of your caresses,
Speaker 7: will vanish in a moment. You know as well as
Speaker 7: ourselves what power lies in spells.
Speaker 6: In my turn, what cruel alarms I feel.
Speaker 7: Our friendship seeks your good only oo.
Speaker 6: Wow, sisters, we must close our meeting. I love and
Speaker 6: fear lest he should grow impatient. Go and tomorrow, if
Speaker 6: I may, you shall see me either happier or crushed
Speaker 6: by the deepest anguish.
Speaker 7: We go to apprize the king of the new glory,
Speaker 7: the ex of bliss which Heaven showers upon you.
Speaker 8: We go to relate to him the surprising and marvelous
Speaker 8: tale of so pleasing a change.
Speaker 6: Trouble him, not, sisters, with your suspicions, and when you
Speaker 6: describe to him this charming empire.
Speaker 7: We both know what we must conceal and what speak,
Speaker 7: and need no lessons.
Speaker 1: Zephyr carries off Psyche's sisters in a cloud which descends
Speaker 1: to the earth, and in which he bears them rapidly away.
Speaker 1: Scene three, Love, Psyche.
Speaker 17: You are alone at last, I can once more without
Speaker 17: your importunate sisters, as witnesses, declare to you, what sway
Speaker 17: eyes so fair have one over me? And how extreme
Speaker 17: is the delight that a sincere ardor inspires when once
Speaker 17: it has locked two hearts together? I can unfold to
Speaker 17: you the loving eagerness of my enraptured soul, and swear
Speaker 17: that enslave to you alone. Its rapture has no other
Speaker 17: aim than to behold this ardor followed by a similar ardor,
Speaker 17: to conceive no other wish but to bind my vows
Speaker 17: to your desires, and make all that pleases you my
Speaker 17: only delight. But wherefore does a cloud of sadness seem
Speaker 17: to dim the brightness of those beautiful eyes? Is that
Speaker 17: art which you can want? In these abodes? Scorn you?
Speaker 17: The homage of the thows here paid to you?
Speaker 6: No, my lord?
Speaker 17: What is it? Then? And to what must I attribute
Speaker 17: my misfortune? You sigh less from love than from grief.
Speaker 17: The roses of your cheek are faded, a token of
Speaker 17: secret sorrow. Scarce are your sisters gone than you sigh
Speaker 17: of regret? Ah, my psyche. When two hearts are swayed
Speaker 17: by an equal passion, can their sighs have a different object?
Speaker 17: And when their love is true and the loved one nigh,
Speaker 17: is there room to sigh for relatives?
Speaker 6: That is not the cause of my sorrow?
Speaker 17: Is it the absence of arrival and a favored rival too,
Speaker 17: that causes this neglect?
Speaker 6: How ill you understand a heart holy yours? I love you,
Speaker 6: my Lord, and my love is vexed at the undeserved
Speaker 6: suspicion which you have conceived you but little know your
Speaker 6: own deserts. If you fear that you are not loved,
Speaker 6: I have loved you, And since I beheld the light
Speaker 6: of day, I have shown myself proud enough to scorn
Speaker 6: the vows of more than one king. And since I
Speaker 6: must disclose to you my whole heart, I have found
Speaker 6: none but you worthy of me. And yet I feel
Speaker 6: as certain sadness which I would fain conceal from you
Speaker 6: A gloomy grief is mingled with all my affection. Ask
Speaker 6: not the cause of it. Perhaps if you knew it,
Speaker 6: you would punish me for it. And if I still
Speaker 6: dare to aspire to anything, I am sure I should
Speaker 6: not obtain it.
Speaker 17: And do you not dreadlest I should, in my turn
Speaker 17: feel vexed at you for so ill understanding your own powers,
Speaker 17: or for pretending to be ignorant of the absolute sway
Speaker 17: you exercise over me. Ah, if you doubt in the
Speaker 17: least be undeceived, speak, I.
Speaker 6: Should have to bear with the shame of a refusal.
Speaker 17: I pray you to harbor kind of feelings in my behalf.
