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ACT III: SCENE II
(SCENE.--A room in the BARONESS' house. The BARONESS is sitting
reading. A MAID enters and brings her a card.)
BARONESS (looking at the card). The Minister of the Interior!--
Show him in! (GRAN comes in.) I am glad to see you back, your
Excellency!--You have found him, then?
GRAN. Yes, we have discovered him.
BARONESS. And spoken to him?
GRAN. Yes.
BARONESS. May I send for his daughter?
GRAN. For heaven's sake
BARONESS. What is the matter?
GRAN. He is a dying man.
BARONESS. What!
GRAN. The King desires me to tell you that he has ordered a special
train to be ready at 10 o'clock, so that as soon as the court is
over she can go to her father. The King will accompany her.
BARONESS. That is kind of him!
GRAN. Then you will get ready everything that she needs for a
night's journey?
BARONESS. Yes.
GRAN. And without her being aware of it? The King does not wish her
to know anything of her father's condition till after the court.
BARONESS. The court is to be held, then?
GRAN. The court is to be held. After it is over, His Majesty will
tell her the news himself.
BARONESS. I am thankful for that.--But what did Professor Ernst
say? Why has he not answered his daughter's letter? Why has he
hidden from her? Is he really irreconcilable?
GRAN. Irreconcilable? He hates her!
BARONESS. Good heavens!
GRAN. And not only her, but every one that has made common cause
with the King--every one!
BARONESS. I suppose it was to be expected.--But won't you sit down?
GRAN (bows, but remains standing). I had a talk with his doctor
before I saw him. He had some hesitation about letting me in. It
was a fortnight since his patient had been able to move. But when I
told him my errand, and that I had come from the King, he let me
see him.
BARONESS. How did he look? He was a fine man once.
GRAN. He was sitting in a big chair, a mere paralysed wreck of a
man. But when he saw me and realised who I was--and probably, too,
what my errand was--he found the strength not only to move, but to
seize both his crutches and raise himself on them! I shall never
forget his gaunt ashen-grey face, the feverish gleam in his sunken
eyes, his unkempt hair and beard--
BARONESS. He must have looked terrible!
GRAN. He was like a creature from beyond the grave--with an
eternity of hatred in his eyes!
BARONESS. Oh, my God!
GRAN. When at last I could find my voice, I gave him his daughter's
greeting, and asked if she might come and see him. A dark look came
into his eyes, and his face flushed for a moment, as he gasped out:
"May she be--." He could not finish the sentence. His crutches
slipped from his grasp and he fell down, blood pouring from his
mouth. The doctor rushed to him; and for a long time we thought he
was dead.
BARONESS. But he came round?
GRAN. I waited an hour or two before I started back. Then the
doctor told me that he had recovered consciousness, but that the
end could certainly not be far off--perhaps not twenty-four hours.
BARONESS. It must have been a shock to you.
GRAN. It was.
BARONESS. But what did he mean by: "May she be--"
GRAN. That is what I have been wondering.
BARONESS. He cannot do her any harm, can he?
Grad. He may give her the same reception that he gave me; if she
goes.
BARONESS, Even if the King is with her?
GRAN. All the more then!
BARONESS. Oh, that would be horrible! But it won't prevent her
going.
GRAN. Let us hope so!
BARONESS. I am certain of it! She has extraordinary strength of
character--just like her father's.
GRAN. Yes, that is the one thing I rely on.
BARONESS. What do you mean? Your words sound so despondent!
GRAN. I mean what is perfectly true--that everything will depend
upon her strength of character.
BARONESS. What about the King, then?
GRAN. I could say a great deal on that topic, BARONESS; but (bows)
you must excuse me--I haven't time now.
BARONESS. How are the elections going?
GRAN. They are going well--if nothing happens now?
BARONESS. What could happen?
GRAN. The situation is very strained; one must expect anything.
BARONESS. Are you anxious, your Excellency?
GRAN. I must beg leave to retire now. (A MAID comes in.)
Maid (to GRAN). The Inspector of Police, who came with your
Excellency, wishes to know if he may speak to your Excellency.
GRAN. I will come at once. (To the BARONESS.) There is rioting
going on in the town, not far from here--in front of the club.
BARONESS (in alarm). What?--Isn't the King coming along that way?
