Latest / Mastering the Heart and Mind / Broken Hearts-W. S. Gilbert

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Broken Hearts-W. S. Gilbert · Mastering the Heart and Mind

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  Speaker 1: Act one of Broken Hearts by W. S. Gilbert. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Broken Hearts an entirely original fairy play
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  Speaker 1: in three acts. Dramatis personae.
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  Speaker 2: Prince Florian read by Thomas.
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  Speaker 3: Peter Musta, a deformed dwarf read by Todd, The.
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  Speaker 4: Lady Hilda read by Sonya.
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  Speaker 5: The Lady Vavir, her sister read by the Story Girl.
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  Speaker 6: The Lady Milsine read by Eva Davis.
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  Speaker 7: The Lady Amanthus read by Jan Broda.
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  Speaker 1: Stage directions read by Michael Max See the Island of
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  Speaker 1: Broken Hearts. The action of the piece takes place within
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  Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Broken Hearts, Act one scene a tropical
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  Speaker 1: landscape in the distance, a calm sea, a natural fountain,
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  Speaker 1: A mere thread of water falls over a rock into
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  Speaker 1: a natural basin. An old sundial formed of the upper
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  Speaker 1: part of a broken pillar round the shaft of which
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  Speaker 1: some creeping flowers are trained, stands on a small mound.
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  Speaker 1: The time is within half an hour of sunset. Mooster
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  Speaker 1: a deformed, ill favored dwarf, humpbacked and one eyed is
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  Speaker 1: discovered seated reading a small black letter volume.
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  Speaker 3: Mooster reed to move a mountain that will serve me,
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  Speaker 3: not unless indeed twill teach me how to lift this
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  Speaker 3: cursed mountain from my crippled back, to make old young.
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  Speaker 1: Hm.
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  Speaker 3: I am but forty two. But still I'll mark that page.
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  Speaker 3: The day will come when I shall find it useful. Ah,
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  Speaker 3: what's this? To make the crooked straight? To heal the
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  Speaker 3: halt and clothe and sightly forms with comeliness at last,
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  Speaker 3: at last.
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  Speaker 1: Enter Vavia, who listens in amazement.
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  Speaker 3: Takes gamony and rue with henmane gathered in a fat churchyard,
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  Speaker 3: pound in a mortar with three drops of blood drawn
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  Speaker 3: from a servant's tail at dead of night. Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 3: that's plain enough. Take pigeon's egg wrapped in the skin
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  Speaker 3: of a beheaded toad, and.
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  Speaker 1: Then seize Fafia.
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  Speaker 3: Who's there?
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  Speaker 8: Why muster?
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  Speaker 3: Pardon me? I'm at my book. I did not hear
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  Speaker 3: thy step.
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  Speaker 5: Thy book hath lines both strange and terrible.
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  Speaker 8: Why muster?
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  Speaker 5: This is Errant's sorcery? How camest thou with such a
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  Speaker 5: fearful thing?
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  Speaker 3: An unseen spirit brought it to me? I brought it
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  Speaker 3: to me. An hour or so ago, I saw a
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  Speaker 3: distant boat make for our shores. The wind was on
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  Speaker 3: her bow, she tagged, as though handled by one well
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  Speaker 3: skilled in such small craft. Well on she came, and
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  Speaker 3: I awaited her, armed with a boat hook. When within
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  Speaker 3: fair hail sheer off. I cried, no stranger touches here.
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  Speaker 3: But heedless of my hail, she kept her course, and
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  Speaker 3: when within a bowshot of the beach, down came her sail,
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  Speaker 3: and in she ran to shore.
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  Speaker 8: Whom did she carry? Musta not a soul?
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  Speaker 3: The boat was tenantless. Some unseen power had guided her.
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  Speaker 3: I overhauled the craft to find some sign of human
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  Speaker 3: agency and found this book.
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  Speaker 1: Fafiar, shrinking from it.
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  Speaker 5: It is unholy lore? How burnet musta burn it?
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  Speaker 1: No?
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  Speaker 9: Not?
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  Speaker 3: I see what I am, dwarfed, twisted and deformed. I
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  Speaker 3: have a fancy to be tall and straight. This volume
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  Speaker 3: teaches me to have my will. My only eyeball flashes
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  Speaker 3: from its pit, like a red snake trapped in a
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  Speaker 3: sunken snare. I do not like my eye, as I've
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  Speaker 3: but one. I'd have it large and bright. This teaches
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  Speaker 3: me to make it so. My mouth is coarsely cut
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  Speaker 3: I like a tempting mouth, a mouth that smiles. A
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  Speaker 3: mouth that smiled upon this teaches me to make it
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  Speaker 3: so I will not burn this book.
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  Speaker 1: The lady Hilda has entered during the last line.
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  Speaker 4: And what wouldst thou with beauty?
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  Speaker 3: What would I?
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  Speaker 10: Why?
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  Speaker 3: Lady? Look around? This isle is fair. Its feathery palms
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  Speaker 3: that tower towards the sky. It's pridling brooks that trickle
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  Speaker 3: to the sea, Its hills and dales, its sea and
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  Speaker 3: sky are fair. The beast that dwell up upon it,
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  Speaker 3: and the birds fly above it, even they are fair.
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  Speaker 3: And beyond all the ladies who have made this isle
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  Speaker 3: their chosen home are very fair. And what have I Why, lady,
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  Speaker 3: look at me? I am the one foul blot upon
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  Speaker 3: its face. I am the one misshapen, twisted thing in
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  Speaker 3: this assemblage of rare loveliness. I am the one a
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  Speaker 3: cursed discord in this choir of universal harmony? Is this
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  Speaker 3: think you a proud pre eminence? Or rather, is it
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  Speaker 3: not a red hot brand that stamps its damning impress
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  Speaker 3: on one's heart and changes man to devil before his time?
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  Speaker 2: Ah, you are mocking me.
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  Speaker 4: I am mocked teot we maidens, all save one hath
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  Speaker 4: dearly loved, and those we loved have died. We broke
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  Speaker 4: and hearts knit by the sympathy of kindred woe have
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  Speaker 4: sought this isle far from the can of man, And
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  Speaker 4: having loved and having lost our loves, stand pledged to
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  Speaker 4: love no living thing again. Thou art our trusted servant
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  Speaker 4: and our friend, the only men of all the world,
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  Speaker 4: of men whom we admit upon our virgin shores. We
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  Speaker 4: know THEE, and we trust THEE must come. This thought
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  Speaker 4: might soften harder hearts than thine.
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  Speaker 3: And why choose me alone of all mankind to serve
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  Speaker 3: you in your island loneliness? Because my limbs, though crooked,
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  Speaker 3: are strongly framed. Bah, there are tall straight men as
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  Speaker 3: strong as I. Because my heart goes with my fealty.
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  Speaker 3: Why half my weight would buy the heart and soul
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  Speaker 3: of twenty well proportioned servitors. Because of reason of my
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  Speaker 3: face and form, I do not counter the man. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: I'm an ape, a crippled, crumpled, devil faced babboon who
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  Speaker 3: claims a place amid this loveliness by title of his
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  Speaker 3: sheered deformity. Now monkey, though I be, I am a
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  Speaker 3: man in all but face and form. I've a man's heart,
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  Speaker 3: a man's desire to love and to be loved.
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  Speaker 1: Hilda seems amused.
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  Speaker 3: Ay you may laugh, but those who seek to laugh
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  Speaker 3: may find methinks more fitting merriment in such mad love
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  Speaker 3: as deals with sun dials, trees, rocks and fountains, and
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  Speaker 3: such baby game. My love at least is human in
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  Speaker 3: its aim. It's well you should know this beyond your guard.
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  Speaker 1: Exit musta.
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  Speaker 4: In truth. The love that musta laughs at tells how
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  Speaker 4: strangely ordered is a woman's heart. Dost thou remember how
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  Speaker 4: when first we came to this fair isle, I said,
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  Speaker 4: in thoughtless jest, A woman's heart must love, and we
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  Speaker 4: are women, so let us choose our loves. Then, looking
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  Speaker 4: round this running fountain shall be mine. I cried, and,
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  Speaker 4: kneeling by the brink, then sealed the vow, as all
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  Speaker 4: such vows are sealed TwixT men and women. And thou,
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  Speaker 4: poor child, pleased with the jest, replied, I take this
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  Speaker 4: style to be my love for life. Waver. We little
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  Speaker 4: thought that in those words we pledged ourselves to an
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  Speaker 4: abiding love that rivals in its pure intensity the love
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  Speaker 4: that we had banished from our hearts. Yet so it
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  Speaker 4: is we have so dwelt upon this idle fancy, keeping
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  Speaker 4: it alive with songs and sighs and vows of constancy,
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  Speaker 4: that we have tricked ourselves into a love akin to
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  Speaker 4: that which we yet all forsworn. I loved this little
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  Speaker 4: fountain as my life.
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  Speaker 5: To me, my dial is more, far more than life.