Speaker 17: The trial of it is easy speak. Everything waits on
Speaker 17: your will. If you cannot trust my words without oaths,
Speaker 17: I swear by those beautiful eyes, those lords of my heart,
Speaker 17: those divine others of my passion. And if it be
Speaker 17: not sufficient to swear by your beautiful eyes, I swear
Speaker 17: by the sticks by which all the gods do swear.
Speaker 6: After this assurance, my fears are somewhat allayed. My Lord,
Speaker 6: here I look on pomp and abundance. I adore you,
Speaker 6: and you worship me. My heart is enraptured my senses
Speaker 6: charmed by it. But amidst this highest bliss, I have
Speaker 6: the misfortune of not knowing which it is whom I love.
Speaker 6: Dispel this darkness and unfold me who this perfect lover is?
Speaker 17: Psyche? What is that you say that.
Speaker 6: This is the happiness for which I long, and that
Speaker 6: if you refuse it to me.
Speaker 17: I have sworn it. I am no longer master of it.
Speaker 17: But you do not know what you ask Leave me
Speaker 17: my secret. If I discover myself, I lose you and
Speaker 17: you me. The only remedy is for you to retract
Speaker 17: your words.
Speaker 6: Is this my sovereign sway over you?
Speaker 17: Your power is unbounded, and I am wholly yours. But
Speaker 17: if our wooing has charms for you, laying no obstacle
Speaker 17: in the way of its pleasing continuance, do not force
Speaker 17: me to flight. This would be the least misfortune which
Speaker 17: can happen to us from that wish which has seduced you.
Speaker 6: My lord, you now wish to test me, but I
Speaker 6: know how far I am to believe it. I pray
Speaker 6: you to let me know the measure of my glory,
Speaker 6: and no longer to conceal from me. For what illustrious choice.
Speaker 6: I have rejected the vows of so many kings.
Speaker 17: Do you will it?
Speaker 6: So suffer me to beseech you to it?
Speaker 17: If you knew what cruel misfortune you trow upon yourself.
Speaker 6: By it, my Lord, you fill me with despair.
Speaker 17: Think well on it. I can yet be silent.
Speaker 6: Do you pledge yourself by oaths which you do not
Speaker 6: mean to keep?
Speaker 17: Be it so? I am a god, the most powerful
Speaker 17: of all gods, absolute master on this earth and in
Speaker 17: the heavens. My power is supreme in the ocean and
Speaker 17: the air. In a word, I am love himself. I
Speaker 17: have wounded myself with my own darts for love of
Speaker 17: you and alas, but for the violence which you impose
Speaker 17: on me, and which has turned my passion for you
Speaker 17: into wrath. You would have me now for your husband,
Speaker 17: your wishes accomplished. You know whom you loved, You know
Speaker 17: the lover whom you charmed. See now what misfortune is
Speaker 17: upon us yourself. You force me to abandon you yourself.
Speaker 17: You force me to deprive you of all the fruits
Speaker 17: of your victory. It may be that your beautiful eyes
Speaker 17: will see me no more. This palace, these grounds, once
Speaker 17: vanished with me, will cause your rising glory to fade away.
Speaker 17: You would not believe me, And the dispelling of this
Speaker 17: doubt has for fruit that fate whose blows the very
Speaker 17: heavens tremble, mightier than my love, mightier than all the
Speaker 17: gods united, which is even now showing its hatred to
Speaker 17: you and driving me.
Speaker 1: Hence love flies away and the gardens vanish. Scene four.
Speaker 1: The stage represents a desert in the wild banks of
Speaker 1: a river. Psyche the river God reclining on a bank
Speaker 1: of reeds and leaning on an urn.
Speaker 6: Cruel destiny, aching pain, fatal, curiosity, speak, dread, solitude. What
Speaker 6: hast thou done with all my felicity? I have loved
Speaker 6: to God, was beloved by him, my happiness redoubled at
Speaker 6: every moment. And now behold me alone, bewailing in the
Speaker 6: midst of a desert. Where to increase my pain? When
Speaker 6: shame and despair are upon me? I feel my love
Speaker 6: increasing now that I have lost the lover. Its very
Speaker 6: remembrance charms and poisons my soul. Its delights terrannize over
Speaker 6: a wretched heart, which my passion is condemned to the
Speaker 6: keenest kind heaven. When love abandoned me, Why did he
Speaker 6: leave me the fire he had breathed into me. Ah, Thou,
Speaker 6: the pure and inexhaustible source of all good, Lord of men,
Speaker 6: and God's dear author of the pain I now endure.