GRAN. Don't be afraid! We have taken our precautions--Good-bye!
(Goes out.)
BARONESS. --He has quite alarmed me--everything seems to come at
the same time! She has had a suspicion that there was something
amiss with her father; I have noticed that, but she hasn't wanted
to speak about it. (CLARA comes in, dressed for the court.) Ah,
there you are, my dear! Quite ready?
CLARA. Quite.
BARONESS (looking at her). Well, I daresay there have been royal
brides more elaborately dressed, but I am sure there has never
been one more charming. (Kisses her.)
CLARA. I think I hear a carriage?
BARONESS. I expect it is the King!
CLARA. I am afraid it is too early yet--but all the same I hope it
is he!
BARONESS. Do you feel afraid?
CLARA. No, no--it is not that at all; it is something--something
that you don't--a kind of feeling as if--as if some one were
haunting me; and I know who it is. I only feel secure when the King
is with me. I hope it may be he coming. (Goes to the window.)
(The MAID comes in.)
MAID. A lady wishes to speak to you, Miss Ernst--
BARONESS. A lady?
CLARA. Didn't she give her name?
MAID. She is veiled--and very handsomely dressed.
CLARA (with decision). No! I can see no one.
BARONESS. No one that we do not know. (To the MAID.) You ought
to know that.
Maid (hesitatingly). But I think it is--. (The door opens and the
PRINCESS comes in.)
BARONESS. What does this mean? Clara! leave us, my dear.
PRINCESS (drawing aside her veil). Do you know me?
CLARA and BARONESS. The Princess!
PRINCESS. Are you Clara Ernst?
CLARA. Yes.
PRINCESS (haughtily, to the BARONESS). Leave us alone! (The
BARONESS goes out.) Before going to the palace I wanted to come
here--even at the risk of meeting the King.
CLARA. He has not come yet. (A long pause.)
PRINCESS. Have you thought well over what you are going to do?
CLARA. I think so.
PRINCESS. I don't think you have. Have you read what the papers say
about it--every one of them--to-day?
CLARA. No. The King has advised me not to.
PRINCESS. But the letters that have been sent to you? I know
letters have been written to you.
CLARA. The King has advised me not to read them either. He takes
all the letters.
PRINCESS. Do you know that they are rioting in the streets close to
here?
CLARA (in alarm). No!
PRINCESS. You will be received with hisses, hooting--perhaps with
stone throwing. You didn't expect anything like that, did you?
CLARA. No.
PRINCESS. What shall you do?
CLARA (after a moment, quietly). I shall go with the King.
PRINCESS. A nice road you are dragging him along, truly! And I
assure you that the farther you go along it, the worse it will
become. You cannot possibly have prepared yourself for all that you
will have to go through.
CLARA. I think I have.
PRINCESS (in surprise). What do you mean? How?
CLARA (bending her head). I have prayed to God.
PRINCESS. Pshaw! I mean that you cannot have considered the misery
into which you are dragging the King--and the disgrace and trouble
you are bringing upon all his people. (CLARA is silent.) You are
young still; your heart cannot be altogether hardened yet, whatever
your past may have been.
CLARA (proudly). I have no reason to be ashamed of my past.
PRINCESS. Indeed? What sort of a past has it been, then?
CLARA. One full of suffering, princess--and of work. (A pause.)
PRINCESS. Do you know what the King's past has been?
CLARA (drooping her head). Ah, yes.
PRINCESS. Yours will be tarred with the same brush--no matter what
it really has been.
CLARA. I know that. He has told me so.
PRINCESS. Really!--After all, is it a sacrifice you are making for
his sake? Do you love the King?
CLARA (faintly). Yes.
PRINCESS. Then listen to me. If you loved the King, you would have
made a _real_ sacrifice for him. We are women, you and I; we can
understand these things without many words. But such a sacrifice
does not consist in consenting to be his queen.
CLARA. It is not I that wished it.
PRINCESS. You have allowed yourself to be persuaded?--Well, you are
either deceiving yourself, my girl, or you are deceiving him.
Perhaps you began with the one and are ending with the other.
Anyway, it is time you had your eyes opened as to which of you it
is that is making the sacrifice. Do you not know that, on your
account, he is already the target for general contempt? (CLARA
bursts into tears.) If that makes you repent, show it--show it by
your deeds!