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  Speaker 5: It is the chronicle of the world's life, gridden by
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  Speaker 5: Heaven's own hand. As wrapt in thought, I watch its silent,
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  Speaker 5: solemn shadow creep from hour to hour, and so from
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  Speaker 5: day to day, true as the sun itself, an awful
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  Speaker 5: record of Heaven's most perfect and most glorious order. My
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  Speaker 5: love is lost and reverential. Awe, Oh, I have chosen
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  Speaker 5: well in choosing this. It is a holy thing that
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  Speaker 5: bears a warrant sent from the source of life, to
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  Speaker 5: tell the earth that even time is hastening to its end.
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  Speaker 5: What is mere world love to such love as this?
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  Speaker 4: And yet thou hast no cause to shun world love.
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  Speaker 4: When my great sorrow came and I withdrew to this
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  Speaker 4: lone isle with other broken hearts, thou heart, whole and
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  Speaker 4: untouched by love of men, yet gavest up the world
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  Speaker 4: and all it holds to bide with me.
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  Speaker 8: I do not love the world.
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  Speaker 5: My darling sister found her sorrow there. The world is
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  Speaker 5: not to me, this tiny isle, but half a league
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  Speaker 5: in girth holds all. I love my world as where
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  Speaker 5: thou art there. Let me stay for the few months
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  Speaker 5: that yet remained to me. I think my time on
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  Speaker 5: earth will be but brief.
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  Speaker 4: Hush, hush, waviir. I will not hear these things.
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  Speaker 5: My life has been a very happy life, so free
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  Speaker 5: from pain and sorrow of its own that but then
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  Speaker 5: I have shared my sister's grief. I had not known
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  Speaker 5: what pain and sorrow are. Yet even this calm rest,
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  Speaker 5: this changeless peace, SAPs my poor, fragile fabric day by day,
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  Speaker 5: and the first shaft that sorrow aims at it may
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  Speaker 5: shake its puny structure to the ground.
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  Speaker 4: Why what said silly fancies this wirvir Thou hast no pain, my.
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  Speaker 5: Child, No pain, indeed, but a calm happiness. So strangely still,
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  Speaker 5: it comes not of this world. I am to die
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  Speaker 5: ere very long, pray heaven.
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  Speaker 8: I be prepared.
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  Speaker 4: It's well for me and well for both of us.
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  Speaker 4: I do not share these foolish fantasies. Why silly child,
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  Speaker 4: believest thou that time with ye the fruit that ripens
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  Speaker 4: on those cheeks, and note a dainty banquet of those lips,
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  Speaker 4: and not preserve such rich and radiant fear for his
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  Speaker 4: own feasting in his own good time. Trust the old epicure.
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  Speaker 1: Excellent Hilda and Vavia together And to Florian he comes down,
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  Speaker 1: looking around him in admiration.
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  Speaker 9: Ah, men who say I am five and twenty lie
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  Speaker 9: I was born but today an hour ago? Yes, this
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  Speaker 9: must be the world, the distant land in which I've
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  Speaker 9: passed so many years, and which I, in my puppy
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  Speaker 9: blindness called the world is but its ante chamber.
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  Speaker 1: And to musta with book born.
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  Speaker 9: Today and by a process which is new to me.
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  Speaker 9: My faculties are scarcely wide awake. But if my memory
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  Speaker 9: serves me faithfully, this twisted thing and I have met before.
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  Speaker 3: The ladies are at supper. Now's my time to master,
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  Speaker 3: undisturbed by curious eyes, the ghostly secrets of my spirit book?
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  Speaker 3: Or where was I? Ah takes Gaminy and Rue with
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  Speaker 3: henbane gathered.
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  Speaker 1: Florian coming behind and taking book from him.
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  Speaker 3: Pardon me, that's mine, Oh Heaven and Earth a man, Thou,
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  Speaker 3: hearty fool, what dost thou on this isle?
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  Speaker 1: Draw's knife?
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  Speaker 3: Come answer me?
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  Speaker 2: Give me that knife?
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  Speaker 1: Twisted it out of his hand.
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  Speaker 2: That's well, now what's your will?
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  Speaker 3: Go get the hands at once.
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  Speaker 2: No, not just yet.
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  Speaker 9: This paradise, if rumor tells the truth, is ruled by
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  Speaker 9: six fair lady, I prefer to take my sailing orders
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  Speaker 9: from their lips.
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  Speaker 3: Their lips are mine.
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  Speaker 2: Then you're a lucky dog.
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  Speaker 3: I am their mouthpiece. By their solemn rules, no man
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  Speaker 3: may set his foot upon these shores. Those rules I
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  Speaker 3: hardihood hath said it not, how camest thou? And when I.
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  Speaker 9: Am a prince, Prince Florian of Spain. I landed here
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  Speaker 9: from yonder boat about an hour ago.
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  Speaker 3: Liar the boat was empty.
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  Speaker 2: No, not quite. I was on board, but I was
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  Speaker 2: on the beach.
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  Speaker 9: I know you were, with boat ouk in your hand
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  Speaker 9: to thrust her off. You held me angrily. I had
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  Speaker 9: no time to stop in parley then, so, and I
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  Speaker 9: hope that fate would furnish me with some more fitting
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  Speaker 9: opportunity to offer you my best apologies. I kept her
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  Speaker 9: head to land and jumped ashore. Those best apologies I offer.
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  Speaker 3: Now if you'll believe me, sir, I saw you not.
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  Speaker 9: I quite believe you, For I have the power to
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  Speaker 9: make myself invisible at will. And having such a power,
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  Speaker 9: you'll see at once that force will serve you nothing,
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  Speaker 9: say you true?
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  Speaker 2: Undoubtedly, I've but to wine this.
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  Speaker 1: Veil, producing a gray gaul's veil with gold tussles.
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  Speaker 9: About my head, and I'm invisible, and so remain till
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  Speaker 9: I remove it.
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  Speaker 3: Why this is a priceless talisman, indeed invisible, I'd give
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  Speaker 3: one half my life to be invisible for half a day.
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  Speaker 2: Indeed, And why there.
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  Speaker 3: Is no living thing but seeks a mate. What birds
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  Speaker 3: and beasts may do, musta may seek to do? I
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  Speaker 3: want to mate? And who do you think? I want?
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  Speaker 3: Some kitchen wench? One eyed, humped back and twisted like myself.
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  Speaker 3: I want the purest, fairest form on earth. Upon my words,
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  Speaker 3: you aim full high I do. Why not suppose I
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  Speaker 3: loved a kitchen wench and told her so.
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  Speaker 9: A decent kitchen wench would soundly box your ears.
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  Speaker 3: You're right, she would. My lady can't do more as
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  Speaker 3: I must fail. At least I'll fail for game worth failing.
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  Speaker 3: For as yet I've breathed no word. Were I unseen?
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  Speaker 3: I could take heart of grace and tell my love.
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  Speaker 1: Ha ha ha.
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  Speaker 2: What would you say?
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  Speaker 1: Ah?
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  Speaker 3: Ah, you laugh at me. But I've a wily tongue,
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  Speaker 3: and I can woo like an adonnis when I'm in
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  Speaker 3: the dark. A blind girl loved me once, a fair
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  Speaker 3: young girl with gentle face and gentle heart, but blind.
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  Speaker 2: How swear she was?
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  Speaker 3: Ah mark her not?
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  Speaker 10: She died?
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  Speaker 9: Well, peace be with her. Find me some safe spot
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  Speaker 9: where I can pass the night. I'll pay you well,
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  Speaker 9: ha ha.
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  Speaker 2: Why do you laugh?
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  Speaker 3: Had I your power to make myself invisible at will?
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  Speaker 3: I should take up my quarters in the castle where
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  Speaker 3: all the ladies dwell.
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  Speaker 9: I'm sure you would. Unfortunately, I'm a gentleman, and so
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  Speaker 9: that course is close to me.
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  Speaker 3: Ah, of course I did, But jest I beg your pardon,
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  Speaker 3: sir aside, if I could get that veil for one
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  Speaker 3: short hour.
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  Speaker 1: Ah.
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  Speaker 3: But I've drugs to lull a man to sleep. If
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  Speaker 3: I can tempt this squeamish popenjay to trust himself to me,
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  Speaker 3: the thing is done aloud. I've a poor cottage. It
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  Speaker 3: is close at hand, though humble, it is clean and
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  Speaker 3: weather tight. It will afford you shelter. Then for food,
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  Speaker 3: I've some dried fish and eggs and oaten bread. Quite
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  Speaker 3: at your service. Good, but hide yourself. Some one approaches.
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  Speaker 1: Florian covers his head with veil as Favia enters with flowers.
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  Speaker 1: Florian a sight to Musta.
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  Speaker 9: Who is this fair maid?
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  Speaker 1: Musta a side.
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  Speaker 3: Lady Vafiar, She always comes at eve to bid good
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  Speaker 3: night to this old sun Dial. Keep your ears open,
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  Speaker 3: and I'll warrant you your eyes will open too aloud,
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  Speaker 3: Lady Vafear, I bid you fair good night, good night
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  Speaker 3: to you.
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  Speaker 1: Exit Musta in truth, a fair young.
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  Speaker 8: Girl, dear sun Dial does know what day this is?
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  Speaker 1: Florian a sigh.
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  Speaker 9: He ought to know. It comes within the radius of
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  Speaker 9: his scalling.
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  Speaker 5: A year ago to day, and we too were betrothed.