Speaker 6: Art Thou forever vanished from my sight. I I banished
Speaker 6: thee when love with deepest, when blissed, supreme and unworthy
Speaker 6: suspicion filled my heart with alarm, ungrateful heart, the fire
Speaker 6: was but ill kindled, For from the first moment of love,
Speaker 6: we cannot have any wish other than that of him
Speaker 6: whom we cherish. Let me die. It is the only
Speaker 6: choice left me after the loss I have made. For
Speaker 6: whom great gods would I live? For whom entertain a
Speaker 6: single wish? Thou, river whose wave washes these desert sands,
Speaker 6: bury my crime in thy waters, and and ell so
Speaker 6: miserable by allowing me to find a rest in thy bed?
Speaker 2: Thy death would sully my stream? Psyche Heaven forbids it.
Speaker 2: Perhaps after such heavy sorrows, another fate awaits thee rather
Speaker 2: flee Venus's implacable anger. I see her seeking thee in
Speaker 2: order to punish thee. The son's love has excited, the
Speaker 2: mother's hatred flee. I will detain her.
Speaker 6: I shall await her a rending wrath. What cannot have
Speaker 6: that will not be too pleasant for me? Who ever
Speaker 6: seeks death tread to know gods or goddesses, but can
Speaker 6: defy all their dots.
Speaker 1: Five Venus Psyche, the river god insolent Psyche.
Speaker 3: You dare then to await my arrival after you have
Speaker 3: deprived me on earth of my honors, after your seducing
Speaker 3: charms have received the incense which is due to mine alone.
Speaker 3: I have seen my shrines forsaken, I have seen all
Speaker 3: the world enslaved by your charms. I allize you as
Speaker 3: the sovereign Beauty, offer to you a homage until then unknown,
Speaker 3: and not stay to consider whether there was another venus
Speaker 3: at all. Notwithstanding this, I see you bold enough not
Speaker 3: to dread the punishment your crime justly deserves, and to
Speaker 3: meet my gaze as if my resentment were but little matter.
Speaker 6: If I've been loved by few mortals, is it a
Speaker 6: crime in me to have possessed charms by which they
Speaker 6: allowed their eyes to be captured while they were blind
Speaker 6: to you? I am, but what haven't half made me?
Speaker 6: I have earned those attractions which it has been willing
Speaker 6: to lend me. If the vows that were paid to
Speaker 6: me pleased you but little, you had only to show
Speaker 6: yourself to conceal no longer from men that perfect beauty
Speaker 6: which has but to show itself in order to bring
Speaker 6: them back to their duty.
Speaker 3: You should have guarded better against these vows, this veneration,
Speaker 3: this incense, are to be declined, and in order to
Speaker 3: undeceive them more effectively, you said yourself, have rendered this
Speaker 3: homage to me in their presence you found pleasure in
Speaker 3: this error, from which, on the contrary, you should have
Speaker 3: shrunk with horror. Your hearty temper, proud of having rejected
Speaker 3: a thousand kings, has carried the extravagant ambition of its
Speaker 3: choice even to the skies.
Speaker 6: Have I and my ambition aspired to heaven?
Speaker 3: Your insolence is without an equal? Do you not aspire
Speaker 3: to the gods when you reject all the kings of
Speaker 3: the world?
Speaker 6: If love had hardened my heart to all their passion,
Speaker 6: and have deserved me for himself alone, do I stand guilty?
Speaker 6: And must you to day as a price for so
Speaker 6: dazzling a love crush me with everlasting sorrow.
Speaker 3: Psyche, you should have known your position better and the
Speaker 3: rank of this god.
Speaker 6: And has he allowed me time and opportunity for doing so?
Speaker 6: When from the first he became absolute master of my heart.
Speaker 3: You have allowed your heart to be charmed by him,
Speaker 3: and you have loved him as soon as he said
Speaker 3: I love.
