Collected Novels and Plays (67 page)
Read Collected Novels and Plays Online
Authors: James Merrill
TITHONUS:
Just like that!
AURORA:
No. No, you don’t understand at all. There’s a whole etiquette involved. You have to sort of crouch beside him, with your left hand on his knees and your right hand fiddling with his beard—like Thetis in that Ingres painting. I was the slightest bit nervous, having never done it before. But, you know—it worked!
TITHONUS:
It sounds so easy, how can you be sure?
AURORA:
Don’t
worry!
What’s the matter with you? You keep complaining about how you hate difficult things, and now that something perfectly simple happens, you’re not satisfied!
TITHONUS:
I am, I am! It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I just don’t feel any change yet. I guess it takes a certain time.
AURORA:
I wouldn’t know. Probably it does. Oh, you
mustn’t
frown, I feel responsible for you! Tell me I’ve made you happy!
TITHONUS:
You’ve made me infinitely happy.
Now
I think I’m beginning to feel it. Yes. My heart is beating quietly and happily. It will never stop. Look at this hand. It will be mine always.
AURORA (
taking his hand
):
It will be
mine
always.
(
They kiss.
)
TITHONUS:
I’m hungry! Should I be?
AURORA:
Did you have your breakfast?
TITHONUS:
No. But I mean, does one
get
hungry, now that …?
AURORA (
laughing
):
Now that one’s immortal? Yes, my darling, one does!
TITHONUS (
ringing a bell
):
How glorious the world is! Look at those flowers glowing, look at the grain of this wood! I feel such excitement, a tingling in me, as if I were never again to be tired or bored, an energy that will never exhaust itself!
(
Enter MAID.
)
Jeannie, bring me some muffins and jam, will you please?
(
To AURORA.
)
Would you care for something?
AURORA:
I couldn’t really. I’ve had my ambrosia.
TITHONUS:
Just the muffins and jam, then. Oh, and a cup of tea might taste good.
MAID:
Right away, Sir. The water’s boiling already.
TITHONUS:
And Jeannie, what’s my father up to?
MAID:
He’s out talking to John, Sir. About the mistletoe. It’s killing that beautiful apple tree, Sir.
TITHONUS (
peering into the garden
):
Good. Here they come.
(
Playfully.
)
Now that Jeannie’s under the spell of the new gardener, she’ll talk of nothing but trees and flowers.
MAID:
La, Sir, you’re such a tease!
(
Exit.
)
AURORA:
You’re going to tell your father?
TITHONUS:
He’ll have to know. Besides, here’s the real alternative to Mr. Hobbs!
(
LAOMEDON and GARDENER are seen through the French doors.
)
AURORA:
Oh, I suppose it would be, wouldn’t it?
GARDENER:
You mark my words, Sir, that whole fine branch will be dead inside of a year.
TITHONUS:
Father, have you a moment?
LAOMEDON:
My wife loved the mistletoe ….
GARDENER:
I don’t say it’s not pretty to look at, like a little cluster of pearls. But it’s a parasite, Sir.
LAOMEDON:
I’m tempted to let it grow, just the same.
AURORA:
I’ve always heard that mistletoe was something one got kissed under.
GARDENER:
So it is, Miss.
AURORA (
to TITHONUS
):
You see, your father’s quite a sentimentalist.
LAOMEDON:
Very well, go ahead with it. And, John, that trunk looks ready. Ask Mrs. Mallow if she will be good enough to lock it. Then you can take it to the carriage.
GARDENER:
Right you are, Sir.
(
Exit.
)
TITHONUS:
It’s odd, I felt such a pang a while ago, looking at that trunk. I don’t feel it any more.
LAOMEDON (
stepping into the room
):
Well, Son, what is it?
TITHONUS:
Father—
LAOMEDON:
You had something to say to me?
TITHONUS:
Father, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken that way to you.
LAOMEDON:
Is that all you have to say?
TITHONUS:
No ….
LAOMEDON:
Then out with it! Time is money.
(
Enter MRS. MALLOW, followed by GARDENER.
)
TITHONUS:
When I say I’m sorry, I don’t mean only for that. I’m sorry for
you
, also.
LAOMEDON:
Ah. And how have I come to deserve your pity?
TITHONUS:
I don’t mean to be impertinent. I feel so full of warmth and compassion—towards everything and everybody! Mrs. Mallow, I haven’t made things easy for you, either.
LAOMEDON (
to AURORA
):
And what part have
you
played in this worthy transformation?
AURORA:
Oh it’s so trivial! I simply—
TITHONUS:
Father, you are going to die!
(
Pause. LAOMEDON and AURORA share a moment of irrepressible gaiety.
)
LAOMEDON (
to TITHONUS
):
Not this morning, I trust, unless someone has prompted you to do away with me.
TITHONUS:
Can’t you listen to me? You’re going to die and—I’m not!
(
MAID enters with tea things on a tray.
)
LAOMEDON:
Don’t talk nonsense! You’re wasting my time.
TITHONUS:
Listen to me! I’m never going to die! Aurora has given me immortal life!
AURORA:
It’s true. I have given Tithonus immortal life.
MRS. MALLOW:
For shame, Aurora!
MAID:
Immortal life!
GARDENER:
I don’t know as how I’d enjoy
that!
LAOMEDON (
to them
):
That will do, both of you.
(
Takes the tray from the MAID.
)
Not a word of this in the kitchen, you understand.
(
MAID and GARDENER nod dumbly and go out.
)
TITHONUS:
I don’t see why you both should act as if something shameful had happened.
MRS. MALLOW:
The less said about it, the better, dear.
