{"id":1770,"date":"2013-07-13T01:37:16","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:37:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:37:16","slug":"07-the-witch-of-ilni-act-iii-vol-03-04-collected-plays-and-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/03-cwsa\/03-04-collected-plays-and-stories\/07-the-witch-of-ilni-act-iii-vol-03-04-collected-plays-and-stories","title":{"rendered":"-07_The Witch of Ilni- Act – III.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n\n\n
\n

 <\/td>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\nAct III<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nScene
\n1<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Before Alaciel’s house.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GUENDOLEN<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

But what you tell me is not credible.<\/p>\n

Could Love at the prime vision slip your fence<\/p>\n

And his red bees wing humming to your heart?<\/p>\n

What, at the premier interchange of eyes<\/p>\n

Seed bulged into the bud, the bud to flower,<\/p>\n

Bloom waxing into fruit? can passion sink<\/p>\n

Thus deep embedded in a maiden soil?<\/p>\n

Masks not your love in an unwonted guise?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Sweet girl, you are a casket yet unused,<\/p>\n

A fair, unprinted page. These mysteries<\/p>\n

Are alien to your grasp, until Love pen<\/p>\n

His novel lithograph and write in you<\/p>\n

Songs bubbling with the music of a name.<\/p>\n

Oh, I am faster tangled in his eyes<\/p>\n

Than, in the net smoke-blasted Vulcan threw,<\/p>\n

Foam-bosomed Cytherea to her Mars.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

GUENDOLEN<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

But will he push his fancy to your bent?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

How else? for in the coy glance of a girl<\/p>\n

A subtle sorcery lies that draws men on<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 768<\/p>\n

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\n

\nAs with a thread, nor snaps not ere it should.<\/p>\n

Love’s palate is with acid flavours edged<\/p>\n

\nWhen what the lips repel, the eyes invite.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

GUENDOLEN<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Have you forgotten then, my sister, how<\/p>\n

Since war’s ensanguined dice have thrown a cast<\/p>\n

\nSo fatal to our peace, the sweet confines<\/p>\n

Of Ilni and her primitive content<\/p>\n

\nAre hedged and meted by the savage Law?<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Child, I have not forgotten; but first love<\/p>\n

Poseidon-like submerges with his sea<\/p>\n

\nAll barriers, and the checks that men oppose<\/p>\n

But make him fret and spume against the sky.<\/p>\n

\nWho shall withstand him? not the gnawing flame<\/p>\n

\nNor toothed rocks nor gorgon-fronted piles<\/p>\n

Nor metal bars; thro’ all he walks unharmed.<\/p>\n

\nBut lo where on the forest’s lip there dawns<\/p>\n

My noonstar in the garish paths of day.<\/p>\n

\nHe should not see you, sweet. Prithee, go in.<\/p>\n

\nEnter Melander.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nHow now? was this your compact? Lift your glance<\/p>\n

Where yet the primrose-pale Hyperion clings<\/p>\n

\nUpon the purple arches of the air<\/p>\n

Nor on the cornice prints his golden seal.<\/p>\n

\nYou are too soon. Why with this fire-eyed haste<\/p>\n

Have you o’ershot the target of your vows?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MELANDER<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Ah, cruel child! what hast thou done to me?<\/p>\n

\nWhat expiation in the balance pends<\/p>\n

Against thy fault? Not the low sweets of sound<\/p>\n

\nFetched by thy piping tongue from ruby stops,<\/p>\n

Nor fluttering glances under velvet lids,<\/p>\n

\nNor the rich tell-tale blush that sweetly steals<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 769<\/p>\n

