-30_Vasavadutta-Act Three-Scene-5.htm

A room in Vasavadutta's apartments.

VASAVADUTTA

I govern no longer what I speak and do..

Is this the fire my mother spoke of? Oh,

It is sweet, it is sweet. But I will not be mastered

By any equal creature. Let him serve

Obediently and I will load his lovely head

With costliest favours. He's my own, my own,

My slave, my toy to play with as I choose,

And shall not dare to play with me. I think he dares;

I do not know, I think he would presume.
He's gentle, brilliant, bold and beautiful.
I'll send for him and chide and put him down,
I'll chide him harshly; he must not presume.
O,1 have forgotten almost my father's will,
Yet it was mine. Before I lose it quite,
I will compel a promise from the boy.
Will it be hard when he is all my own?

(she calls)

Umba! Bring Vuthsa to me from his tower.
His music is a voice that cries to me,
His songs are chains he hangs around my heart.
I must not hear them often; I forget
That I am Vasavadutta, that he is
My house's foe, and only Vuthsa feel,
Think Vuthsa only, while my captive heart
Beats in world-Vuthsa and on Vuthsa throbs.
This must not be.

Umba brings in Vuthsa and retires.
Go, Umba. Vuthsa, stand

Before me.

VUTHSA

It is my sovereign's voice that speaks.  

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VASAVADUTTA

Be silent! Lower thy eyes; they are too bold
To gaze on me, my slave.

VUTHSA

Blame not my eyes,
They follow the dumb motion of a heart
Uplifted to adore thee.

VASAVADUTTA (with a shaken voice)

Dost thou really
Adore me, Vuthsa?

VUTHSA

Earth's one goddess, yes.

VASAVADUTTA (mildly)

But, Vuthsa, men adore with humble eyes
Upon their deity's feet.

VUTHSA

Oh, let me so
Adore thee then, thus humble at thy feet,
Their sleeping moonbeams in my eyes, and place
My hands in Paradise beneath these flowers
That bless too oft the chill unheeding earth.
Let this not be forbidden to thy slave.
So let me worship, and the carolling of thy speech
So listen.

VASAVADUTTA

Vuthsa, thou must not presume.

VUTHSA

O even when faint thy voice, thy every word
Reaches my soul.

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VASAVADUTTA

Wilt thou not let me free?

VUTHSA

Yes, if thou bid; but do not.

VASAVADUTTA (bending down to caress his hair)

If really
And as my slave thou adorest, nothing more,
I will not bid.

VUTHSA

What more, when this means all.

VASAVADUTTA

But if thou serve me, is not all thou hast

Mine, mine ? Why dost thou, Vuthsa, keep from me

My own?

VUTHSA

Take all; claim all.

VASAVADUTTA (collecting herself)

Cowsambie first.

VUTHSA

It shall be thine, a jewel for thy feet.

VASAVADUTTA

Thy kingdom, Vuthsa, for my will to rule.

VUTHSA

It shall be thine, the garden of thy pomp.

VASAVADUTTA

Shall?

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VUTHSA

Is it not far ? We must go there, my queen,
Thou to receive and I to give.

VASAVADUTTA

I wish .
To be there. But, Udayan, thou must vow,
And the word bind thee, that none else shall be
Cowsambie's queen and thou my servant live
Vowed to obedience underneath my throne.

VUTHSA

Thou only shalt be over my heart a queen,
Yes, if thou wilt, the despot of my thoughts,
My hopes, my aims, but I will not obey
If thou command disloyalty to thee,
My sweet, sole sovereign.

VASAVADUTTA (smiling)

This reserve I yield.

(hesitatingly)

But Vuthsa, if as subject of my sire,
High Chunda Mahasegn, I bid thee rule ?

VUTHSA

My queen, it will be void.

VASAVADUTTA

Void? And thy vow?

VUTHSA

Would it not be disloyalty in me
To serve another sovereign?

VASAVADUTTA (vexed, yet pleased)

O, thou play'st with me.

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VUTHSA

No, queen. What's wholly mine, that wholly take.
But this belongs to many other souls.

VASAVADUTTA

To whom?

VUTHSA

Their names are endless. Bharuth first
Who ruled the Aryan earth that bears his name,
And great Dushyanta and Pururavus'
Famed warlike son and all their peerless line,
Urjoona and Parikshit and his sons
Whom God descended to enthrone, and all
Who shall come after us, my heirs and thine
Who choosest me, and a great nation's multitudes,
And the Kuru ancestors and long posterity
Who all must give consent.

VASAVADUTTA

Thy thoughts are high.
But if thy life must find a prison here ?
My father is inflexible and stern.

VUTHSA

Dost thou desire this really in thy heart ?
Vuthsa diminished,1 art thou not diminished¹ too ?

VASAVADUTTA

My rule thou hast vowed ?

VUTHSA

To obey thee in all things
Throned in Cowsambie, not as here I must,
Thy father's captive. There I shall be thine.

¹Degraded

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VASAVADUTTA

Leave, Vuthsa, leave me. Take him, Umba, from me.

UMBA (entering, in Vasavadutta's ear)

Who now is bribed ? We are all traitors now.

She goes out with Vuthsa.

VASAVADUTTA

O joy, if he and all were only mine.

O greatness to be queen of him and earth.

I grow a rebel to my father's house.

Curtain

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