If: A Play in Four Acts by Lord Dunsany (uplifting books for women .txt) 📗
- Author: Lord Dunsany
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ACT III SCENE 1
Six and a half years later. Al Shaldomir. A room in the palace.
MIRALDA reclines on a heap of cushions, JOHN beside her.
Bazzalol and Thoothoobaba fan them.
OMAR [declaiming to a zither]
Al Shaldomir, Al Shaldomir, The nightingales that guard thy ways Cease not to give thee, after God And after Paradise, all praise. Thou art the theme of all their lays. Al Shaldomir, Al Shaldomir....
MIRALDA
Go now, Omar.
OMAR
O lady, I depart. [Exit.]
MIRALDA [languidly]
John, John. I wish you'd marry me.
JOHN
Miralda, you're thinking of those old customs again that we left behind us seven years ago. What's the good of it?
MIRALDA
I had a fancy that I wished you would.
JOHN
What's the good of it? You know you are my beloved. There are none of those clergymen within hundreds of miles. What's the good of it?
MIRALDA
We could find one, John.
JOHN
O, yes, I suppose we could, but...
MIRALDA
Why won't you?
JOHN
I told you why.
MIRALDA
O, yes, that instinct that you must not marry. That's not your reason, John.
JOHN
Yes, it is.
MIRALDA
It's a silly reason. It's a crazy reason. It's no reason at all. There's some other reason.
JOHN
No, there isn't. But I feel that in my bones. I don't know why. You know that I love none else but you. Besides, we're never going back, and it doesn't matter. This isn't Blackheath.
MIRALDA
So I must live as your slave.
JOHN
No, no, Miralda. My dear, you are not my slave. Did not the singer compare our love to the desire of the nightingale for the evening star? All know that you are my queen.
MIRALDA
They do not know at home.
JOHN
Home? Home? How could they know? What have we in common with home? Rows and rows of little houses; and if they hear a nightingale there they write to the papers. And—and if they saw this they'd think they were drunk. Miralda, don't be absurd. What has set you thinking of home?
MIRALDA
I want to be crowned queen.
JOHN
But I am not a king. I am only Shereef.
MIRALDA
You are all-powerful here, John, you can do what you please, if you wish to. You don't love me at all.
JOHN
Miralda, you know I love you. Didn't I kill Hussein for you?
MIRALDA
Yes, but you don't love me now.
JOHN
And Hussein's people killed ARCHIE. That was for you too. I brought my brother out here to help you. He was engaged to be married, too.
MIRALDA
But you don't love me now.
JOHN
Yes, I do. I love you as the dawn loves the iris marshes. You know the song they sing. (footnote: poem just before Act III)
MIRALDA
Then why won't you marry me?
JOHN
I told you, I told you. I had a dream about the future. I forgot the dream, but I know I was not to marry. I will not wrong the future.
MIRALDA
Don't be crazy.
JOHN
I will have what fancies I please, crazy or sane. Am I not Shereef of Shaldomir? Who dare stop me if I would be mad as Herod?
MIRALDA
I will be crowned queen.
JOHN
It is not my wish.
MIRALDA
I will, I will, I will.
JOHN
Drive me not to anger. If I have you cast into a well and take twenty of the fairest daughters of Al Shaldomir in your place, who can gainsay me?
MIRALDA
I will be crowned queen.
JOHN
O, do not be tiresome.
MIRALDA
Was it not my money that brought you here? Was it not I who said "Kill Hussein"? What power could you have had, had Hussein lived? What would you
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