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  Speaker 8: One happy happy year.
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  Speaker 1: Florian aside betrothed, I faith.
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  Speaker 2: Their lovers.
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  Speaker 5: Then I must devise some gift to mark this happy day.
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  Speaker 8: What shall it be?
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  Speaker 5: I'll weave a bower of rose and egglantine to place
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  Speaker 5: above thy head at eventide, when the full moon's abroad.
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  Speaker 5: No foolish moon shall cast false shadows on thy sleeping face,
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  Speaker 5: or make thee mutter incoherent tales of hours long since
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  Speaker 5: gone by or yet to come. No mad cap moon
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  Speaker 5: shall mar thy nightly rest or in the mischief of
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  Speaker 5: half witted glee, awake thy sleeping hours before their time.
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  Speaker 9: Florian Aside, He doesn't answer the insensate dolt. And yet
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  Speaker 9: such words are warm enough to rouse a tombstone into life.
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  Speaker 5: Hath brought thee flowers to deck thy stem.
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  Speaker 8: They live their.
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  Speaker 5: Little life, and then they die. But others follow them,
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  Speaker 5: and thou shalt have thy garland day by day, while
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  Speaker 5: I am here to weave it for thee.
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  Speaker 1: Florian Aside, Well, this.
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  Speaker 9: Is the oddest wooing on my word. A thousand pities
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  Speaker 9: that the lady's love should be lof sided. Come arouse
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  Speaker 9: thee dial be eloquent with thanks. I have am I
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  Speaker 9: to thank her for THEE in the interests of all
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  Speaker 9: true horrolocks.
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  Speaker 5: I am content to sit and deck thee silent though
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  Speaker 5: thou art, And yet I would thou hadst the gift
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  Speaker 5: of speech for one brief second time enough to say, Vavier,
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  Speaker 5: I love THEE with my whole whole heart.
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  Speaker 11: Florian aloud, Vavier, I love THEE with my whole whole heart.
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  Speaker 1: Favia, recoiling horrified.
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  Speaker 9: Who speake twas I thy dial?
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  Speaker 8: How terrible? What shall I do?
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  Speaker 9: Fair lady, Have no fear.
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  Speaker 8: Fair lady, it's a man. My sisters help. I am betrayed.
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  Speaker 2: Have patience for a while.
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  Speaker 8: Who and what art thou speak?
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  Speaker 1: Florian aside?
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  Speaker 9: What shall I say?
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  Speaker 1: Aloud?
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  Speaker 9: I am a poor, long suffering, mortal man, whom, in
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  Speaker 9: the stony substance of thy dial, a cruel magician holds incarcerate. Oh,
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  Speaker 9: marvelous and very pitiful.
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  Speaker 5: I pitiful, indeed poor prisoned soul.
• 23:11
  Speaker 11: Advancing there shalt thou, lie, said he, till some pure
• 23:17
  Speaker 11: maid shall have been constant to thine unseen self a
• 23:20
  Speaker 11: twelvemonth and a day.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: That maid art.
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: Thou alas poor man, I fain, would set thee free?
• 23:32
  Speaker 8: Yet I have loved not thee, but this thy tomb.
• 23:38
  Speaker 9: Thou canst not separate me from my tomb, except by
• 23:41
  Speaker 9: loving me. In loving it, thou lovest me who am
• 23:44
  Speaker 9: bound up with it, and in so loving me, provided
• 23:48
  Speaker 9: that thy love a twelvemonth old lass one day more,
• 23:52
  Speaker 9: thou givest me my freedom and my life. If thou
• 23:56
  Speaker 9: hast loved thy dial, thou hast loved me.
• 24:00
  Speaker 8: Yes, I have loved my dial.
• 24:04
  Speaker 9: But earnestly with a surpassing love.
• 24:08
  Speaker 8: I cannot say.
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: I am ill versed in the degrees of love. Judge
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: for thyself. When I am weak and ill, my sisters
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: place my couch beside my dial, that I may lay
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: my poor thin hand on it. It gives me life
• 24:27
  Speaker 5: and strength. I know not why Judge for thyself. When
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: the black winter comes, my sisters weep to see me,
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: weep my darling's.
• 24:41
  Speaker 8: Brief day life.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: And when the bright, long summer days return, they join
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: my joy, because with light comes hope, and hope is life,
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: and they would.
• 24:56
  Speaker 8: Have me live. Judge for thyself.
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: At dawn of day, I seek my dial alone to
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: watch its daily waking into life. At set of sun
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: I come to it again to kiss good night upon
• 25:15
  Speaker 5: its fading shade. Then, with the prayer that I may
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: lay to heart the lesson of its silent eloquence, I
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: seek my bed so speeds my little life. If this
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: be love, then I have loved indeed. Judge for thyself.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Rises enter Melosine. A small hand mirror hangs from her waist.
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: The vere the evening dews are falling fast. The nitherir
• 25:50
  Speaker 6: teems with damp So come, dear love, return it once
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: with me, Oh, Melsine, I have a.
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: Secret aside to Dial, May I tell it?
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: Yes, a secret.
• 26:07
  Speaker 5: I a wondrous secret too, my son Dial hath ears
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: to hear withal, and eyes to see with all, and
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: a sweet voice, the gentle, tender voice to woo withal.
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: Oh, marvelous, How fortunate Vivie to woo and to be wooed,
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: and being wooed to keep her vow intact. I'd give
• 26:32
  Speaker 6: the world if my loved mirror were endowed with speech?
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: Have then thy wish, fair lady?
• 26:39
  Speaker 8: Why who spake thy mirror?
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: Spake now day of wonderment? Who gave thee speech? Art
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: thou enchanted too?
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Aye?
• 26:50
  Speaker 9: That in truth I am is all must be on
• 26:52
  Speaker 9: whom those eyes are turned so lovingly.
• 26:56
  Speaker 6: A very polished mirror.
• 26:58
  Speaker 9: As for that we mirrors are as other gallants are,
• 27:03
  Speaker 9: teeming with compliment to fair young maids, but apt to
• 27:06
  Speaker 9: be extremely curt and rude, with old and wrinkled faces.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: On the whole.
• 27:11
  Speaker 9: We are good galants as good galants go.
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: And dost THU love me.
• 27:17
  Speaker 9: Love thee gentle maid? Have I not laughed with THEE
• 27:20
  Speaker 9: and wet with THEE, and ever framed my face in
• 27:23
  Speaker 9: sympathy with all the changes of thy varying moods. Hast
• 27:27
  Speaker 9: thou e'er cast thine eyes upon my face and found
• 27:30
  Speaker 9: me light of heart when thou wart sad, or sad,
• 27:34
  Speaker 9: when thou wast light of heart.
• 27:37
  Speaker 6: No, no, most wonderful, and yet not wonderful.
• 27:42
  Speaker 9: I am but one of many. This fair isle teems
• 27:46
  Speaker 9: with poor prisoned souls. There is not a tree, There
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: is not a rock, a brook, a shrub, a stone,
• 27:52
  Speaker 9: but holds some captive spirit who awaits the unsought love
• 27:56
  Speaker 9: that is to set him free.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Melossine to Vavia.
• 28:02
  Speaker 6: We'll keep this secret safely to ourselves. If it should
• 28:05
  Speaker 6: get abroad, this little isle will barely hold the maidens
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: who will come, prepared to pass the springtime of their lives.
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: In setting free these captives come vivere, and we will
• 28:16
  Speaker 6: warn our sisters.
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: Fare THEE well, beloved, dial, I go to dream of THEE,
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: dream thou of me, God, send THEE son good night.
• 28:30
  Speaker 9: Excellent Vavia and Melosine, two maids at once bewitching and bewitched.
• 28:39
  Speaker 9: One loves a mirh. Well, that's not so strange, though
• 28:42
  Speaker 9: she'll grow angry with it ten years. Hence the other
• 28:46
  Speaker 9: loves a dial, a cold, stern fact that surely marks
• 28:50
  Speaker 9: the deadly flight of time. Wonders will never cease, Let
• 28:55
  Speaker 9: none despair. Old Chronos, enemy of womankind has sound a
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: pretty sweete after all.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Enter Lady Hilda, singing and playing on a mandolin.
• 29:08
  Speaker 4: Far from sin, far from sorrow. Let me stay, Let
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: me stay from the fear of tomorrow, far.
• 29:18
  Speaker 8: Away, far away.
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: I am weary and shaken. Let me stay, Let me
• 29:26
  Speaker 4: stay till in death I awaken, Far away, far away.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Towards the close of the song, she sinks on her
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: knees as a ray of moonlight falls on her. Florian
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: has watched her eagerly during the song, with every symptom
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: of the profoundest admiration.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, Heaven, enlighten me.
• 29:54
  Speaker 9: Is this fair thing a soul of earth, a being
• 29:57
  Speaker 9: born of a woman, conscious of sin, destined to decay?
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: Oh?