LAOMEDON:
Did you mean for me to congratulate you?
TITHONUS (
to MRS. MALLOW
):
I thought he’d be pleased for my sake. For his own sake, too, if it comes to that. He needn’t worry about me now.
(
To LAOMEDON.
)
Or are you envious?
LAOMEDON:
No. Here, take this tray from me.
TITHONUS:
You can just hold the tray for a bit! Selfish, pompous old man! Must we learn that suffering is the common lot? When you say that, you mean one thing only—that you want me to suffer!
LAOMEDON:
I have never wanted you to suffer—until perhaps this instant.
TITHONUS:
Stop lying to me! All those warnings, all those homilies! We let it happen, do we, Mrs. Mallow? We have no choice? You’ll let it happen, you’ve made your compromise! Oh Father, even if you live another ten, another twenty years, even if you were my age—you’ll dry up and die, each year older and sicker, and your mind gone! And I’ll be as I am now, strong, young, a hundred years, a thousand, after you’re in your
grave!
LAOMEDON (
handing the tray to MRS. MALLOW who puts it down
):
That’s enough. Live if you can. I’m glad neither I nor your mother will be here to see what you make of your life. Those are the last words I shall ever speak to you.
(
Turns to go.
)
AURORA:
Oh wait! Please!
LAOMEDON:
I have nothing to say to
you.
AURORA:
No, it’s not that! Oh, please—
(
To TITHONUS.
)
Darling, I’m frightened. You said something just now …. Darling, there’s nothing in it about not growing old!
TITHONUS (
not understanding
):
What?
AURORA:
Perhaps it doesn’t matter. I hope it doesn’t matter, but—you know, you won’t stay young. You’ll never die, but—well, you’ll grow old, naturally, the way people
do
.
MRS. MALLOW (
to herself
):
Yes.
TITHONUS (
aghast
):
But that’s the whole point!
AURORA:
You didn’t ask for that! You never said you wanted to stay young!
TITHONUS:
Then you’ve
never
understood!
AURORA:
You
never bothered to explain!
TITHONUS:
I knew it was too simple! I said so, didn’t I? But you smiled and—You can have it changed, you can ask again!
AURORA:
No … I’m afraid not ….
TITHONUS:
But you must!
AURORA:
I can’t. Once only ….
TITHONUS:
But what will become of
me?
AURORA:
Oh my dearest, my only love—what can I say? That it’s my fault—does that help? It’s a terrible thing, I suppose, but it doesn’t change
us!
I don’t see that it does! I’m yours, entirely, eternally ….
TITHONUS:
Don’t say that! Think what I’ll be in—Oh God, less than a hundred years! A horrible old man, drooling, deaf!
AURORA:
You needn’t be! I’ve seen some very beautiful old men!
TITHONUS:
But I
will
be! And you won’t love me then—wait and see!
AURORA:
I’ll love you always, I think.
TITHONUS:
Ah, now you’re thinking! It’s high time.
AURORA:
My youth, when your own is gone, shall be yours—not yours, but at your disposal. Till the end of time.
TITHONUS (
closing his eyes
):
And there
is
no end ….
MRS. MALLOW:
It may be only the threat of dying presses us to live, and he is luckier than he knows.
AURORA:
How?
MRS. MALLOW:
Old age is a kind of death, Aurora. It may be one will do as well as the other.
(
TITHONUS turns to her for comfort, like a child. She strokes his hair.
)
Ah but Tithonus, what you have feared is not death so much as—
AURORA (
wonderingly
):
Life! Fear life? But one’s not
meant
to do that!
(
With a new tenderness.
)
Tithonus!
TITHONUS:
Let me be!
AURORA:
I want to come close to you. You asked me to come to you suffering—I’m suffering now. Something hurts, here …. Try to imagine how
I
feel, knowing what I’ve done.
TITHONUS:
You’ve never felt anything but sunlight and pleasure! I have to be by myself now. Can’t you understand even that?
AURORA:
Ah don’t!
TITHONUS (
through his teeth
):
I’ll be back. Don’t forget, we have an eternity ahead of us, all to ourselves!
(
He starts out. But the GARDENER enters with an armful of mistletoe.
)
GARDENER:
Here you are, Sir, look! That tree will live forever now, just like you, Miss, and the young—
(
He falls silent. TITHONUS snatches the mistletoe from him and goes out. A long pause. AURORA is weeping silently. LAOMEDON and MRS. MALLOW turn to go.
)
AURORA (
suddenly looking at her hands, puzzled
):
What is it? My eyes are full of water!
LAOMEDON:
Those are tears, Aurora.
(
Russia, 1894. A grove on the slope of a mountain, A tree stump, scattered leaves. It is a lovely afternoon in early autumn.
)
(
TITHONUS, nearly sixty, sits at an easel, painting. His clothes suggest the dilettante rather than the bohemian. Laughter offstage. Enter the young lovers, FANYA followed by KONSTANTIN, The latter carries a rug and a large picnic basket. They do not at first see TITHONUS.
)
KONSTANTIN:
Laugh all you wish, and run, but I am carrying this basket. Can we Russians go nowhere without a samovar? In ten years I shall have instigated reforms. Tea will be drunk only in the parlor.
FANYA:
But let us stop here then! I’m overheated myself, and here there’s a breeze ….
(
Konstantin puts down his burden and embraces her.
)
Kostya, Kostya. Where is Olga Vassilyevna? Can we have left her so far behind?
KONSTANTIN:
Don’t think of her. Fanya, my soul, my life!
FANYA:
Sick people have such a power. I’d be afraid not to obey her.
KONSTANTIN:
Come!