Speaker 6: How could I refuse to love the God who inspires
Speaker 6: all with love, and who was pleading his own cause?
Speaker 6: He is your son. You well know his power, his merit.
Speaker 3: Yes, he is my son, But a son who excites
Speaker 3: my wiraff A son who ill returns to me what
Speaker 3: he knows is do. A son who knows that I
Speaker 3: am forsaken, and who the more to flatter his own
Speaker 3: unworthy affection. Since he returned his love wounds, no one
Speaker 3: forces no one to come to my shrine and address
Speaker 3: his supplications to me. You have made a rebel of him,
Speaker 3: But the whole world shall behold my dire revenge on you,
Speaker 3: and I shall teach you whether it is meet for
Speaker 3: a mortal maiden to suffer a god to sigh at
Speaker 3: her feet. Follow me. You shall find by your own
Speaker 3: experience to what degree of mad self reliance this ambition
Speaker 3: was leading you. Come and arm yourself with as much
Speaker 3: patience as you possess presumption.
Speaker 1: Fourth interlude. The scenes represent the Infernal Regions. A sea
Speaker 1: of fire is discovered, whose waves are rolling unceasingly. This
Speaker 1: terrible sea is enclosed by burning ruins, and standing in
Speaker 1: the midst of the raging billows. Through a frightful opening
Speaker 1: appears Bluto's palace. Eight furies issue from it and form
Speaker 1: the entry of the ballet, in which they show their
Speaker 1: delight at having kin such dire wrath in the heart
Speaker 1: of the sweetest of divinities. A goblin adds perilous jumps
Speaker 1: to their dances, and meanwhile, Psyche, who in obedience to Venus,
Speaker 1: has come to the Infernal Regions, is seen crossing again
Speaker 1: in Charon's bark, holding the box given to her by
Speaker 1: Proserpina for Venus. End of Act four, Act five of
Speaker 1: Psyche by Moliere, translated by Charles Heron Wall. This is
Speaker 1: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Speaker 1: Act five, Scene one, Psyche alone.
Speaker 6: Alas ye awful waves of how ye gloomy palaces, where
Speaker 6: Magehia and his sisters hold their court far ever froze
Speaker 6: to the sun's light amongst your axians and your tandaluses,
Speaker 6: in the midst of so many incessant tortures, in these
Speaker 6: hideous recesses, what pain, what toil so great as those
Speaker 6: to which Venus condemns my love. Yet my troubles satisfy
Speaker 6: not to wrath. And since I am subject to her laws,
Speaker 6: since I see myself a prey to her resentment, in
Speaker 6: these cruel moments, I must have had more than one soul,
Speaker 6: more than one life, to fulfill her commands. Yet all
Speaker 6: this I could bear with joy, if in the midst
Speaker 6: of her hatred my eyes could behold, were it for
Speaker 6: one moment only my darling, my beloved lover his name,
Speaker 6: I dare not utter my lips, whose guilt was to
Speaker 6: exact too much or now unworthy of him. And in
Speaker 6: this deadly anguish, the keenest pain my ever returning death
Speaker 6: subjects me to is that I may not see him.
Speaker 6: If his anger lasted, still no wish could equal mine.
Speaker 6: But if he felt any pity for a soul that
Speaker 6: worships him, however great the sufferings to which I am condemned,
Speaker 6: I should feel them not yea thou mighty destiny. If
Speaker 6: he would but stay his wrath, all my sorrows would
Speaker 6: be at an end. A mere look from the sun
Speaker 6: suffices to make me insensible to the mother's fury. I
Speaker 6: will doubt it no longer. He shares my grief, he
Speaker 6: sees what I endure, and weeps with me. My sufferings
Speaker 6: are his too. It is a self imposed law of
Speaker 6: love in spite of Venus, in spite of my crime.
Speaker 6: He it is who sustains and revives me in the
Speaker 6: midst of the dangers I have to encounter. He harbours
Speaker 6: still the tender feelings urged by his passion, and hastens
Speaker 6: to restore me to new life as soon as I perish.
Speaker 6: But what would with me those two shades I see
Speaker 6: advancing towards me through the light of these dark recesses?
