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Page 105
STRANGER. Mother!
LADY. Yes, my child, your mother! In life I could never caress you--
the will of higher powers denied it me. Why that was I don't dare
to ask.
STRANGER. But my mother's dead?
LADY. She was; but the dead aren't dead, and maternal love can
conquer death. Didn't you know that? Come, my child, I'll repay
where I have been to blame. I'll rock you to sleep on my knees.
I'll wash you clean from the ... (She omits the word she cannot
bring herself to utter) of hate and sin. I'll comb your hair,
matted with the sweat of fear; and air a pure white sheet for you
at the fire of a home--a home you've never had, you who've known no
peace, you homeless one, son of Hagar, the serving woman, born of a
slave, against whom every man's hand was raised. The ploughmen
ploughed your back and seared deep furrows there. Come, I'll heal
your wounds, and suffer your sorrows. Come!
STRANGER (who has been weeping so violently that his whole body has
been trembling, now goes to the cliff on the left where the MOTHER
stands with open arms.) I'm coming!
TEMPTER. I can do nothing now. But one day we shall meet again! (He
disappears behind the cliff.)
Curtain.
SCENE II
ROCKY LANDSCAPE ON THE MOUNTAIN
[Higher up the mountain; among the clouds a rocky landscape with a
bog round it. The MOTHER on a rock, climbing until she disappears
into the cloud. The STRANGER stops, bewildered.]
STRANGER. Oh, Mother, Mother! Why are you leaving me? At the very
moment when my loveliest dream was on the point of fulfilment!
TEMPTER (coming forward). What have you been dreaming? Tell me!
STRANGER. My dearest hope, most secret desire and last prayer!
Reconciliation with mankind, through a woman.
TEMPTER. Through a woman who taught you to hate.
STRANGER. Yes, because she bound me to earth--like the round shot a
slave drags on his foot, so that he can't escape.
TEMPTER. You talk of woman. Always woman.
STRANGER. Yes. Woman. The beginning and the end--for us men anyhow.
In relationship to one another they are nothing.
TEMPTER. So that's it; nothing in themselves; but everything for
us, through us! Our honour and our shame; our greatest joy, our
deepest pain; our redemption and our fall; our wages and our
punishment; our strength and our weakness.
STRANGER. Our shame! You've said so. Explain this riddle to me, you
who're wise. Whenever I appeared in public arm in arm with a woman,
my wife, who was beautiful and whom I adored, I felt ashamed of my
own weakness. Explain that riddle to me.
TEMPTER. You felt ashamed? I don't know why.
STRANGER. Can't you answer? You, of all men?
TEMPTER. No, I can't. But I too always suffered when I was with my
wife in company, because I felt she was being soiled by men's
glances, and I through her.
STRANGER. And when she did the shameful deed, you were dishonoured.
Why?
TEMPTER. The Eve of the Greeks was called Pandora, and Zeus created
her out of wickedness, in order to torture men and master them. As
a wedding gift she received a box, containing all the unhappiness
of the world. Perhaps the riddle of this sphinx can more easily be
guessed, if it's seen from. Olympus, rather than from the pleasure
garden of Paradise. Its full meaning will never be known to us.
Though I'm as able as you. (Pause.) And, by the way, I can still
enjoy the greatest pleasure creation ever offered! Go you and do
likewise!
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