CLARA. I repent of nothing.
PRINCESS (in astonishment). What state of mind are you in, then?
CLARA. I have suffered terribly. But I pray God for strength to
bear it.
PRINCESS. Don't talk nonsense! The whole thing is a horrible
confusion of ideas--half remorse and half cant--the one so mixed up
with the other in your mind that you cannot disentangle them. But,
believe me, others feel very sure that sacred things and--and what
I won't call bluntly by its name, go very ill together! So don't
waste those airs on me; they only irritate me!
CLARA. Princess, don't be cruel to me. I _am_ suffering, all the
same.
PRINCESS. Why on earth do you want to go any farther with the
affair? If you aren't clear about it, take advice! Your father is
opposed to it, isn't he?
CLARA. Yes. (Throws herself into a chair.)
PRINCESS. He has hidden himself away from you. You don't know where
he is, or how he is--though you know he is crippled and ill. And,
meanwhile, here you are in full dress, with a rose in your hair,
waiting to set out to a court at the palace! Are you willing to
pass through contemptuous rioting crowds, and over your sick
father's body, to become queen? What callous levity! What a
presumptuous mixture of what you think is love, duty, sacrifice,
trial--with an unscrupulous ambition--! The King? Are you depending
on him? He is a poet. He loves anything unusual or sensational.
Resistance stimulates him; and that is what drives him into
believing that his love will be unending. When you have been
married a week, it will be all over. If he had not met with
resistance, it would have been all over before this. I know the
King better than you; for I know his faithlessness. It is like his
love--unending! It hurts you to hear that, does it? Well, it hurts
one's eyes to look at the sun. But I can tell you about these
things. The only reason I had for coming was to tell you what I
know. And now that I have seen you, I can tell you that I know one
thing more--and I will tell you what it is. If you actually allow
the King, with his ardent temperament, to stray into a path which
will lead to the ruin of his career, your action will, in the
fullness of time, recoil so appallingly upon your own head that it
will kill you. I know you are one of those that faithlessness,
remorse and contempt _would_ kill.--Don't look so beseechingly at
me; I cannot retract a word of what I have said. But I can tell you
now what I had decided upon before I came. _I_ will look after your
future. I am not rich; but, as sure as I stand here before you, you
shall live free from care--you shall have everything that you need--
for the rest of your life. I want no thanks! I do it for the sake
of the King, and for the sake of the country to which I belong.
It is my duty. Only get up now and come with me to my carriage.
(Offers CLARA her hand.)
CLARA. If it were as easy as that, I should have done it long, long
ago.
PRINCESS (turns away. Then comes back). Get up. (Pulls her on to
her feet.) Do you love the King?
CLARA. Do I love him? I am a motherless child, and have lived alone
with a father who has been constantly persecuted on account of his
principles; I shared his ideals from a very early age, and I have
never abandoned them since. Then one day I was given the chance of
making these ideals real. "What _I_ long to do, _you_ shall
accomplish!" he said. There is something great about that,
Princess--something all-powerful--a call from God Himself. Of that
I am certain.
PRINCESS. It is merely a rhapsody of the King's--nothing else!
CLARA. Then I will make it real and live it! I have given my whole
soul to it, and have strengthened his to the same end. It has been
my ideal all my life.
PRINCESS. And you believe that it will last?
CLARA. Yes.
PRINCESS. Then let me beg you to believe this, too--it will last
until he has attained his end.
CLARA. If you mean our marriage, let me tell you that _that_ is not
our end.
PRINCESS (in surprise). What is, then?
CLARA. Our end is to accomplish something together. That task shall
be consecrated and ennobled by our love. Yes, you may look at me!
Those were his own words.
PRINCESS. That answer!--That thought!--But what certainty have you?
CLARA. Of what?
PRINCESS. That you did not put the thought into his mind?--and that
the fire in his soul may not flicker out?
CLARA. If I needed any assurance, I should find it in the fact that
he changed his whole life for my sake; he waited for me for more
than a year. Has he ever done that for any one before? I am sure
he has never needed to! (The PRINCESS winces.) It is those who have
seduced that "ardent" temperament of his--you called it that
yourself--that are to blame, and not I, Princess! (A pause.) I
checked him to the best of my power when he came to me as he was
wont to go to others. (A pause.) Indeed it is no sacrifice to
become his wife. When one loves, there is no question of sacrifice.