Speaker 1: Scene two Psyche Cleomenes agenore.
Speaker 6: Cleomenes agenal. Is not you whom I see who has
Speaker 6: deprived you of life.
Speaker 9: The meeatest grief that could have caused a noble despair,
Speaker 9: that funeral pomp where you awaited the fiercest rigor and
Speaker 9: highest injustice of a fate most dark on.
Speaker 10: That same rock where Heaven, in its wrath, was promising
Speaker 10: to you, instead of a husband, a dragon who would
Speaker 10: forthwith devour you. We held ourselves ready to repulse his
Speaker 10: fury or die with you. You know it well, Princess,
Speaker 10: And when you disappeared from our gaze through the air,
Speaker 10: both equally carried away by our love and grief, cast
Speaker 10: ourselves headlong from that rock, in order to follow your beauty,
Speaker 10: or rather to feel that love born joy of offering
Speaker 10: in your behalf a first prey to the monster.
Speaker 9: We were fortunately deceived as to the meaning of your oracle.
Speaker 9: But here we have recognized its miracle and learned that
Speaker 9: the serpent ready to devour you was the God who
Speaker 9: is the source of all love, and who, in spite
Speaker 9: of his divinity, adoring you himself, could not bear that
Speaker 9: morals such as we are should presume to love you.
Speaker 10: We now enjoy a pleasant death as a reward for
Speaker 10: having followed you What would have been life to us
Speaker 10: if we could not have been yours. Here we behold
Speaker 10: your charms once more, which neither of us would ever
Speaker 10: have seen again in the world above. Happy shall we
Speaker 10: be if we see the merest tear honor the misfortunes
Speaker 10: of which you have been the cause.
Speaker 6: How can I have more tears to shed? But my
Speaker 6: own misfortunes have been carried the highest pitch. Let us
Speaker 6: mingle our size. Since we have so fatal a destiny,
Speaker 6: we cannot exhaust size. But yours, princes are uttered in
Speaker 6: behalf of an ungrateful being. You would not survive my misfortune.
Speaker 6: But under whatever blow I fall, I cannot die.
Speaker 9: For you have we deserved art Else, we whose great
Speaker 9: passion has not ceased, to weary you with the tale
Speaker 9: of our woes.
Speaker 6: Princess, you might have won my wholese soul, but for
Speaker 6: your being rivals, those incomparable qualities which attended the vows
Speaker 6: of both, rendered you too deserving of loved. Allow me
Speaker 6: to reject either you have.
Speaker 10: Been able without injustice or cruelty, to refuse a heart
Speaker 10: reserved for a god. But behold venus, Fate bids us
Speaker 10: return and forces us to say farewell.
Speaker 6: It's not a leisure. Allowed you to tell me what
Speaker 6: your abode.
Speaker 9: Is Here on groves evergreen, where we breathe not but love.
Speaker 9: No sooner do we die of love than through love
Speaker 9: we revive. We cipher love under the sweet laws of
Speaker 9: his blessed empire, and everlasting night dares not expel from
Speaker 9: it the day which Love himself brings on our phantoms,
Speaker 9: which he inspires and of which he forms a court,
Speaker 9: even in hades.
Speaker 10: Your envious sisters, who descended here below after us, lost
Speaker 10: themselves in the hope of losing you, both, each in
Speaker 10: turn as a reward for the plot which cost them
Speaker 10: their life. Suffer now the rock at Ixian's side, now
Speaker 10: the vulture at Titius. Love, by means of the zephyrs,
Speaker 10: has executed on them swift justice for their envenomed and
Speaker 10: jealous malice. Those winged ministers of his just wrath, under
Speaker 10: pretense of respect, storing them again to you, cast them
Speaker 10: both to the bottom of a precipice, where the hideous
Speaker 10: spectacle of their mangled bodies displays. But the first and
Speaker 10: least torture for that stratagem, the cunning of which was
Speaker 10: the cause of the ills you now endure.
Speaker 9: Ah, busy there you alone not to be pitied, But
Speaker 9: we tear it too long conversing with you. Farewell. May
Speaker 9: we live in your remembrance. May you and that soon
Speaker 9: have nothing further to dread. Soon may love exalt you
Speaker 9: to heaven, place you beside the other gods, and kindling
Speaker 9: again a flame that cannot be extinguished. Release forever your
Speaker 9: beauteous eyes from the task of increasing daylight in these realms.