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\n

\n
\nAs if a scarlet pencil would indite<\/p>\n

\nA love-song in thy cheeks. These candid brows,<\/p>\n

The hushed seraglio to thy veiled thoughts,<\/p>\n

\nThese light wind-kissing feet, these milky paps<\/p>\n

That peep twixt edge and loosely-married edge,<\/p>\n

Thy slumber-swollen purple-fringed orbs,<\/p>\n

\nThy hands, cinque-petalled rose-buds just apart<\/p>\n

Beneath the wheedling kiss of spring, thy sides,<\/p>\n

\nThose continents of warm, unmelting snow,<\/p>\n

All in the balance are but precious air.<\/p>\n

\nNay, with thy whole dear sum of beauties fill<\/p>\n

The scale, it will not tremble to the dust<\/p>\n

\nSave hooped upon thy breast my weight helps thine.<\/p>\n

If you deny me my just claim, I’ll snatch<\/p>\n

\nYou from yourself and torture with the whips<\/p>\n

Of Love, till you disclose your hoardings. Oh<\/p>\n

\nTo seize this loaded honeycomb of bliss<\/p>\n

And make a rich repast! Oh turn from me<\/p>\n

The serious wonder of those orbed fires!<\/p>\n

\nTheir lustre stabs my heart with agony.<\/p>\n

Hide in thy hair those passion-moulded lips!<\/p>\n

\nVeil up those milky glimpses from my sight!<\/p>\n

Oh I will drag thy soul out in a kiss!<\/p>\n

\nWilt thou add fire to fire? Torture not<\/p>\n

My longing with reluctance; forge not now<\/p>\n

\nThe pouted simulation of disdain.<\/p>\n

Leap quick into my arms! there lose thyself.<\/p>\n

\nShe embraces him.<\/i><\/p>\n

Pardon me, sweet: thy beauties in my soul<\/p>\n

\nBlow high the leaping billows of desire<\/p>\n

And temperance is a wreck merged in his sea.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Loveliest Melander, if I have offended,<\/p>\n

\nHere like a Roman debtor yield I up<\/p>\n

My body to thy mercy or thy doom.<\/p>\n

\nTake my soul too! and in thy princely pomp<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 770<\/p>\n

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\n

Let this rebellious heart that needs will fret<\/p>\n

\nTo be thy slave, be dragged to thraldom. See,<\/p>\n

I hang, a lustrous jewel, on thy neck:<\/p>\n

\nBreak me or keep me! I am thine to keep<\/p>\n

Or break: fear not to do thy utmost will.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MELANDER<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Hang there till thou hast grown a part of me!<\/p>\n

\nAh yet, if passion be Love’s natural priest<\/p>\n

Let not his fire-lipped homage scare thy soul.<\/p>\n

\nThy ripe, unspotted girlhood give to me,<\/p>\n

For which the whole world yearns. A gift is sweet,<\/p>\n

\nAnd thou, O subtle thief, hast stolen my calm<\/p>\n

Who was before not indigent of bliss.<\/p>\n

\nOh closer yet! Let’s glue our lips together,<\/p>\n

That all eternity may be a kiss.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

What, will you bury me with kisses? Dear,<\/p>\n

\nBe modest. Tell me why by a full hour<\/p>\n

You outran expectation’s reaching eye?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

MELANDER<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Inquire the glowing moon why she has dared<\/p>\n

\nForestal the set nor wait the ushering star;<\/p>\n

Inquire the amorous wind, why he has plucked,<\/p>\n

\nEre Autumn’s breath have tampered with her hair,<\/p>\n

Petal on crimson petal the red rose:<\/p>\n

\nNay, catechise the loud rebombing sea<\/p>\n

Who in a thundrous summer dim with rain<\/p>\n

\nConspired with hoarse rebellious winds to merge<\/p>\n

The lonely life of ocean-wading ships;<\/p>\n

\nThen ask fire-footed passion why his rage<\/p>\n

Has shipwrecked me upon thy silver breasts.<\/p>\n

\nAh love, thyself the culprit, thine the fault.<\/p>\n

Alaciel, thou, \u2014 O sweet unconscious sin! \u2014<\/p>\n

\nHast in my members kindled such a fire<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 771<\/p>\n

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\n

\n
\nAs only sorcery knows: which to atone<\/p>\n

\nThy virgin hours must sweetly swoon to death<\/p>\n

While in the snowy summer of thy lap<\/p>\n

\nKind Night shall cool these passion-melted limbs.<\/p>\n

When thou dost imitate the blushing rose,<\/p>\n

\nI swear thy tint is truer than the life,<\/p>\n

Than loveliness more lovely. Dearest one,<\/p>\n

\nLet naked Love abash the curtained prude.<\/p>\n

Shame was not made to burn thy field of roses<\/p>\n

\nNor in this married excellence of hues<\/p>\n

Unfurl disorder’s ruby-tinted flag.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Dear, if I blush, ’tis modesty, not shame.<\/p>\n