• 30:02
  Speaker 9: Good and ill? How shayye such a spoil can this
• 30:07
  Speaker 9: pure form instinct with Heaven's own light, clothed in the
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: majesty of innocence, have art in common with the vapor
• 30:14
  Speaker 9: toy we break and cast aside, How sordid earth, praise
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: Heaven that leaves this angel yet unclaimed, Oh heart of mine,
• 30:24
  Speaker 9: How wilful, wayward heart Thou down an armage, thou art
• 30:28
  Speaker 9: caught and caged.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: During these lines, Hilda, seated by the phantom, has been
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: playing with its water and kissing her wet hands.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: The sun has set, the fierce, hot, thirsty sun, who,
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: like a greedy vampire as he is, drinks my love's
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: life blood till it pines away and dwindles to a thread.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: The moon's abroad. She is not jealous of my fountain love.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: She sheds her gentle light upon our tryst, and dex
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: my love with diamonds of her.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Own florial aside for a senseless found to have thy
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: home in heaven and not.
• 31:14
  Speaker 9: To know it.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: Shall I tell THEE how I came to give my
• 31:19
  Speaker 4: poor bruised heart to thee? Or art thou of those
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: churlish lovers who can brook no love that is not
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: born of them? Why then I am unworthy in thine eyes?
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: For I have loved as women love. But once he
• 31:35
  Speaker 4: was a prince, a brave, god fearing knight, the very
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: pink and bloom of chivalry, proud as a war horse,
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: fair as the dawn of day, staunch as a woman,
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: tender as a man. He knew not that I loved him?
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: Who was I that he should mark the flushing of
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: my face amid a thousand maids, whose stricken hearts dance
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: to their lips. As he, my prince, rode by one
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: sullen winter day, dark as his doom, he left his
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: home to seek a distant land. A weary while I wept,
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: months passed away, and yet no tidings came. Then tales
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: were told of ships overwhelmed by boisterous wintry seas, and
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: rough men prayed, and maiden swept aloud, for he was
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: loved of all. Then came the news, at first in
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: shuddering whispers, one by one, then babbled by ten thousand
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: clamorous tongues. The cold, fierce sea had robbed me of
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: my love, my star, my light, my life, my Florian.
• 32:54
  Speaker 9: Florian aside, whose senseless dullet to have turned away from
• 32:59
  Speaker 9: heavens threshold.
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: At thine own free.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: Will, I wept. No more tears are the balm of sorrow,
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: not of woe. I fled my home a gentle sister
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: whose poor little life lives on.
• 33:13
  Speaker 8: The love I bear.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: It fled with me, so hand in hand we wandered
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: through the world till in this haven of pure peace
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: and rest we found safe sanctuary from our woe.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: Florian Aloud, who.
• 33:30
  Speaker 9: Would not die to be so mourned by thee.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: Hilda expresses alarm and intense surprise.
• 33:38
  Speaker 9: Fear nothing, I who speaking but a voice, the murmur
• 33:42
  Speaker 9: of the waters, shaped to words by the all potent
• 33:46
  Speaker 9: alchemy of love.
• 33:48
  Speaker 4: Oh, foolish maid, this is some mad kept.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: Dream, no dream indeed, or if it be dream.
• 33:56
  Speaker 4: On, canst thou then hear the words as speak to THEE?
• 34:02
  Speaker 9: I that I can, And every word I hear adds
• 34:05
  Speaker 9: fuel to my love?
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: Oh wonderful hast thou.
• 34:10
  Speaker 8: The power to love?
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: Indeed I have?
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: And is thy love akin to mine?
• 34:18
  Speaker 9: It is so near akin that as it comes to
• 34:21
  Speaker 9: Thine and lives on thine, so without Thine it dies.
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: If my poor love hath called Thine into life, so
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: is my love in duty bound to Dine. It's kith
• 34:35
  Speaker 4: and kin.
• 34:37
  Speaker 9: But if the rumors of thy Florian's death should prove
• 34:40
  Speaker 9: as rumors often prove untrue, if he should be alive,
• 34:44
  Speaker 9: loving THEE well, eager to tell his love to THEE.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: What then, thou, jealous found, what untold miracle would bear
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: the tidings to this lonely isle say that.
• 34:56
  Speaker 9: In wandering through the unknown world, chance led Prince Florian
• 35:00
  Speaker 9: to thee shores, and he, flushed with the radiance of
• 35:04
  Speaker 9: thy loveliness, stood manifest before thine eyes.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: What then, o Heaven, What then joy kills as sorrow kills?
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: I dare not think.
• 35:16
  Speaker 3: What?
• 35:17
  Speaker 4: Then? Let it suffice that I have given THEE all
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: that I am Thine, for ever and.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: For ay, and to muster unperceived. He places himself so
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: that the dial conceals him from Florian Untilda ever, and.
• 35:36
  Speaker 9: I are fragile flowers that fade before the breath of
• 35:40
  Speaker 9: an old love.
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: Long lost, O gentle voice, born of the falling water,
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: have no fear in Heaven's sight. I pledge myself to THEE.
• 35:52
  Speaker 4: What love is in me that I give to THEE?
• 35:56
  Speaker 4: What love thou hast to give? I take from THEE
• 36:00
  Speaker 4: kiss thou my hands.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Holding her hands for the water to fall on.
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: Henceforth we twain are one.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: End of Act one, Act two of Broken Hearts by W. S.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Gilbert This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. Act two scene same as
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Act one time sunrise. Enter musta cautiously.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: I left him sleeping souldly in my heart. He did
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: not drink the wine, but still.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: He sleeps producing veil.
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: I stole it from his pillow. Here is a prize,
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: poor devil that I am, whose only hope in meeting
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: other men on equal terms lies in his chance of
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: keeping out of sight. Ah, some one comes, I'll hide
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: thee carefully.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: Places it under a stone of tile.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: Some day, maybe thou'll do as much for me.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: Enter Florian angrily.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: So here you are.
• 37:26
  Speaker 9: I've sought you everywhere.
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: Ay I am here. You're early from your bed. Well,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: it's no bed for such fine folk as you. I'm
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: very sorry, But twas all I had.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: The bed was well enough. I had been robbed, I
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: I and how was that? There is a thief upon
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: this isle.
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: It's very possible. When people come and go invisibly, it's
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: hard to say who is or is not here? What
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: has the villain robbed a woman's heart? Two women's hearts?
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: How many women's hearts? If there's a thief here, it
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: is you or I. It comes to that.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: Now, what is it?
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: You've lost my talisman?
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: Your talisman?
• 38:18
  Speaker 9: Oh?
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: I see no cause for jest.
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: You don't observe a prince or some one who so
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: styles himself with power to make himself invisible, employs that
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: power to gain admission to an isle where certain maidens dwell.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: When there his talisman is stolen, and he stands revealed
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: before their eyes, the helpless, but of all their ridicule,
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: with naught to say. But, ladies, pray forgive me. I
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: had thought to enter, unobserved, to wander here and watch
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: your movements, also unobserved, and when grown weary of this
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: novel's sport, to take my leave of you, still unobserved.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: But as I've failed, so pray you pardon me. And
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: Doffy goes his tail between his legs like a well beaten.
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Hound Florian, seizing him misshapen imp Have you so little
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: care for such a dog life as warms your twisted
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: carcass that you dare to bandy jests with me?
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: Release me, sir? Had I your talisman? Do you suppose
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: I should be here before your eyes. No, no whoever
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: has the veil is using it. There are but six
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: of us besides myself. If one of those is missing,
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: why be sure that one has taken it. I'll go
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: and see exit muster.
• 39:57
  Speaker 9: The imp is right, and yet the talisman was safe
• 40:00
  Speaker 9: with me last night.
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: But who comes here? Confusion? It's the vere I shall
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: be seen. Where can I hide myself?
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Enter Vavia, She starts in intense alarm on seeing florian kind.
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: Heaven protect me. Who art thou and what dost thou
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: on this aisle?
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: If their maiden have no fear.
• 40:27
  Speaker 9: I am a knight, sworn on the sacred coat of
• 40:30
  Speaker 9: chivalry to hold all womankind and reverence. Listen, and I
• 40:34
  Speaker 9: will tell THEE all.
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Favia, who has recognized his voice, kneels as in adoration.
• 40:43
  Speaker 8: No need.
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: Thy voice has told me all I know THEE. Now,
• 40:50
  Speaker 5: O foolish heart, be still for all as well.
• 40:54
  Speaker 8: He will not harm THEE. This is he.
• 40:57
  Speaker 5: Whose words, through the still watches of the long long night,
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: rang like a mighty clarion in mine ears. Thavior, I
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: love THEE with my whole whole heart. Thou art the
• 41:13
  Speaker 5: messenger of hope.
• 41:15
  Speaker 8: And life.
• 41:16
  Speaker 5: For Heaven has not bestowed this joy on me to
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: take me from it.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am to live, Florian, raising her.
• 41:27
  Speaker 9: Why Heaven forgive me maiden. Can it be that thou
• 41:31
  Speaker 9: hast loved this dial of thine with love akin to
• 41:34
  Speaker 9: that which women bear to men?
• 41:36
  Speaker 5: Ay that I have as I was sould to save.
• 41:41
  Speaker 8: Why I have sat for hours.
• 41:43
  Speaker 5: And clung to it until I half believed I felt
• 41:46
  Speaker 5: a heart beating within its frame, And as I clung,
• 41:52
  Speaker 5: I thought I drew both warmth and life from it.