But the position in which I now stand exposes me to more suspicion
than the humblest of his subjects, to more scorn than if I were his
mistress. Think how you have spoken to me to-day yourself,
Princess! (A pause.) It is no sacrifice to endure such things for
the man one loves. It was not I that used the word "sacrifice,"
either; and as for the sacrifice you implied that I ought to have
made, I don't wish to understand what you meant by that, even
though I am a woman as well as you! But if you knew, Princess, how
hard a fight I have been through before I found the strength to
cast in my lot with his, against my father's wish and against you
all--you would not have spoken to me about making a sacrifice. At
all events you would not have spoken to me as you have done to-day;
because you are not cruel, and I know that at bottom you mean me
well. (A longer pause.)
PRINCESS. This is more serious than I knew.--Poor child, your
disappointment will be all the more serious.
CLARA. Not with him!
PRINCESS (half to herself). Is it possible he can be so changed?
Was that what was needed to secure a hold on him--? (To CLARA.)
Is he coming here to fetch you?
CLARA. Yes.
PRINCESS. What does he want to hold this court for? What is the
good of throwing down this challenge to all the dignitaries of his
kingdom?--especially if, after all, he means to live the life of an
ordinary citizen?
CLARA. He wished it.
PRINCESS. An exciting episode in his rhapsody! Why did you not
dissuade him?
CLARA. Because I agree with him.
PRINCESS. Perhaps you don't fully realise what it means?--what
humiliation the King will have to undergo?
CLARA. I only know that it seems to me that these things should
be done openly, and that he has plenty of courage.
PRINCESS. That is mere bravado. Are you going in that dress?--to
court in that dress? (CLARA is silent.) I say it is mere bravado.
CLARA. I have no better dress.
PRINCESS. What do you mean? Surely the King can--? Are you jesting?
CLARA (shyly). I do not allow the King to give me anything; not
until--.
PRINCESS. Doesn't he pay your expenses here, then? (Looks round the
room.)
CLARA. No.
PRINCESS. It is the Baroness?
CLARA. She and I. We are both poor.
PRINCESS. Ah, yes--she has lost her post now, hasn't she?
CLARA. On my account--yes. And you, Princess, who have known her--
for she was once your governess--can you really suppose that she
would have been faithful to me if she did not trust me and feel
that this was right? You treated her so contemptuously when you
came in.
PRINCESS. I seem to have broken in upon the most incomprehensible
romance!--Then you love the King? (CLARA nods her head.) He knows
how to love, and make a woman happy! He is a dazzling creature!--We
shall see now whether you are to suffer for all the hearts he has
broken. You are not the first woman he has loved.
CLARA. Princess!
PRINCESS. Yes, let that sink into your mind! Your happiness is
embroidered with tears!
CLARA. It is cruel of you to reproach me with it.
PRINCESS. Forgive me! I really did not mean that.--But there is
still time to put on a more suitable dress. If you dare accept no
gifts from the King--you might from some one else? A King's bride
is a King's bride after all, you know!
CLARA. He told me I should not need anything more than this.
PRINCESS. Not in his eyes, I dare say. But we women know a little
better!--If it were only a necklace? Will you accept this one?
(Begins to unfasten hers.)
CLARA. I knew you were kind.--But I daren't.
PRINCESS. Why not?
CLARA. Because--because people would think that--. (Bursts into
tears. A pause.)
PRINCESS. Listen, my child. The whole thing is sheer lunacy; but--
as it cannot be altered--as soon as the court assembles I shall
take my place at your side and not leave you till it is all over.
Tell the King that! Good-bye!
CLARA (going towards her). Princess!
PRINCESS (kisses her, and whispers). Haven't you allowed him to
kiss you, either?
CLARA (in a whisper). Yes, I have.
PRINCESS (kissing her once snore). Love him! (The sound of carriage
wheels is heard. The BARONESS comes in.)
BARONESS. I hear the King's carriage.
PRINCESS. I don't wish to meet him. (Stretches out her hand to the
BARONESS.) Baroness! (Points to the door through which the BARONESS
has come in.) Can I get out that way?