Speaker 1: Scene three.
Speaker 6: Psyche alone, hapless loves, their passion still continues, though dead.
Speaker 6: Both love me Me, whose harshness so ill received their vows.
Speaker 6: Tis not thus thou actest, Thou, who alone hast seized
Speaker 6: my heart, lover whom I still prize a thousand times
Speaker 6: more than my life, and who breakest such charming ties,
Speaker 6: shun me no longer and leave me to hope that
Speaker 6: one day thou shalt cast a glance on me, that
Speaker 6: by my sufferings I shall please THEE and again win
Speaker 6: thy plighted faith. But my woes have disfigured me too
Speaker 6: much to allowed to entertain such hopes. Ey is dejected, sad, despairing, pining,
Speaker 6: and with cheeks faded. What have I that can speak
Speaker 6: in my favor? If some miracle impossible to foresee does
Speaker 6: not restored me the beauty which one has captivated thee,
Speaker 6: this treasure of divine beauty which Proserpina has entrusted to me,
Speaker 6: for Venus contains charms which I can make mine own,
Speaker 6: and thou luster must be extreme, since beauty herself, Venus
Speaker 6: requires them to adorn herself. Would it be a great
Speaker 6: crime to snatch a few to captivate a god who
Speaker 6: has been my lover, to recover his affection and put
Speaker 6: an end to my torture? Can anything that I may
Speaker 6: do be unlawful? Have me open it? What vape has
Speaker 6: cloud my brain? And what do I behold issuing from
Speaker 6: this open casket?
Speaker 8: Love?
Speaker 6: Unless thy compassion forbids my death, I must needs descend
Speaker 6: to the tomb, never to live again.
Speaker 1: Psyche's wounds and love flies towards her scene for love Psyche.
Speaker 17: Thoy danger, Psyche dispels my wrath. Nay, the violence of
Speaker 17: my passion has never abated. And though thou hast excited
Speaker 17: my highest displeasure, yet my anger was harbored only against
Speaker 17: my mother's wrath. I have seen all thy toils, I
Speaker 17: have followed all thy misfortunes, and throughout my sighs have
Speaker 17: answered thy tears. Look on me, I am still the same?
Speaker 17: What again and again I repeat that I love THEE?
Speaker 17: And yet thou wilt not say that thou lovest me.
Speaker 17: Can it be that thy beauteous eyes are for ever closed,
Speaker 17: that they are forever bereft of daylight? O death, needst
Speaker 17: thou have taken so cruel a dart, and, regardless of
Speaker 17: my eternal being, endangered my own life? How oft ungrateful
Speaker 17: deity have I swelled thy dark empire by the contempt
Speaker 17: or the cruelty of fierce and proud fair one? How
Speaker 17: many faithful lovers I must confess it, have I, through
Speaker 17: irresistible raptures sacrificed to thee go. I shall wound no
Speaker 17: more souls, I shall pierce no more hearts, But with
Speaker 17: dart's dip to the divine liquors at foster Heaven's immortal passions,
Speaker 17: I shall hurl them no more but to make as
Speaker 17: many lovers as there are gods. As for thee Thou
Speaker 17: inexorable mother, who forcest her to bereave me of what
Speaker 17: I held dearest in this world, dread in thy turn
Speaker 17: the effects of my wrath. Thou wouldst sway my feelings,
Speaker 17: Thou who art often swayed by my will, Thou who
Speaker 17: wearest a heart is sensitive as that of mortals. Thou
Speaker 17: enviest to mind the raptures of thine own. But in
Speaker 17: the same heart I shall plunge such darts as shall
Speaker 17: be followed by jealous sorrow. I shall crush thee by
Speaker 17: abasing ravishments, and ever chooses objects for thy dearest lungs,
Speaker 17: adonises and enchises, who will nurse nothing but hatred towards thee.
Speaker 1: Scene five venus love Psyche still senseless.
Speaker 3: The threat is full of respect and the anger of
Speaker 3: a rebellious, unpresumptuous.