• 41:56
  Speaker 5: I wondered then that such a thing could be.
• 42:00
  Speaker 8: Oh, my dear love, I do not wonder.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: Now embracing him Florian aside.
• 42:09
  Speaker 9: God help thee, Gentlemid, I little thought, my heedless words
• 42:13
  Speaker 9: conceived an air and jest, charming so aptly with thy fantasies.
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: Aloud, be not deceived.
• 42:22
  Speaker 9: I am a mortal like thyself in all except thine innocence,
• 42:26
  Speaker 9: a sinning man unworthy of thy love.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: Be not deceived.
• 42:31
  Speaker 5: I know THEE, and I love THEE as thou art,
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: not as the spirit of my nightly dreams. But hast
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: thou art a man of life and death?
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: Hast thou then seen a spirit in thy dreams.
• 42:48
  Speaker 5: I have the spirit of the Sun dial, a godlike
• 42:53
  Speaker 5: form of fearful excellence, clad like the Sun in golden panoply,
• 42:59
  Speaker 5: his head surmounted with a diadem that shed eternal rays,
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: and in his hand a mighty javelin of gold and fire.
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: So I pictured the Son's ambassador, a god to worship.
• 43:16
  Speaker 8: Not a man to love.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: Leaning on his breast.
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: I had not guessed at half my happiness florian aside.
• 43:26
  Speaker 9: Now by my knighthood, I would give ten years to
• 43:30
  Speaker 9: find some way to break the truth to her.
• 43:33
  Speaker 5: Time was when I was very glad to die. I
• 43:37
  Speaker 5: did not fear what others seemed to fear. I have
• 43:40
  Speaker 5: heard say that brave, stout hearted men whose reckless valor
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: hath withstood the test of many a battle, plain will
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: quail and blanche brought face to face with unexpected death.
• 43:55
  Speaker 8: I am a.
• 43:55
  Speaker 5: Poor, weak girl, whose fluttering heart quakes at the rustle
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: of a leaf. And yet I did not fear to die.
• 44:05
  Speaker 5: I prayed to die. But now thou hast so bound
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: me to the earth. Thou, oh my first, my last,
• 44:15
  Speaker 5: my only love. I dare not think of death. O
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: let me live. My life is in thine hands. Oh,
• 44:25
  Speaker 5: let me live.
• 44:27
  Speaker 9: Yes, thou shalt live of thearth, so have no fear.
• 44:30
  Speaker 8: Thou wilt not leave me, only.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: For a while.
• 44:34
  Speaker 9: I will return to thee.
• 44:37
  Speaker 5: So hand in hand we shall grow old and die
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: still hand.
• 44:42
  Speaker 9: In hand, Yes, ever, hand in hand.
• 44:46
  Speaker 5: Oh, gentle heaven, I have more happiness than I can bear.
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: Exit, Favia, poor soul.
• 44:55
  Speaker 9: What shall I say to tell her now? Would be
• 44:58
  Speaker 9: to kill her?
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Pauses irresolute, then exit, and to musta watching them?
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: Oh, ho, young knight, I'm sorry for the fear. Well,
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: it concerns me not. The girl is fair, and traps
• 45:20
  Speaker 3: are set for her because she's fair, and she'll fall
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: into them because she's fair. Good looks should pay some penalty.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: That's only fair. Better be such as I am. After all,
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: No one sets traps for me. Ah who comes here?
• 45:40
  Speaker 3: The lady Hilda, parting from the fear, Come forth, my talisman.
• 45:45
  Speaker 3: The time has come to test thy power.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Takes fail from behind stone. As Hilda enters hurriedly, he
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: winds it about his head.
• 45:58
  Speaker 8: O spirit of.
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: The well, I've wondrous news. The poor enchanted soul till
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: now entombed within the sun. Dial hath taken human form.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: O gentle spirit, grant my trembling prayer. If thou hast
• 46:14
  Speaker 4: power to quit thy silver stream and stand in human
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: form before mine eyes, then by my long and faithful love,
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: I pray that thou wilt suffer me to see thy face.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Musta hobbles across behind the fountain and replies asked Florian.
• 46:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, I can take such form? What press me not?
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: And wherefore not?
• 46:40
  Speaker 3: I dare not show myself lest all thy love should fade.
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: Oh, have no fear. My love runs with my life.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: So women say, who live but once yet love a
• 46:55
  Speaker 3: dozen times?
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: I am not such as they.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: I know it well.
• 47:02
  Speaker 8: Then let me see.
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: Thy face, but once but once. Then thou shalt hide
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: thee to thy well again for ever. If thou wilt.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: That may not be once seen in human form. I
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: must remain a man with more than man's infirmities. I
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: am no shapely spirit framed to catch a woman's fancy.
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: I am roughly hewn, somewhat uncouth, misshapen. Some might say,
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: dost thou not fear to look on me?
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: No? No, take thou thy form, whatever that form may be.
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: But stay thou hast a serving man, a crumpled wretch
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: one eyed and lame, but passing honest, say that I
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: am such a wizard thing as he what then, O, Spirit.
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: Of the Well, fear not. My love is not a
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: thing of yesterday, nor does it spring from thought of
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: faith and form. I love THEE for thy boundless charity
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: that seeks no recompense, doing good works in modest silence,
• 48:14
  Speaker 4: from the very love of doing good, bestowing life and
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: strength on high and low, on rich and poor alike,
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: Embracing in thy vast philosophy all creeds, all nations, and
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: all ranks of men, holding thyself to be no higher
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: than the meanest wretch who claims thy charity, yet holding
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: none to be of such account as to deserve thine homage,
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: just to all lovely, in all thy modest deeds of good,
• 48:44
  Speaker 4: excelling type of godliest charity, Show thyself in whatever form
• 48:49
  Speaker 4: thou wilt, O, Spirit of the Well, and I perforce
• 48:54
  Speaker 4: must love THEE.
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: Be it so thou shalt behold me as I I am.
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: But first ere I do that which cannot be undone,
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: give me a solemn token that shall serve as evidence
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: of troth TwixT THEE and me.
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: Dost thou still doubt me.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: Then I doubt myself. I doubt my rugged form, my
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: rough hewn face, my crumpled limbs. See, lady, I exchange
• 49:26
  Speaker 3: my immortality for life and death. My d am I
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: godhood for the state of man, man undersized and crippled
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: and accursed. All this I do for thee. Let me
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: be sure that when I've done all this, thou wilt
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: not cry oho way distorted thing. My love is not
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: for such a thing as thou.
• 49:50
  Speaker 4: O, doubting spirit. Take this sacred ring. It is a
• 49:55
  Speaker 4: holy relic, and the vow spoken thereon binds her who
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: utters through life to death upon this sacred stone. I
• 50:05
  Speaker 4: do repeat my vow of yester night. I am thy bride.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Throws ring into the fountain, musta taking the ring out
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: of the fantin.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: Then lady have thy will, but bear in mind that
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: modest virtue oft will clothe herself in most unlikely garb.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: Mistrust All prejudiced, well favored hearts may underlie ill favored heads.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: We spurn the dirt beneath our feet, but nevertheless we
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: grovel in such dirt for diamonds, and sometimes find them there.
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: A comely face is but the food of time. A
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: kindly heart, time touches, but to soften think of this,
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: and in thy breast some pity may be found. For
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: the poor wretch to whom thy troth is given.
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Must reveals himself. Hilda, whose fears have been gradually aroused
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: during this speech, recoils in horror and amazement at seeing.
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: Him muster, O Heaven, what have I said and done?
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: Was thine the voice that spake my lady? Yes, Oh
• 51:22
  Speaker 4: cruel cruel.
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: Lady, pardon me. I knew not what I did.
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: O, wretched man, I pardon THEE. Thou dost not, canst
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: not know how deep a wound thine idle words have riven?
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: O heart, My broken heart.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: Sinks on the ground by dial my muster.
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: Shame upon THEE for this jest, this heartless chest, this
• 51:53
  Speaker 4: girl mockery. When thou wast sick to death. I tended
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: THEE through weary dazened, weary, weary nights, and bathe thy
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: fevered brow, and prayed with THEE and soothed thy pain
• 52:07
  Speaker 4: with such poor minstrelsy as I am mistress of I
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: sank to THEE and brought THEE pleasant books to help
• 52:14
  Speaker 4: THEE speed the legging hours of thy recovery, as my
• 52:18
  Speaker 4: heart seemed to THEE so stony heart that it could
• 52:22
  Speaker 4: bear this deadly blow unbruised. Oh, must shame upon THEE
• 52:28
  Speaker 4: for this jest?
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: Jest, Lady Hilda. Nay, I did not jest. Why look at.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: Me, Hilda gazing at him?
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: Oh, muster, Can it be that thou hast dared? No, No, impossible,
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: It is too terrible.
• 52:51
  Speaker 3: I I have dared. I studied necromancy, and I learned
• 52:58
  Speaker 3: to weave a mighty engine for myself, a web that
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: gives invisibility, producing veil shrouded than this, I wooed THEE
• 53:09
  Speaker 3: yester night. Oh I can woo at least I've shown
• 53:13
  Speaker 3: THEE that a voice rang music in thine ears. Twas
• 53:19
  Speaker 3: mine words thrilled THEE to the core. I spake those
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: words love filled thy very soul, twas I that wooed
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: my very self, stripped of the hideous mask in which
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: my soul stands, shrouded from the world. I woo like
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: that all day. But shut thine eyes or turn thy
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: head away, and I shall make as fair a husband
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: as the best of them.