\nI can refuse you nothing. When ’tis night<\/p>\n

And like a smile upon a virgin’s lips<\/p>\n

\nYoung moonlight dallies with a sleepy rose,<\/p>\n

Then come and call me gently twice and thrice,<\/p>\n

\nAnd I will answer you. Observe this well<\/p>\n

In that the harsh and beldam Law excludes<\/p>\n

\nNature’s sweet rites and Paphian marriage<\/p>\n

\nUnless her bleared eyes be privy too.<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

MELANDER<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

O love, have you forgot the long elapse<\/p>\n

And weary pomp of hours ere the sun<\/p>\n

\nThat follows now a path sincere of foam<\/p>\n

Make sanguine shipwreck in the lurid west?<\/p>\n

\nScarce now his golden eye drops vertical<\/p>\n

Upon the belt and midline of our scope.<\/p>\n

\nShorten your sentence by a term of hours<\/p>\n

When I shall ease my pain. Turn caution out<\/p>\n

\nTo graze in nunneries: his sober feint<\/p>\n

Of prudence suits not with a lover’s tryst.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Content you, sweet: let patience feed on hope<\/font><\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 772<\/p>\n

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\n

Until night’s purple awning bar from view<\/p>\n

\nThe hidden thefts of love. Nay, go not yet.<\/p>\n

Sit here awhile until yon sloping disk<\/p>\n

\nSwings prone above the poplar. Sweet, come in.<\/p>\n

\nExeunt.<\/i><\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 773<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

<\/font>
\n<\/p>\n

\nScene
\n 2<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\n <\/font><\/p>\n

\nBefore Alaciel’s house.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nMelander alone.<\/i><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

MELANDER<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Now, for her widowed state is wooed by night,<\/p>\n

\nThe sable-vested air puts on her stars<\/p>\n

And in her bosom pins for brooch the moon.<\/p>\n

\nShe from her diamond chalice soon will pour<\/p>\n

Her flowing glories on a rose’s hair,<\/p>\n

\nIn pity of my love. Sweet crimson rose,<\/p>\n

Alaciel’s lamp, the beacon of my bliss,<\/p>\n

\nO kindle quickly at the moon thy rays.<\/p>\n

How happy art thou being near my love!<\/p>\n

\nFor thou who hast the perfume of her breath,<\/p>\n

Why shouldest thou the spice-lipped Zephyr want?<\/p>\n

\nHer dove’s-feet whispering in the happy grass<\/p>\n

Are surely lovelier to thee than the dawn;<\/p>\n

\nOr wilt thou woo the world-embracing orb,<\/p>\n

Who hast the splendour of her eyes to soothe<\/p>\n

\nThy slumber into waking? O red rose,<\/p>\n

Might I but merge in thee, how would her touch<\/p>\n

\nThrill all my petals with delicious pain!<\/p>\n

O could I pawn my beauty for a kiss,<\/p>\n

\nHow happy were I to waste all myself<\/p>\n

In shreds of scarlet ruin at her feet!<\/p>\n

\nIt is my hour! for see, the cowslip-curled<\/p>\n

Night-wandering patroness of lovers throws<\/p>\n

\nHer lantern’s orange-coloured beams, where sleeps<\/p>\n

A bright, blown rose. Hail, empress of the stars!<\/p>\n

\nBe thou tonight my hymeneal torch.<\/p>\n

Alaciel! Echo, hush thy babbling tongue!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\nPage \u2013 774<\/p>\n

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\n

‘Tis not Narcissus calls. I am a thief<\/p>\n

\nWho steal from beauty’s garden one sweet bud<\/p>\n

Nor need like visitants thy tinkling bell.<\/p>\n

\nAlaciel! O with thy opiate wand,<\/p>\n

Thought-killing Mercury, seal every eye<\/p>\n

\nOn whom the drowsy Morpheus has not breathed.<\/p>\n

Yet once again the charm. Alaciel!<\/p>\n

\nNow at thy window dawn, thou lovelier moon<\/p>\n

Than sojourns in the sky! look out on me,<\/p>\n

\nAn ivory face thro’ rippling clouds of hair.<\/p>\n

\nEnter Alaciel above.<\/i><\/p>\n

\nMarcion and Doris behind.<\/i><\/p>\n

ALACIEL<\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

Who calls?<\/p>\n

[The next sixteen pages of the notebook were torn out.<\/i>]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\nPage \u2013 775<\/p>\n

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<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Act III   Scene 1   Before Alaciel’s house.   GUENDOLEN But what you tell me is not credible. Could Love at the prime…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-04-collected-plays-and-stories","wpcat-39-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}