Helen

What? Do I fear King Menelaus would commit

Such a cruel offence as to make me kill myself?

Phorkyas

Have you forgotten how he wreaked mutilation,

Unheard-of, on Deiphobus, dead Paris’ brother,

Because he stubbornly claimed you, the widow,

And prized you? He cropped both nose and ears,

And disfigured him, there: It was terrible to see.

Helen

Yes he did that, and he did it for my sake.

Phorkyas

Because of it, now, he’ll do the same to you.

Beauty is indivisible: he who owns it

Destroys it, rather than share a part of it.

(Trumpets sound in the distance: the Chorus starts in terror.)

As a trumpet call pierces the ear to grip

And tear the innards: Jealousy drives her claws

Into the breast of him who can never forget

What once he had, and lost, and no longer has.

Chorus

Don’t you hear the trumpets calling? Don’t you see the flash of swords?

Phorkyas

King and master, now be welcome, gladly I’ll offer my account.

Chorus

But, what of us?

Phorkyas

In truth, you know that her death’s before your eyes,

Find your own death there within them: there’s no hope left for you.

(A Pause.)

Helen

I ponder this simple thing that I might try.

You are a hostile daemon: I feel it deeply,

I’m fearful you’ll still make evil out of good.

But then, I’ll follow you to that fortress, there:

I know the rest: but what the Queen might conceal

Concerning it, mysteriously, in her heart,

Be unknown to all. Now, old one, lead the way!

Chorus

O, how gladly we’re going,

On hurrying feet:

Death is behind:

Before us again,

Towering fortress

Inaccessible walls.

Though they guard us as well

As Ilium’s citadel,

Still in the end, it

Fell, through the basest of ruses.

(Mists rise and spread, obscuring the background, and the nearer part of the scene, at will.)

What is this? How?

Sisters, look round!

Wasn’t it loveliest day?

Strips of vapour hover about,

Rise from Eurotas’ holy stream:

Already the loveliest

Reed-wreathed shore has vanished from sight:

And the proud, free, graceful

Gentle glide of the swans

Swimming in sociable joy,

I alas see, no more!

Yet still, still

I hear them calling,

In hoarse tones, calling afar!

Proclaiming death, they are speaking.

Ah, that to us they may not,

Instead of salvation promised,

Proclaim our ruin, at last:

To us, the swanlike, long,

Lovely, white-throated, and ah!

Our Queen born of the swan.

Woe to us, woe!

All’s hidden already

Vapour’s swirling around.

Now we can’t see one another!

What’s happening? Are we moving?

We’re hovering with

Straggling steps along the ground?

Can’t you see? Isn’t that Hermes

Soaring ahead? Doesn’t his gold wand gleam,

Beckoning us, ordering us back again

To the wholly joyless, and greyly-twilit,

Intangible, phantom-filled,

Overcrowded, ever-empty Hades?

Yes, at once, now, all is darkening, dully all the vapours vanish,

Grey with gloom, and brown as walls. Walls appearing to our vision,

Blank now to our clearer vision. A court now is it? Or a deep pit?

Fearful, though, in either case, now! Sisters, oh! We are imprisoned,

Captives, as we’ve never been.

Scene II: The Inner Court of The Castle

(Surrounded with richly ornamented buildings of the Middle Ages.)

The Leader of the Chorus

Hasty and foolish, and typical of womankind!

They hang on the moment, sport of every breeze,

Of every chance and mischance, never knowing

How to suffer either calmly! One’s always certain,

Fiercely, to contradict the others, others her:

Only, they laugh or cry alike, in joy or pain.

Now, hush! And listen to what our high-minded

Mistress may decide, here, for herself and us.

Helen

Pythoness, where are you? However you’re named:

Come out from the arches of this dark fortress.

If you come from the wondrous lord and hero

To announce me, and ready a fit reception,

Accept my thanks, and lead me there quickly:

I wish my wanderings ended. I want to rest.

The Leader of the Chorus

Queen, in vain, you look about in all directions:

That wretched shape has vanished, stayed perhaps

There in the vapour, out of whose depths we came,

I cannot tell how, so swiftly, without a footfall.

Perhaps she wanders lost in the vast labyrinth

Of these many castles wondrously merged in one.

Seeking high and princely greeting from her lord.

But see! There a crowd moves about in readiness.

Along galleries, at windows, through the doors

Come a crowd of servants, scurrying to and fro:

It proclaims a noblest welcome for the guest.

Chorus

My heart is eased! O, see over there,

How a company of handsome youths approach

With lingering step, in dignified order,

Marching in ranks. Who gave out the command

To marshal them, and so quickly arranged

All this youthful team of so handsome a race?