• 53:47
  Speaker 4: Oh, horrible, Go get THEE hence away, take money, what
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: a will it, but gety. Hence, oh, medmen, medmen.
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: Why what could I do? Should I have reasoned with
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: myself and said, musta? When thou wast sick and like
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: to die, the lady Hilda came to thy bedside and
• 54:12
  Speaker 3: sat and nursed thee day by day twas nothing. When
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: writhing at thy very worst, her tears fell on thy
• 54:20
  Speaker 3: face like rain a woman's trick. When baffled death was
• 54:25
  Speaker 3: tugging at thy throat, her gentle prayers rose to the
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: gates of heaven, mingled with the insensate blasphemies of thy delirium.
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: Account it not go to thy labor, get thy spade
• 54:37
  Speaker 3: and dig. And when a foolish sob of gratitude rises
• 54:41
  Speaker 3: unbidden to thy croaking throat, they sometimes will, One can't
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: be sure of them, swear a big oath and whistle
• 54:49
  Speaker 3: it away lest it take root and blossom into love?
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: Was this my duty?
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: Think?
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: Ye? No, no, no, My bodies twisted, lady, not my heart.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: Hilta with forced calmness.
• 55:06
  Speaker 4: But say that bounding duty to the trust that thou
• 55:10
  Speaker 4: hast drung from me I taught myself. I will not
• 55:14
  Speaker 4: say to love to bear with thee. How could I
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: hope to live at peace with one armed with so
• 55:22
  Speaker 4: terrible a talisman, A talisman that vests in him the
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: power to come to me and go from me unseen,
• 55:31
  Speaker 4: and play the truant that his own free will thou
• 55:35
  Speaker 4: askest more than womankind can grant.
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Mister trembling with excitement.
• 55:43
  Speaker 3: Oh lady lady, give me but thy love, and in
• 55:48
  Speaker 3: that gift will lie the surest proof that I will
• 55:51
  Speaker 3: not misuse my talisman.
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: It may be so, but times an alchemist who changes
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: gold to dross. Some day maybe this love of thine
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: will sicken, wane and die. How could I bear this
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: widowhood of soul? Knowing that thou hast power to come
• 56:12
  Speaker 4: and go.
• 56:13
  Speaker 3: Unseen, musta overjoyed be sure, ah, neither come nor go.
• 56:19
  Speaker 3: My place is at thy side. Such love as thine
• 56:23
  Speaker 3: would surely chain the proudest prince on earth, And how
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: much more so poor a wretch as I.
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: I'll trustee not thout would lie heavy at my heart,
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: not less because I had no reason for that doubt.
• 56:38
  Speaker 4: Give me thy.
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: Talisman, nay, bear with me.
• 56:43
  Speaker 4: Give me thy talisman.
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: Well well tis thine, but bear in mind the troth
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: that thou hast pledged upon. This ring can never be recalled.
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: I know it well. I'll keep my truth. Give me thy.
• 57:03
  Speaker 3: Talisman, lady, tis thine. See how I trust in thee.
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: Do with it as thou wilt, Render it apart and
• 57:12
  Speaker 3: cast it to the winds. Its work is done giving
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: it to her. Behold me now, unarmed, Hilda, changing her manner.
• 57:25
  Speaker 4: Unarmed, Be thou as all should be, who use a
• 57:28
  Speaker 4: deadly power to such foul traitress ends. I am thy bride,
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: I am thy bride. Make thou the very most of
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: such poor comfort as those words may hold. Proclaim thy victory.
• 57:45
  Speaker 4: Say to thyself, she is my bride. I wrung an
• 57:49
  Speaker 4: oath from her with miserable lies. She is my bride.
• 57:55
  Speaker 4: She saved my wretched life, and in return I poison hers.
• 58:00
  Speaker 4: But still she is my bride. She shudders at my
• 58:04
  Speaker 4: all polluting touch, She loathes my mean and miserable soul.
• 58:09
  Speaker 4: What matters it so that she be my bride? O
• 58:14
  Speaker 4: pur blind fool, thy plot so subtly laid, is slad
• 58:18
  Speaker 4: too subtly. And the cunning sneer that trapped thy bird
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: is slaid too cunningly, For as it made me, thy
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: poor prisoner. So shall it hold me from thy deadly
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: grasp forever and forever. Raise thine head and look upon
• 58:36
  Speaker 4: thy bride for once and all for by the heaven above,
• 58:40
  Speaker 4: the eye of man shall never rest upon my face again.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: She covers her face with veil and exit.
• 58:49
  Speaker 3: Fiend, tear your throat a ragged no, no, I rave, Hilda,
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: Come back to me. I'll be thy slave. I will
• 59:00
  Speaker 3: enslave once more I did, but jest, my just is
• 59:04
  Speaker 3: dead and gone. Come back to me. I will release
• 59:09
  Speaker 3: THEE from thy plighted troth. I love THEE, Love THEE,
• 59:13
  Speaker 3: Love THEE. Oh, come back and save my soul and body.
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: Twas a jest and idle jest ah am thy drudging slave.
• 59:24
  Speaker 3: No more than that. I never thought of love twas
• 59:28
  Speaker 3: but a jest, twas idly done. But well, oh, lady Hilda, Oh,
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: come back to me.
• 59:39
  Speaker 9: Then to Florian, what is this outcry?
• 59:44
  Speaker 3: It concerns you not?
• 59:47
  Speaker 2: Where is the lady Hilda?
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: Who shall say?
• 59:51
  Speaker 9: Why thou shalt say? As there is heaven above, I'll
• 59:54
  Speaker 9: wring a civil answer from my lips.
• 59:57
  Speaker 3: Take any answer that may fit your food, and leave
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 3: me to myself. I'm not in cue for more cross questioning.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 2: Thine impish tongue is set awry to day.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: It is a wry. Take care, but stay. When you
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: were seeking for your talismen, you bade me ascertain if
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: any one were missing, very well, the lady Hilda's missing.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 9: Foolish ape, dost thou infer.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 3: I draw no inference. I state the figures, add them
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 3: for thyself.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: And to Hilda. Still veiled, she gazes in amazement at Florian.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 4: Hilda aside mercyful Heaven, restore me if I rave his form,
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: his face, his voice.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 9: Florian to mustera base liar, know that we are plighted lovers.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: She and I.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 2: She gave her heart to me, But yesternight, why should
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 2: she hide herself from me to day?
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: Perhaps access of joy hath driven her mad.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 9: I'll not believe thy tale. The maid is here and
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 9: can and shall be found.
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: Well, go and search, and if thou findest, sir, why
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 3: I'm a liar, reward me as thou wilt a fitch.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 9: Reward will be a yard of steel between thy ribs,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 9: and thou shalt have it.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 3: Thank you kindly, sir.
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Except Muster Florin sits dejectedly by fanton.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 4: Twas he that spake to me. How can I doubt
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 4: are there too such as he? Oh Heaven, is this
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: the senseless herald of a mind and strong? Let me
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 4: be sure he spake of me, who long had mourned
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 4: him dead. He told how shrouded from my gaze last
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: night he gave his Oh, gentle, Heaven, give me more
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 4: strength to bear this weight of joy.
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: She advances to reveal herself. When Vavier enters and sits
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: lovingly at Florian's feet, Hilda, horrified, veils herself again.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 5: At last, I've found THEE, Florian, far and near. I've
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 5: sought THEE. For I'm very strong today. Why what a
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: wise physician is this love? For see my eyes are bright,
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 5: my face is flushed, flushed with the glow of health.
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 5: This new born love gives me a new born strength. Oh, Florian,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 5: place thine arms round me. Let me rest on THEE.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 5: I draw my life from THEE, my.
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 9: Heart, my heart, Flori aside alas poor maiden, I must
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 9: tell THEE.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 10: All.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 9: May Heaven help me break the truth.
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 1: To THEE aloud.
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 9: Dear little lady, yell not up thine heart too readily.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 9: The world is set with traps and hidden pitfalls. Keep
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 9: thy gentle heart, for one who, by his pure, ungodly life,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 9: hath given THEE proof of his right worthiness.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 5: Favia surprised, Why speakest thou inmparable Behold? Have I not
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 5: loved THEE for a long, long year?
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 9: What proofst thou that I indeed am he whom thou
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 9: hast loved so long?
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 5: I have thy word, and had I not thy word?
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 5: I have my heart to tell me whom to seek
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 5: and whom to shine.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 9: Mistrust that little heart. It is not framed to guide
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 9: THEE of itself, like virgin gold, untainted by ally. It
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 9: is too pure for this rough, ready world of work.
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 9: A day, I have a tale to tell. There was
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 9: a knight who, as he journeyed, met a gentle maid,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 9: with whom he light of heart and light of tongue,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 9: conversed in playful strain. The maid was fair, and he
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 9: in jests maake loving words to her, believing that she
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 9: knew them to be feigned.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: At this point it begins to dawn upon Vavia that
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Florian is referring to her.