Speaker 17: I am no longer a child. My childhood has been
Speaker 17: but too long, and my wrath is as just as
Speaker 17: it is impetuous.
Speaker 3: Its impetuosity should be subdued. And thou artest to remember
Speaker 3: that to me thou owest thy birth, and.
Speaker 17: Thou mightest well not forget that thou possessest a heart
Speaker 17: and beauty that hold their power from me, That my
Speaker 17: beau is the only support of this power, that without
Speaker 17: my shafts it is nothing, And that if the stoutest
Speaker 17: hearts have suffered themselves to be drawn in thy triumphant train,
Speaker 17: thou hast never enslaved anyone whose chains it was not
Speaker 17: my pleasure to forge. Mention no more of those rights
Speaker 17: of birth that fetter my desires. And if thou dost
Speaker 17: not wish to lose a thousand sighs, pay thy tribute
Speaker 17: to gratitude. When thou seest me, Thou, whose glory and
Speaker 17: delights are the offsprings of mine power.
Speaker 3: How hast thou defended this glory of which thou speakest,
Speaker 3: How hast thou restored it to me? And when thou
Speaker 3: hast seen my shrines deserted, my temples, violated the honors
Speaker 3: due to me rivaled by those of another. If thou
Speaker 3: hast shared my shame, how hast thou punished Psyche, who
Speaker 3: has stolen them from me? I bade Thee throw a
Speaker 3: spell over her, that she might love the basest of mortals,
Speaker 3: who would not condescend to answer her passion. But by
Speaker 3: continual repulse and cruelest contempt, and thyself thou hast loved her.
Speaker 3: Thou hast seduced immortal deities against me, For the sufferers
Speaker 3: have concealed her from me. For thee Apollo himself, by
Speaker 3: an oracle, cleverly turned hast not her from my power.
Speaker 3: So well that but for the curiosity, which by a
Speaker 3: blind distrust restored her to my vengeance. She escaped forever
Speaker 3: my angry passion. See to what thy love has reduced
Speaker 3: her thine own, Psyche. See her soul is even thou,
Speaker 3: and if thine ist still smitten, received now her last breath,
Speaker 3: Threaten and brave me if thou wilt. But she must
Speaker 3: die so much insolence suits THEE well, and I must.
Speaker 6: Needs bow to all.
Speaker 3: It pleases THEE to say, ay, who can do nothing
Speaker 3: without thy darts?
Speaker 17: Thy power is but too great, relentless goddess Fate abandons
Speaker 17: her to thy wrath, But be less inexorable to the
Speaker 17: prayers and tears of a son who beseeches THEE on
Speaker 17: his knees. It must be a pleasant sight enough for
Speaker 17: THEE to see on one side Psyche expiring, the other,
Speaker 17: a son who, in souppliant voice, wishes to hold his
Speaker 17: heart's happiness from THEE. Only give me back my Psyche.
Speaker 17: Restore to her all her chobs, surrender her to my tears,
Speaker 17: to my love, to my grief, For she is my
Speaker 17: eye's delight, my heart's happiness.
Speaker 3: However, deep thy love for Psyche, do not expect be
Speaker 3: to put an end to her misfortunes. If fate abandons
Speaker 3: her to me, I abandon her to her fate, importune
Speaker 3: me no more, and let her, in the midst of
Speaker 3: her calamities, triumph or perish without venus.
Speaker 17: Alas if I am too importunate, I would not be
Speaker 17: so if I could but die.
Speaker 3: This grief is not common that drives an immortal to
Speaker 3: long for death.
Speaker 17: Thou mayst judge of the intensity of my passion, writes
Speaker 17: very excess. Wilt thou not be merciful?
Speaker 3: I must confess Thy love touches my heart, it disarms,
Speaker 3: it abates my sternness. Thy Psyche shall see the light again.
Speaker 17: How powerfully I shall cause thy sway to be felt everywhere.
Speaker 3: Aye, thou shalt behold her decked in her first beauty.
Speaker 3: But I will have the entire deference of thy grateful vows.
Speaker 3: I will that a true respect allow my love to
Speaker 3: select for thee and another's spouse.