What shall I admire most? Is it the graceful step,

Or the curls of hair on the palest of brows,

Or the rounded cheeks with a peach’s blushes,

And like it also, in their silkiest down?

I’d gladly bite, yet I’m frightened to try it:

Since in a similar case, and I shudder to say it,

The mouth was as suddenly filled, with ashes!

But the handsomest

Come to us now:

What do they carry?

Steps for the throne,

Carpets and seat,

Curtain, canopy,

Jewelled finery:

Waving above us,

Forming a garland,

Over the head of our Queen:

For she, already, invited

Ascends, to the noble seat.

Forward now,

Step by step,

Solemnly ranked.

Worthy, O worthy, triply worthy,

Let such a reception be blessed!

(What the Chorus has described takes place. After the boys and squires have descended in long procession, Faust appears above, at the top of the staircase, in the costume of a knight of the Middle Ages, and then descends slowly and with dignity.)

The Leader of the Chorus (Observing him closely.)

If indeed the gods have not, as they often do,

Only lent this man brave form, for an instant,

Exalted his dignity, and charming presence,

As a temporary act, then whatever he does

He’ll succeed, whether it’s warring with men,

Or in the lesser struggles with lovely ladies.

Truly I prefer him to hosts of others,

Whom my eyes have seen, the highly praised.

I see the Prince approach, with slow solemn step,

Restrained by reverence: Queen, turn towards him!

Faust (Approaching: a man in chains at his side.)

Instead of the usual calm greeting

Instead of a reverential welcome,

Here I bring a wretch bound fast with chains,

Who failed so in his duty, I failed mine.

Kneel here, so this noble lady

May hear a prompt confession of your guilt.

This, royal Mistress, is the man selected

Because of his keen vision to gaze about

From the high tower, and to look keenly

At heaven’s spaces, and the breadth of earth,

To report whatever moves here or there,

From the encircling hills, to the castle,

Whether a transit of the woolly flocks,

Or soldiers: so we can protect the first,

Attack the others. Today, negligence!

You came here: he had nothing to report:

We failed in the reception you deserved,

In honour of the guest. Now he forfeits

His guilty life, and would have shed his blood

In a merited death: but only you alone

Shall pardon him or punish, as you wish.

Helen

Such great power you choose to grant me,

As judge, as Mistress too, though, I suspect

You intend it as a kind of test –

Yet, I’ll employ a judge’s first duty,

To give the accused a hearing. Speak out.

Lynceus, the Warden of the Tower

Let me kneel, and let me see her,

Let me live, or let me die,

Already I’m devoted to her

Heavenly lady from on high.

Waiting for the dawn’s advances,

Gazing at her eastern house,

Suddenly the sunlight dances,

Marvellously in the south!

Drawn to see the marvel closer,

Instead of the ravine and height,

Instead of earth and heaven there,

I gazed at her, the sole delight.

I was granted powers of vision

Like the lynx, high in the tree:

But now I peered in indecision

As in a dark and clouded dream.

How think? Even if I’d so wished?

Wall, and tower? Bolted gate?

Mist, it rose, and cleared the mist,

Came the Goddess here in state!

I surrendered heart and eye

Drinking in the gentle light:

How that beauty blinds, and I

Was blinded wholly by the sight.

I forgot the watchman’s duty,

And the promised trumpet call:

Threaten then, now, to destroy me –

Anger lies in Beauty’s thrall.

Helen

I cannot punish this evil that I brought here,

With me. Ah me! What a fierce fate it is

Pursues me, so that everywhere I possess

The hearts of men, and that they neither spare

Themselves nor anything else of worth.

They steal, seduce, fight: rushing to and fro,

Demigods, heroes, gods, even daemons

Led me in my wanderings, here and there.

Alone I’ve confused the world, doubly so:

Now I bring threefold, fourfold woe on woe.

Take this innocent away: let him go.

It’s no shame to be deceived by the gods.

Faust

O Queen, amazed, I see them both together:

The certain archer, and the stricken prey:

I see the bow, from which the shaft was loosed,

That wounded him. Arrow after arrow,

Now strikes me. Imagining the feathered whirr

Of arrows crossing every court and hall.

What am I now? My walls you make unsafe

My most faithful servants, you make rebels,

Already I fear my army too obeys

A victorious and unconquered lady.

What’s left to do but add myself as well,

And all that I have vainly imagined mine?

Freely and loyally, before your feet,

Let me acknowledge you as Mistress,

Whose presence wins you throne and ownership.

Lynceus (Carrying a chest, with men bringing others.)

Queen, once more I advance!

The rich man begs a glance,

He sees you and at a glimpse,

He’s a beggar, and a prince.