BARONESS. Yes. (She takes the PRINCESS out. A moment later the MAID
ushers in the KING, who is dressed in plain clothes and wearing no
decorations.)
THE KING. Clara!
CLARA. My friend! (They embrace.)
THE KING. What does it mean?
CLARA. What?
THE KING. The Princess' carriage here?
CLARA. She told me to greet you. She has just gone, and--
THE KING. And--?
CLARA. She said as soon as the court assembled she would take her
place beside me and stay there till we left the palace.
THE KING. Is it possible?
CLARA. It is _true_.
THE KING. You have conquered her! I know she could be conquered--
she has a heart, as well as a head! It is a good omen!--So she
offered to do _that_! What will our precious nobility have to say
to that?
CLARA. They are about the streets, aren't they?
THE KING. Ah, then you know?
CLARA. I know, too, that there has been rioting outside the club.
THE KING. You know that too?--and are not afraid?
CLARA. Perhaps I might have been--but there is something else that
I am more afraid of. (Draws closer to the KING.)
THE KING. What is that?
CLARA. You know. (A pause.)
THE KING. Have you been uneasy about him to-day too?
CLARA. All day--incessantly. Something must have happened.
THE KING. Well, now I can tell you where he is.
CLARA (eagerly). At last! Have you found him?
THE KING. Gran has been to see him.
CLARA. Thank God! Is it far from here?
THE KING. This evening, immediately after the court, you and I
will both start for there in a special train. We shall be there
early to-morrow.
CLARA (throwing her arms round his neck). Thanks, thanks! How
good you are! Thanks! How is he? Is he ill!
THE KING. Yes.
CLARA. I knew it? And implacable?
THE KING. Yes.
CLARA. I feel it! (Nestles closer in his arms.)
THE KING. Are you afraid?
CLARA. Yes!
THE KING. Dear, when you see him perhaps your fear will go.
CLARA. Yes, only let me see him! Whatever he says, let me see him!
THE KING. Within twelve hours from now you shall! And I shall be
with you.
CLARA. The finest thing about you is your kindness. Oh, I am so
glad you have come! I could not endure my fears any longer.
THE KING. There are dissensions going on about you!
CLARA. Oh!--(Nestles in his arms again.)
THE KING. Bear up!--It will soon be over.
CLARA. I believe it will. Yes, I know it will.--Let me walk about a
little! (The KING walks up and down with her.)
THE KING. And turn our thoughts to something else! Do you know
where I have come from?
CLARA. Where?
THE KING. From our little house in the park.
CLARA. Why, we drove past it yesterday!
THE KING. You will feel only _one_ person's presence there!
Wherever you go, you will be surrounded by the thoughts I have had
of you there. If you look out of the window, or go out on to the
balcony--on every rock, by each turn of the stream--on the lawns,
under the trees, among the bushes--everywhere you will find a
thousand thoughts of you hidden. Breathe the words "my darling
girl," and they will all come clustering round you!--Let us sit
down.
CLARA. It is all like a fairy tale.
THE KING. And I am the latest fairy prince! (He sits down and draws
her on to his knee.) And you are the little maid who comes, led by
good fairies, to the enchanted castle to wake him. He has been kept
asleep by wicked spells for many, many years.
CLARA. For many, many years!
THE KING. I am not really _I_, nor you _you_. The monarch was
bewitched long ago. He was turned into a wild beast who gave reign
to his passion by night and slept by day. And now the maiden of
humble degree has become a woman and freed him from the spells.
CLARA. Really! Ah, you are so clever at inventing things to cheat
my fears away from me. And you always succeed. But after all, you
know, I have no strength and no courage; I am so weak.
THE KING. You have more strength than I!--more than any one I
have ever known.
CLARA. No, don't say that; but--you may be sure of this!--if I did
not feel that I had _some_ strength I would never try to throw in
my lot with yours.
THE KING. I will explain to you what you are! Some people are
tremendously more spiritual, more delicately constituted than
others; and they are a hundred times more sensitive. And they
fancy that is weakness. But it is just they who draw their strength
from _deeper_ sources, through a thousand imperceptible channels.
