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Act III
Eric's Chamber.
Eric, Harald.
ERIC At dawn have all things ready for my march. Let none be near tonight. Send here to me Aslaug the dancing-girl. Harald goes out. I have resumed The empire and the knowledge of myself. For this strong angel Love, this violent And glorious guest, let it possess my heart Without a rival, not invade the brain, Not with imperious discord cleave my soul Jangling its ordered harmonies, nor turn The manifold music of humanity Into a single and a maddening note. Strength in the spirit, wisdom in the mind, Love in the heart complete the trinity Of glorious manhood. There was the wide flaw, — The coldness of the radiance that I was. This was the vacant space I could not fill. It left my soul the torso of a god, A great design unfinished, and my works Mighty but crude like things admired that pass Bare of the immortality which keeps The ages. O, the word they spoke was true!
Page – 579 'Tis Love, 'tis Love fills up the gulfs of Time! By Love we find our kinship with the stars, The spacious uses of the sky. God's image Lives nobly perfect in the soul he made, When Love completes the godhead in a man. Aslaug enters. Thou com'st to me! I give thee grace no more. What hast thou in thy bosom?
ASLAUG Only a heart.
ERIC A noble heart, though wayward. Give it me, Aslaug, to be the secret of the dawns, The heart of sweetness housed in Aslaug's breast Delivered from revolt and ruled by love.
ASLAUG Why hast thou sent for me and forced to come? Wilt thou have pity on me even yet And on thyself?
ERIC I am a warrior, one Who have known not mercy. Wilt thou teach it me? I have learned, Aslaug, from my soul and Life The great wise pitiless calmness of the gods, Found for my strength the proud swift blows they deal At all resistance to their absolute walk, Thor's hammer-stroke upon the unshaped world. Its will is beaten on a dreadful forge, Its roads are hewn by violence divine. Is there a greater and a sweeter way? Knowst thou it? Wilt thou lead me there? Thy step Swift and exultant, canst thou tread its flowers? Page – 580 ASLAUG I know not who inspires thy speech; it probes.
ERIC My mind tonight is full of Norway's needs. Aslaug, she takes thy image.
ASLAUG Mine! O if Tonight I were not Norway!
ERIC Thou knowest Swegn?
ASLAUG I knew and I remember.
ERIC Yes, Swegn, — a soul Brilliant and furious, violent and great, A storm, a wind-swept ocean, not a man. That would seize Norway? that will make it one? But Odin gave the work to me. I came Into this mortal frame for Odin's work.
ASLAUG So deify ambition and desire.
ERIC If one could snap this mortal body, then Swegn even might rule, — not govern himself, yet govern All Norway! Aslaug, canst thou rule thyself? 'Tis difficult for great and passionate hearts.
ASLAUG Then Swegn must die that Eric still may rule! Was there no other way the gods could find?
Page – 581 ERIC A deadly duel are the feuds of kings.
ASLAUG They are so. She feels for her dagger. ERIC Aslaug, thou feelest for thy heart? Unruled it follows violent impulses This way, that way, working calamity Dreams that it helps the world. What shall I do, Aslaug, with an unruly noble heart? Shall I not load it with the chains of love And rob it of its treasured pain and wrath And bind it to its own supreme desire? Richly 'twould beat beneath an absolute rule And sweetly liberated from itself By a golden bondage.
ASLAUG And what of other impulses it holds? Shall they not once rebel?
ERIC They shall keep still; They shall not cry nor question; they shall trust.
ASLAUG It cannot be that he reads all my heart! The gods play with me in his speech.
ERIC Thou knowest Why thou art called? Page – 582 ASLAUG I know why I am here.
ERIC Few know that, Aslaug, why they have come here, For that is heaven's secret. Sit down beside me Nearer my heart. No hesitating! come. I do not seize thy hands.
ASLAUG They yet are free. Is it the gods who bid me to strike soon? My heart reels down into a flaming gulf. If thou wouldst rule with love, must thou not spare Thy enemies?
ERIC When they have yielded. Is thy choice made? Whatever defence thou hast against me yet Use quickly, before I seize these restless hands And thy more restless heart that flees from bliss. Aslaug rises trembling. ASLAUG Desiredst thou me not to dance tonight, O King, before thee?
ERIC It was my will. Is it thine Now? Dance, while yet thy limbs are thine.
ASLAUG I dance The dance of Thiordis with the dagger, taught To Hertha in Trondhjem and by her to me.
Page – 583 ERIC (smiling) Aslaug, my dancing-girl, thou and thy dance Have daring, but too little subtlety.