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 9: She pure's faith, having no thought of guile, tender and
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 9: trustful in her innocence, believed the mad cap Knight's unworthy
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 9: words and nursed them in her heart. He smit with shame,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 9: for he was plighted to her sister.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: Vavia, finding her fears confirmed, rises shrinking from Florian, expressing
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: extreme pain. He rises after.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 9: Her, whom he loved with an exceeding love, essayed with
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 9: clumsy hint and far fetched parable to break the truth
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 9: to her at length, At length, by very slow degrees,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 9: light came to her.
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 2: Shall I go on?
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 8: No need I know the rest? The maiden died. She
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 8: pardoned him. That died.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: Vavia during the ensuing lines shows symptoms of fainting.
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: No, no, Vivie, she lived. The Maiden lived.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 9: He was not worth a tear. She loved him well,
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 9: but still she lived, Vivie. But still she lived, if
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 9: only for the gentle sister whom she loved so tenderly,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 9: and for whose sake she, in the blushing daybreak of
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 9: her life, had yielded up the world. How safe she lived?
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: Vavia full senseless in Florian's arms. Hilda, who has been
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: listening eagerly to the latter part of Flora Marian's tail,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: kneels praying as the act drop falls. End of Act two,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Act three of Broken Hearts by W. S. Gilbert. This
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Act three, scene same as Act one,
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: About half an hour before sunset, Vavia discovered sleeping at
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: foot of sundial. Melusine is kneeling, Amansis is standing leaning
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: on dial. Vavia's head rests on pillows, and a cloak
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: envelops her.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 7: How peacefully she sleeps, Oh, Melusine. Can it be that
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 7: this solemn deathlike calm, is but the silent herald of
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 7: the end, as.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 8: She has lived?
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 6: So will our darling die gently and peacefully? This trank
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 6: will sleep and may change to tranquil death and give
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 6: no sign. So will she pass away?
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 8: But see she wakes?
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 7: What heaven that we had fairer news for thee My
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 7: poor Vivie.
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: Favia awakening and very feebly.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 8: Thy face is very sad.
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 5: Are there no tidings of my sister?
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 6: None?
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 5: Dear Melicine, keep not the truth from me. Some fearful
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 5: evil has befallen her. Tell me the truth.
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 6: See I am stronger now nay, calm thyself, Vivie, save
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 6: only that she has been sought and has not yet
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 6: been found. We have no truth to tell.
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 8: How speeds the day?
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 7: Thy dial points to.
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 5: Eight, one little hour, and then my son will set farewell,
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 5: O son, how gloriously he dies.
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 6: The sun will sink to rest throughout the night as
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 6: we shall rest, but not to die.
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 5: To die as we should die. The Knight has given
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 5: to the world that she may mourn her widowhood. He
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 5: knows no night, but journeys calmly on his heavenly path,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 5: wrapped in eternal light, and all a type of the
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 5: excelling life we try to live, of the all glorious
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 5: death we hope to die.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 6: See vavere see u Pumpkin Hill musta returning from his
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 6: weary search? Is he alone alas my darling, Yes, but
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 6: still perchance he brings some news to us. I'll go
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 6: and meet him. Stay thou here, Vivie, and I will
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 6: bring me tidings.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 5: Be it so be quick, Be quick, dear Melosine, and
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 5: then to both go seek Prince Florian. Then say to
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 5: him that I would fain have speech with him alone,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 5: if you will deign to grant me.
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: Audience, Excillent Melosine and amansus.
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 5: Another hour, and then my son will set o Hilda, Oh,
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 5: my sister, come.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: To me, Hilda, enters veiled.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 5: A loving day is drawing to a close. I dare
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 5: not face the cold black night alone. I want thine
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 5: arms around me and thy face pressed once again on
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: mine before I die. Oh, Hilda, Ho sister, come to.
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: Me, Hilda, unveiling.
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: And kneeling, wervier, fear nothing. I am here, my child Favia,
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 4: embracing her Elda, my sister.
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 5: Heaven is merciful, and thou art safe and.
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 4: Well, Yes, safe and well.
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 5: Where hast thou been Throughout the long long day? My
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 5: weeping sisters have been seeking THEE?
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 4: No matter now, Wervire, When thou art strong, I'll tell
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 4: THEE all, But.
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 8: I have nos for THEE.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 5: Rare news, Dear sister, dry those gentle eyes. The mighty
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 5: sorrow that hath bowed thy heart is at an end.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 5: Thy Prince, thy Florian, whom thou hast loved so tenderly,
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 5: he lives.
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 8: Hilda, my sister.
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 5: He is seeking THEE here on this island, he is
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 5: seeking THEE. Hilda, He loves THEE for he told me.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 4: So I know he loves me.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 5: Thou hast seen him, then, I know.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 4: He loves me I even more waviir, I know the
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 4: secret of thy heart, poor broken heart.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 5: Oh, sister, pardon me. I did not seek his love,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 5: nor knew why then that he had loved thee. Sister,
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 5: pardon me, or I have suffered very.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 4: Bitterly, Wavir, I have a prayer to make to thee. Wavir,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 4: Thou lovest him, Thy little life, more precious to us
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: all than all the world, lies in his hands. He
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 4: is thy life to thee, and pitying Heaven hath led
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 4: him to our shores to save thee for us. Take
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 4: no thought of me, for I have wrestled with this
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: love of mine and vanquished it. It lies beneath my
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 4: feet with assumed gaiety. Remember thou and I have but
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 4: one heart, and so that it is happy. What care
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 4: we whose bosom it may beat in dye or mine? Nay,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 4: But thou shalt not speak. I'll keep away. His eyes
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 4: shall never rest on me again. He will forget me then,
• 1:12:32
  Speaker 4: and wonder soon men's hearts are in their eyes. This
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 4: love of theirs must have its daily food. Oh, it
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 4: will die I'll keep away. So take him to dying
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 4: heart and tell him. Tell him that I speak in jest,
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 4: that I had plucked his image from my heart and
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 4: cast it from me twelve long months ago. Say that
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 4: my heart is cold and dead to him.
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 8: Say that, Say that.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: Hilda breaks down and sobs in Vavia's lap.
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 5: Oh sister, weep no more, thy prince, hath chosen, and
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 5: hath chosen? Well, what account of such a life as mine?
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 5: Why it is ebbing fast grief?
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 8: Not for me?
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: Then?
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 5: Yet I fain would live a little while to see
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 5: thy face once more alight with joy, as in the
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 5: old old days.
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 4: So shalt thou live to see my joy at thine
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 4: own happiness, Waviir, He will be sorry for a while.
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 4: Be kind to him. He will forget me, then, remember
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 4: all my love for him is dead. Kiss me, my child,
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 4: Kiss me again, farewell.
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: Hilda pauses looking at Vavia for a moment, then covers
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: her face with the veil and exit.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 5: Oh loving heart, sweet gentle sister heart, to bid me
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: blight the outset of thy life, that I may count
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 5: the time that's left to me by days instead of hours.
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 8: Come back to me. I have no time to love.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 8: The end is.
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: Near, and to Melosine, followed by Florian, obedient to thy summons.
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 9: I am here, yet I am very loath to look
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 9: upon the misery my heedlessness have caused.
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: Favia, leaning on Melusine with an effort to appear cheerful.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 5: Sir Florian, my pain is at an end. The blow
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 5: was heavy, for I am not strong, and jests are
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 5: new to me. Forgive me, sir. My brain is filled
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 5: with full fantasies that carry me beyond my reasoning self.
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 5: I pray your pardon. Think no more of me, save
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 5: as the subject of a merry tale, how a mad
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 5: maiden loved sun Dial and very dearly too. I have
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 5: some news to give you comfort. Hilda has been here.
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 5: She is alive and well.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: Then Heaven be thanked.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 8: But stay you met her as you came.
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 6: No, no, we saw no sign of her.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 5: It's very strange. She left me but a minute since
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 5: and took the path by which you came. Go seek her, sir,
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 5: be very sure. She waits you close at hand. Come Elusine, farewell, sir, Florian.
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 5: Tale gently with me when you tell the tale.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: Exit Favia, supported by Melicine. She shows by her change
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: of expression that the effort to appear cheerful has caused
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: her great suffering.
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 9: She took that path, and yet I saw her not
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 9: this but one cluded a strange mystery. She has the talisman.
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 9: By what strange means? It found its way into her
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 9: spotless hands.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 2: I've yet to.
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: Learn musta has entered during this speech.
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 3: Let me assist you, sir. I stole it from your
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 3: pillow as you slept, and used it for my end.
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 3: I took your place beside the fountain, and I wooed
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 3: her there, and there she pledged herself to be my wife,
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 3: and as a token, gave this ring to me.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 10: Showing ring why miserable apet Thou then lost the mere
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 10: life seeking instinct that inspires the very meanest of thy
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 10: fellow beasts.
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 9: Thou hast come to say those things to me.
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 3: I have I say these things to you because I
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 3: want to die. I tried to kill myself, but I'm
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 3: no hero, and my courage failed. She's gone from you forever,
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 3: and I come to mock the bitter blighting of your life,
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 3: to chuckle at the aching misery, to eat your heart away.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 3: I come to spit my hate upon you. If my
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 3: toad's mouth held the venom of a toad, I would
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 3: spit that.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: Come.
