Home > Authors Index > Thomas Hardy > Dynasts: An Epic Drama Of The War With Napoleon > This page
The Dynasts: An Epic Drama Of The War With Napoleon, a play by Thomas Hardy |
||
Part 2 - Act 5 - Scene 8. Paris. Grand Gallery And Salon-Carre |
||
| < Previous |
Table of content |
Next > |
|
________________________________________________
_ PART SECOND. ACT FIFTH. SCENE VIII. THE GRAND GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE AND THE SALON-CARRE ADJOINING [The view is up the middle of the Gallery, which is now a spectacle of much magnificence. Backed by the large paintings on the walls are double rows on each side of brightly dressed ladies, the pick of Imperial society, to the number of four thousand, one thousand in each row; and behind these standing up are two rows on each side of men of privilege and fashion. Officers of the Imperial Guard are dotted about as marshals. Temporary barriers form a wide passage up the midst, leading to the Salon-Carre, which is seen through the opening to be fitted up as a chapel, with a gorgeous altar, tall candles, and cross. In front of the altar is a platform with a canopy over it. On the platform are two gilt chairs and a prie-dieu. The expectant assembly does not continuously remain in the seats, but promenades and talks, the voices at times rising to a din amid the strains of the orchestra, conducted by the EMPEROR'S Director of Music. Refreshments in profusion are handed round, and the extemporized cathedral resolves itself into a gigantic cafe of persons of distinction under the Empire.]
All day have they been waiting for their galanty-show, and now the hour of performance is on the strike. It may be seasonable to muse on the sixteenth Louis and the bride's great-aunt, as the nearing procession is, I see, appositely crossing the track of the tumbril which was the last coach of that respected lady. . . . It is now passing over the site of the scaffold on which she lost her head. . . . Now it will soon be here. [Suddenly the heralds enter the Gallery at the end towards the Tuileries, the spectators ranging themselves in their places. In a moment the wedding procession of the EMPEROR and EMPRESS becomes visible. The civil marriage having already been performed, Napoleon and Marie Louise advance together along the vacant pathway towards the Salon-Carre, followed by the long suite of illustrious personages, and acclamations burst from all parts of the Grand Gallery.
Whose are those forms that pair in pompous train
First there walks
New, many, to Imperial dignities;
It fits thee not to augur, quick-eared Shade.
Napoleon looks content--nay, shines with joy.
Yet see it pass, as by a conjuror's wand. [Thereupon Napoleon's face blackens as if the shadow of a winter night had fallen upon it. Resentful and threatening, he stops the procession and looks up and down the benches.]
This is sound artistry of the Immanent Will: it relieves the monotony of so much good-humour.
Where are the Cardinals? And why not here? (He speaks so loud that he is heard throughout the Gallery.)
Many are present here, your Majesty;
Tell me no nonsense! Half absent themselves [MARIE LOUISE looks frightened. The procession moves on.]
I seem to see the thin and headless ghost
Nay, think not so.
I know not why,
O, it is nought
I'll try. [Reaching the entrance to the Salon-Carre amid strains of music the EMPEROR and EMPRESS are received and incensed by the CARDINAL GRAND ALMONERS. They take their seats under the canopy, and the train of notabilities seat themselves further back, the persons- in-waiting stopping behind the Imperial chairs. The ceremony of the religious marriage now begins. The choir intones a hymn, the EMPEROR and EMPRESS go to the altar, remove their gloves, and make their vows.] SPIRIT IRONIC The English Church should return thanks for this wedding, seeing how it will purge of coarseness the picture-sheets of that artistic nation, which will hardly be able to caricature the new wife as it did poor plebeian Josephine. Such starched and ironed monarchists cannot sneer at a woman of such a divinely dry and crusted line like the Hapsburgs! [Mass is next celebrated, after which the TE DEUM is chanted in harmonies that whirl round the walls of the Salon-Carre and quiver down the long Gallery. The procession then re-forms and returns, amid the flutterings and applause of the dense assembly. But Napoleon's face has not lost the sombre expression which settled on it. The pair and their train pass out by the west door, and the congregation disperses in the other direction, the cloud- curtain closing over the scene as they disappear. _ |
||