ASLAUG (moving to a distance) What use to struggle longer in the net? Vain agony! he watches and he knows! I'll strike him suddenly. It cannot be The senses will so overtake the will As to forbid its godlike motion. If I feared not my wild heart, I could lean down And lull suspicion with a fatal gift. My blood would cleanse what shame was in the touch. So would one act who knew her tranquil will But none thus in the burning heart sunk down.
ERIC Wilt thou play vainly with that fatal toy? Dance now.
ASLAUG My limbs refuse.
ERIC They have no right.
ASLAUG O Gods, I did not know myself till now, Thrown in this furnace. Odin's irony Shaped me from Olaf's seed! I am in love With chains and servitude and my heart desires Fluttering like a wild bird within its cage A tyrant's harshness.
ERIC Wilt thou dance? or wait Till the enamoured motion of thy limbs Page – 584 Remember joy of me? So would I have Thy perfect motion grow a dream of love. Tomorrow at the dawning will I march To violent battle and the sword of Swegn Bring back to be thy plaything, a support Appropriate to thy action in the dance. Aslaug, it shall replace thy dagger.
ASLAUG Fate Still drives me with his speech and Eric calls My weakness on to slaughter Eric. Yes, But he suspects, he knows! Yet will I strike, Yet will I tread down my rebellious heart, And then I too can die and end remorse.
ERIC Where is thy chain I gave thee, Aslaug? I would watch it rise, Rubies of passion on a bosom of snow, And climb for ever on thy breast aheave With the sea's rhythm as thou dancest. Dance Weaving my life a measure with thy feet And of thy dancing I will weave the stroke That conquers Swegn.
ASLAUG The necklace? I will bring it. Rubies of passion! Blood-drops still of death! She goes out. ERIC The power to strike has gone out of her arm And only in her stubborn thought survives. She thinks that she will strike. Let it be tried! He lies back and feigns to sleep. Aslaug returns.
Page – 585 ASLAUG Now I could slay him. But he will open his eyes Appalling with the beauty of his gaze. He did not know of peril! All he has said Was only at a venture thought and spoken, — Or spoken by Fate? Sleeps he his latest sleep? Might I not touch him only once in love And no one know of it but death and I, Whom I must slay like one who hates? Not hate, O Eric, but the hard necessity The gods have sent upon our lives, — two flames That meet to quench each other. Once, Eric! then The cruel rest. Why did I touch him? I am faint! My strength ebbs from me. O thou glorious god, Why wast thou Swegn's and Aslaug's enemy? We might so utterly have loved. But death Now intervenes and claims thee at my hands — And this alone he leaves to me, to slay thee And die with thee, our only wedlock. Death! Whose death? Eric's or Swegn's? For one I kill. Dreadful necessity of choice! His breath Comes quietly and with a happy rhythm, His eyes are closed like Odin's in heaven's sleep. I must strike blindly out or not at all Screening out with my lashes love, — as now — or now! For Time is like a sapper mining still The little resolution that I keep. Swegn's death or life upon that little stands. Swegn's death or life and such an easy stroke, Yet so impossible to lift my hand! To wait? To watch more moments these closed lids, This quiet face and try to dream that all Is different! But the moments are Fate's thoughts Watching me. While I pause, my brother's slain, Myself am doomed his concubine and slave. I must not think of him! Close, mind, close, eyes. Free the unthinking hand to its harsh work. Page – 586 She lifts twice the dagger, lowers it twice, then flings it on the ground. Eric of Norway, live and do thy will With Aslaug, sister of Swegn and Olaf's child, Aslaug of Trondhjem. For her thought is now A harlot and her heart a concubine, Her hand her brother's murderess.
ERIC Thou hast broken At last.
ASLAUG Ah, I am broken by my weak And evil nature. Spare me not, O King, One vileness, one humiliation known To tyranny. Be not unjustly merciful! For I deserve and I consent to all.
ERIC Aslaug!
ASLAUG No, I deny my name and parentage. I am not she who lived in Trondhjem: she Would not have failed, but slain even though she loved. Let no voice call me Aslaug any more.
ERIC Sister of Swegn, thou knowest that I love. Daughter of Olaf, shouldst thou not aspire To sit by me on Norway's throne?
ASLAUG Desist! Thou shalt not utterly pollute the seat Where Olaf sat. If I had struck and slain,
Page – 587 I would deserve a more than regal chair. But not on such must Norway's diadem rest, A weakling with a hand as impotent And faltering as her heart, a sensual slave Whose passionate body overcomes her high Intention. Rather do thy tyrant will. King, if thou spare me, I will slay thee yet.
ERIC Recoil not from thy heart, but strongly see And let its choice be absolute over thy soul. Its way once taken thou shalt find thy heart Rapid; for absolute and extreme in all, In yielding as in slaying thou must be, Sweet violent spirit whom thy gods surprise. Submit thyself without ashamed reserve.