You will often find them with heads erect and valiant when others
have gone under; they merely bend before the storm, with supple
strength, when others break under it. You are like that!
CLARA. You are very ingenious when you start explaining me!
THE KING. Well, listen to this! At the time when I was behaving so
badly to you, your terror, every time I approached you, was so
piteous that it was always before my eyes and rang in my ears
like a cry of agony from a wounded heart. It is true! It filled me
with terror, too. Do you call that weakness, to feel things so
intensely that another person is influenced by your feelings
against his will?
CLARA. No.
THE KING. And then, when I found you again--the way you listened to
me--
CLARA (stopping him with a kiss). Don't let us talk about it now!
THE KING. What shall we talk about, then? It is a little too early
to start yet.--Ah, I have it! We will talk about the impression you
will make this evening when you come forward through the brightly
lit rooms, radiant against the background of ugly calumny! That was
prettily put, wasn't it? "Is _that_ she?" they will think. And then
something will come into their eyes that will cheat them into
thinking that pearls and gold are strewn over your hair, over your
dress, over your--
CLARA (putting her hand over his mouth). No, no, no! Now I am
going to tell you a little story!
THE KING. Tell away!
CLARA. When I was a child, I saw a balloon being filled one day,
and there was a horrible smell from the gas. Afterwards, when I
saw the gleaming balloon rising in the air, I thought to myself:
"Ah, that horrid smell was something burning; they had to burn it
for the balloon to be able to rise." And after that, every time I
heard anything horrid said about my father, I felt as if something
was burning inside me, and I thought of the balloon and imagined I
could smell the smell. And then all at once I imagined I saw it
rising; the horrid part was burnt, and it was able to mount aloft!
I assure you that balloon was a good genius to me. And now, years
afterwards, when I have been a target for calumny myself--and
you for my sake--I have felt just the same thing. Every word has
burned; but I have got over it in a moment, and risen high, high
above it all! I never seem to breathe so pure an atmosphere as a
little while after something cruel has been said of me.
THE KING. I shall certainly set to work and abuse you at once, if
it has such delightful results! I will begin with a selection from
to-day's papers: "You Aspasia! You Messalina! You Pompadour! You
Phylloxera, that are eating into our whole moral vine-crop! You
blue-eyed curse of the country, that are causing panics in the
money-market, overthrowing ministries, and upsetting all
calculations in the elections! You mischievous hobgoblin, who are
pouring gall into the printers' ink and poison into the people's
coffee, filling all the old ladies' heads with buzzing flies, and
the King's Majesty with a million lover's follies!" Do you know
that, besides all the harm you are doing to-day, you are hastening
a revolution by ten years? You are! And no one can be sure whether
you haven't been pursuing the same wicked courses for the last
hundred years or more! All our royal and noble ancestors are
turning in their graves because of you! And if our deceased queens
have any noses left--
CLARA (interrupting him). The Baroness! (They get up. The BARONESS
comes in wearing a cloak over her court dress and carrying CLARA'S
cloak over her arm.)
BARONESS. I must take the liberty of disturbing you. Time is up!
THE KING. We have been killing it by talking nonsense.
BARONESS. And that has put you in a good humour?
THE KING (taking his hat). In the best of humours! Here, my darling
(fastens CLARA'S cloak about her shoulders), here is the last
scandalous bit of concealment for you! When we take it off again,
you shall stand radiant in the light of your own truth. Come!
(Gives her his arm, and they go trippingly up to the back of the
room. Suddenly the phantom of an emaciated figure leaning on
crutches appears in their path, staring at them. His hair and
beard are in wild disorder, and blood is pouring from his mouth.
CLARA gives a terrified scream.)
THE KING. In Heaven's name, what is it?
CLARA. My father!
THE KING. Where? (To the BARONESS.) Go and see! (The BARONESS
opens the doors at the back and looks out).
BARONESS. I can see no one.
THE KING. Look down the corridor!
BARONESS. No--no one there, either! (CLARA has sunk lifelessly into
the KING'S arms. After one or two spasmodic twitchings of her
hands, her arms slip away from him and her head falls back.)
THE KING. Help, help!
BARONESS (rushing to him with a shriek). Clara!
Curtain.
Content of ACT III: SCENE II [Bjornstjerne Bjornson's play/drama: The King]
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