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 3: Have I said enough? Then draw thy sword and make
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: an end of me. I am prepared.
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: Florian drawing sword.
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 9: I need no assurance, yea on nay that some foul
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 9: planning of thy leperhart had worked this devilry Thou lovest her?
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 2: Thou lovest her?
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 9: Is there no blasphemy that devil shrink from? Hast thou
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 9: seen thyself.
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: Seizing muster and holding his head over the pool.
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 9: Look in the fountain, bend thy cursed head.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: Look at it, dog.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: Face, muster struggles.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 9: Shrink, not back appalled. It will not harm thee coward?
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 9: Look at it. What do we do with such a
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 9: thing as that? When it dares claim a common right
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 9: with man? We crush it under foot, We stamp it
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 9: down lest other reptiles take their cue from it and say,
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 9: if he is human, so are.
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: We flinging him on the ground? Mooster crouching on ground?
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 3: Spare me your tongue. I well know what I am
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 3: and what I've done. My life is forfeited. Strike at
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 3: the heart, be quick, I am prepared.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 2: Hast thou, no prayer, tatter.
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 3: No, not I curse you, be quick, I say, yet,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 3: stay one word before you pass your sword between my ribs.
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 3: Look at yourself, sir dight, then look at me. You comely, straight, limbed,
• 1:19:25
  Speaker 3: fair of face and form. I say not this to
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 3: court your favors. Sir, the devil take your favor. Ay
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 3: a dwarf, crooked, humped back and one eyed, so foul
• 1:19:38
  Speaker 3: the thing that I am fain to quote my love
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 3: for woman, to prove that I have kinship with mankind.
• 1:19:45
  Speaker 3: Well we are deadly rivals, you and I. Do we
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 3: start fair? Do you think? Are you and I so
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 3: nicely matched in all that wins a woman that I
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 3: should hold myself in honor, bound by laws of courtesy?
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 3: See but one word more than I have done. Had
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 3: I those shapely limbs, that fair, smooth face, those two
• 1:20:10
  Speaker 3: great godlike eyes, may lightning blast them as it blasted mine.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 3: Believe me, sir, I'd use no talismans. Now kill me quick.
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: I'm prepared. I only ask one boon of you. Strike
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 3: surely and be quick.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: Florian pauses for a moment, then sheathes his sword.
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 9: Go take thy life, all, none of it with one
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 9: whom heaven hath so defaced to let Heaven do. I
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 9: will not sit in judgment on thy sin. My wrath
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 9: has faded, and I look upon the seal that Heaven
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 9: hath set upon thy brow. Ay I could find it
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 9: in my heart to ask thy pardon for the fear
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 9: of my words. Go take thy life, make fairy use
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 9: of it.
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: Must much moved.
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 3: I thank you, sir, not for my blighted life, but
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 3: for the pitying words in which you granted. You've moved
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 3: me very.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: Deeply places the ring that Hilda gave him on Florian's finger,
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: then kisses his hand.
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 3: Curse the tears. I am not used to weep, my Lord,
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 3: but then I am not used to gentleness from men.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 9: Exit musta and happy creature, go thy ways in peace.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 9: Thou hast a toned, Oh Hilda, come to me, if
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 9: thou art here, if thou canst hear my words, and
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 9: by the love that thou hast born to me, by
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 9: all the tears that thou hast shed for me, by
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 9: all the hope thou hast held out for me, I
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 9: do implore thee to reveal thyself and to Hilda veiled
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 9: fear nothing, for I have the holy ring on which
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 9: thine oath was given by cunning fraud. That oath was
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 9: wrung from THEE. Fear nothing now, Hilda, unveiling, Sir, Florian,
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 9: I am here, oh Hilda, mine only love safe in
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 9: my arms.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 2: At last? Why didst thou hide thyself away from me?
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: Hilda hurriedly?
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 4: I hid myself to save my sister's life, To save
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 4: her life, I now reveal myself how fares the thee
• 1:22:42
  Speaker 4: alas her little life is ebbing fast from hard wounds
• 1:22:46
  Speaker 4: of thy making. Florian, I have no time to lose
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 4: on empty forms. I have no words to waste on
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 4: idle speech. My poor sick sister loves THEE much misled
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 4: by thy light words, she placed full faith in THEE,
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: and she is dying for her faith. Oh Sir, there
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 4: is but one physician in the world who under Heaven
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 4: can save my darlings life. Go to her now. If
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 4: thou hast loved me, Sir, be merciful and saved this
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 4: life for me.
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 9: Hilda, be just?
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 2: How can I do this thing?
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 9: Can I command my heart or deal with it as
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 9: I can deal with life for limb by heaven. I
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 9: would lay down my life to save the Via, but.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: Not my love.
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 4: I do not ask thy life. I have a life
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 4: to yield, if such a price could save my sister. Oh,
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 4: forgive me, sir, my weight of grief hath mad at me.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 4: And yet I ask for no one sided sacrifice. What
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 4: is thy loss to mine? For three long years, this
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 4: love of THEE tinged my devoted life with such blanks,
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 4: grow such utter misery, that I was fain hope, being
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 4: dead to me to sit apart and wait the far
• 1:24:09
  Speaker 4: off end. Then, when the end seemed yet too far away,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 4: the bright blue heaven shone through the lowering clouds. For
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 4: he whom I had mourned as dead, came back to
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 4: claim my love and crown it with his own. At last,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 4: at last, I hold THEE.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: By the hand, taking Florian by both hands.
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 4: At last I have thy love, O love of mine.
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 4: Thou art my very own, at last? At last, Well,
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 4: then said Florian, I yield.
• 1:24:44
  Speaker 1: THEE up, releasing him to.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 4: Save her life. I tear this new born joy out
• 1:24:51
  Speaker 4: of my very heart. For her, I crush my only
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 4: hope on earth. If I can yield the love of
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 4: three long years to save her life, canst thou not
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 4: yield thy love of yesterday?
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 9: The task is very bitter yesternight I learned that thou
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 9: whom I so blindly love, had blindly loved me years ago.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 9: To day, Thou bidst me take this love of my
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 9: Nosewhere art.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 4: Thou so sure that I have loved Thee? Along I
• 1:25:22
  Speaker 4: loved one Florian, a stainless knight, bravest the very truth,
• 1:25:27
  Speaker 4: and being brave, tender and merciful as brave men are,
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 4: whose champion heart was sworn in chivalry to save all
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 4: women sorrowing and oppressed. Nor did he hold that woman
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 4: to be bent, whose sorrow came of her great love
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 4: for him. Tell me, art thou the Florian that I loved.
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 9: If not that stainless Florian, yet one who would be
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 9: such as.
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 1: He taking her by both hans, I have thy love.
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 9: I have lived a loveless life till now. Well, then
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 9: I yield THEE up.
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: Releasing her.
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 9: If words of mine can save thy sister, I will
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 9: speak those words.
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 4: I knew it, Florian, I was sure of THEE. God
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 4: bless thee Florian. Thou hast saved her.
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: Life, kissing his forehead.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 4: Oh how I love THEE.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: With hurried emphasis.
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 4: Go to her at once, Go to her quickly, ere
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 4: it be too late.
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 9: Thy sister comes this way aside alas Via. There is
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 9: more heaven than earth.
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: In that pale face, enter Vavia, very pale and weak.
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: Supported by Melosine and amanthis Florian receives her in his arms,
• 1:26:53
  Speaker 1: and they lay her gently on the ground. Hilda rushes
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 1: to her as they on the ground near the sundial.
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: Florian kneels by her and takes her hand.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 4: Wavire, my love, my gentle sister. See he loves thee,
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 4: Floria and loves THEE. He is here to tell THEE this,
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 4: to call THEE back to life.
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 8: Come at his call. The earth is bright for THEE.
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 4: See how he loves THEE. Oh, wavier, come back.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 8: It is too late, too late. I feel the hand
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 8: of death upon my heart. So let it be. My
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 8: day is spent.
• 1:27:41
  Speaker 5: My tale is nearly told, Wavire.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker 4: We have here have pity on us, gentle little soul,
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 4: flying not to Thine appointed heaven, not yet, not yet,
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 4: not yet etern It is Thine spare but a few
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 4: brief years to us on earth, And still eternity remains
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 4: to THEE. He loves THEE. Florian loves THEE. Well, Oh death,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 4: are there no hoary men and aged women, weeping for
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 4: THEE to come and comfort them. Oh death, Oh death,
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 4: Leave me this little flower. Take thou the fruit, but
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 4: pass the blossom by.
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: Wep not.
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 5: The betterness of death is past. Kiss me, my sister, Florian,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 5: think of me. I loved THEE very much. Be good
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 5: to her, my dear sister.
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 8: Place my hand upon my dial. Weep not for me.
• 1:28:54
  Speaker 8: I have no pain. Indeed, kiss me again. My son
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 8: has set good night. Good night.
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: Vavia dies, Hilda falling senseless on her body curtain, end
• 1:29:19
  Speaker 1: of Act three. End of Broken Hearts by W. S.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: Gilbert