Speaker 17: And I will have no such grace. I assume all
Speaker 17: my former boldness. I will have Psyche. I will have
Speaker 17: her plighted faith. I will that she live again, and
Speaker 17: that she live for me. And I reckon as not
Speaker 17: that thy wearied hatred give way to favor another maiden. Jupiter,
Speaker 17: who even now appears, shall judge betwixt Us and decide
Speaker 17: between mine insubordination and thy wrath.
Speaker 1: The lightning flashes, the thunder rolls, and Jupiter appears in
Speaker 1: the air borne aloft by his eagle. Scene six Jupiter, Venus,
Speaker 1: love Psyche, senseless, O.
Speaker 17: Thou, to whom alone all is possible, Father of gods,
Speaker 17: Lord of immortals, Soften the rigor of an inexorable mother,
Speaker 17: who without me would have no shrines. I have wept,
Speaker 17: I have supplicated, I sigh, I threaten sighs, and threats
Speaker 17: are like vain. She will not perceive that on my
Speaker 17: displeasure hangs a happy or sad condition of the whole world,
Speaker 17: and that if Psyche dies, if Psyche be not mine,
Speaker 17: I am no longer love. Yes, I shall break my bow,
Speaker 17: shatter my arrows. I shall even extinguish my sacred flame,
Speaker 17: and leave all nature to pine to death. Or if
Speaker 17: I deign to wound a few more hearts with these
Speaker 17: golden shafts that arrest my sway, I shall wound you
Speaker 17: all above and behalf of mortals. While I shall hurl
Speaker 17: against them blunted darts. Only that inspire hatred and produce
Speaker 17: thankless and cruel rebels. What tyrannical law is this that
Speaker 17: would bind me to keep my shafts ever ready to
Speaker 17: serve you, and would have me make conquest upon conquest
Speaker 17: for you, while you forbid me to make one for myself.
Speaker 2: Jupiter, de venus, my daughter, show thyself less see towards him.
Speaker 2: His Psyche's destiny is even now in thy hands. Fate
Speaker 2: at thy slightest word is ready to follow up thy wrath.
Speaker 2: Speak and let a mother's tenderness prevail upon thy designs.
Speaker 2: All dread this wrath, which aw's even me. Wilt thou
Speaker 2: leave the world to become the prey of hatred, disorder,
Speaker 2: and confusion, and change a god of union, of delights
Speaker 2: of joy into one of bitterness and division? Consider the
Speaker 2: lofty rank we hold, and say whether passion ought to
Speaker 2: sway our feelings? The word revenge is pleasing to mortals.
Speaker 2: The more is it meet that we should resort to forgiveness.
Speaker 3: I forgive this rebel son, Yet would you have me
Speaker 3: submit to the reproach that a contemptible mortal object of
Speaker 3: my wrath, proud Psyche, because she displays some charms has
Speaker 3: defiled my alliance and my son's couts.
Speaker 2: Well, then I make her immortal, so that all shall
Speaker 2: be equal.
Speaker 3: I feel no longer hatred or contempt for her, but
Speaker 3: admit her to the honor of this conjugal tie. Psyche,
Speaker 3: recover your life, never.
Speaker 6: More to lose it.
Speaker 3: Jupiter has contrived your restoration, and I abandon that lofty
Speaker 3: humor which opposed itself to your wishes.
Speaker 1: Psyche recovering from her fainting condition.
Speaker 6: It is you, then, mighty goddess, who restores the life
Speaker 6: to this innocent being.
Speaker 3: Jupiter extends his pardon to you, and my wrath lasts
Speaker 3: no longer live. Venus commands it.
Speaker 1: Love allows it, Psyche. To love at.
Speaker 6: Last, I see you can dare object of my passion.
Speaker 17: Love to Psyche, you are mine at last, my soul's
Speaker 17: own delight.
Speaker 2: Come lovers, Come and conclude in heaven so great, so
Speaker 2: lofty a union. Come fair Psyche, to change thy destiny
Speaker 2: and take thy place among the gods.
Speaker 1: And of Act five and End of Psyche by Maldiere,
Speaker 1: translated by Charles Heron Wall