ASLAUG What more canst thou demand than I have given? I am prone to thee, prostrate, yielded.
ERIC Throw from thee The bitterness of thy self-abasement. Find That thou hast only joy in being mine. Thou tremblest?
ASLAUG Yes, with shame and grief and love. Thou art my Fate and I am in thy grasp.
ERIC And shall it spare thee?
ASLAUG Spare Swegn. I am in thy hands. Page – 588 ERIC Is't a condition? I am lord of thee And lord of Swegn to slay him or to spare.
ASLAUG No, an entreaty. I am fallen here, My head is at thy feet, my life is in thy hands: The luxury of fall is in my heart.
ERIC Rise up then, Aslaug, and obey thy lord.
ASLAUG What is thy will with me?
ERIC This, Aslaug, first. Take up thy dagger, Aslaug, dance thy dance Of Thiordis with the dagger. See thou near me; For I shall sit, nor shouldst thou strike, defend. What thy passion chose, let thy freed heart confirm; My life and kingdom twice are in thy hands And I will keep them only as thy gift.
ASLAUG So are they thine already; but I obey. She dances and then lays the dagger at his feet. Eric, my king and Norway's, my life is mine No longer, but for thee to keep or break.
ERIC Swegn's life I hold. Thou gavest it to me With the dagger.
ASLAUG It is thine to save.
Page – 589 ERIC Norway Thou hast given, casting it for ever away From Olaf's line.
ASLAUG What thou hast taken, I give.
ERIC And last thyself without one covering left Against my passionate, strong, devouring love. Thou seest I leave thee nothing.
ASLAUG I am thine. Do what thou wilt with me.
ERIC Because thou hast no help?
ASLAUG I have no help. My gods have brought me here And given me into thy dreadful hands.
ERIC Thou art content at last that they have breathed Thy plot into thy mind to snare thy soul In its own violence, bring to me a slave, A bright-limbed prisoner and thee to thy lord? See Odin's sign to thee.
ASLAUG I know it now. I recognise with prostrate heart my fate And I will quietly put on my chains Nor ever strive nor wish to break them more. Page – 590 ERIC Yield up to me the burden of thy fate And treasure of thy limbs and priceless life. I will be careful of the golden trust. It was unsafe with thee. And now submit Gladly at last. Surrender body and soul, O Aslaug, to thy lover and thy lord.
ASLAUG Compel me, they cannot resist thy will.
ERIC I will have thy heart's heart's surrender, not Its body only. Give me up thy heart. Open its secret chambers, yield their keys.
ASLAUG O Eric, is not my heart already thine, My body thine, my soul into thy grasp Delivered? I rejoice that God has played The grand comedian with my tragedy And trapped me in the snare of thy delight.
ERIC Aslaug, the world's sole woman! thou cam'st here To save for us our hidden hope of joy Parted by old confusion. Some day surely The world too shall be saved from death by love. Thou hast saved Swegn, helped Norway. Aslaug, see, Freya within her niche commands this room And incense burns to her. Not Thor for thee, But Freya.
ASLAUG Thou for me! not other gods.
Page – 591 ERIC Aslaug, thou hast a ring upon thy hand. Before Freya give it me and wear instead This ancient circle of Norwegian rites. The thing this means shall bind thee to our joy, Beloved, while the upbuilded worlds endure. Then if thy spirit wander from its home, Freya shall find her thrall and lead her back A million years from now.
ASLAUG A million lives! Page – 592
ASLAUG The world has changed for me within one night. O surely, surely all shall yet go well, Since Love is crowned.
ERIC (entering) Aslaug, the hour arrives When I must leave thee. For the dawn looks pale Into our chamber and these first rare sounds Expect the arising sun, the daylight world.
ASLAUG Eric, thou goest hence to war with Swegn, My brother?
ERIC What knows thy heart?
ASLAUG That Swegn shall live.
ERIC Thou knowst his safety from deliberate swords. None shall dare touch the head that Aslaug loves. But if some evil chance came edged with doom, Which Odin and my will shall not allow, Thou wouldst not hold me guilty of his death, Aslaug?
ASLAUG Fate orders all and Fate I now
Page – 593 Have recognised as the world's mystic Will That loves and labours.
ERIC Because it knows and loves, Our hearts, our wills are counted, are indulged. Aslaug, for a few days in love and trust Anchor thy mind. I shall bring back thy joy. For now I go with mercy and from love. He embraces her and goes. ASLAUG Swegn lives. A Mind, not iron gods with laws Deaf and inevitable, overrules. Page – 594 |
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