Chapter 11Scene 5

A room in Vasavadutta’s apartments.

I govern no longer what I speak and do. Is this the fire my mother spoke of? Oh, It is sweet, is sweet. But I will not be mastered By any equal creature. Let him serve Obediently and I will load his lovely head With costliest favours. He’s my own, my own, My slave, my toy to play with as I choose, And shall not dare to play with me. I think he dares; I do not know, I think he would presume. He’s gentle, brilliant, bold and beautiful. I’ll send for him and chide and put him down; I’ll chide him harshly; he must not presume. O, I have forgotten almost my father’s will; Yet it was mine. Before I lose it quite, I will compel a promise from the boy. Will it be hard when he is all my own?

(she calls) Umba! Bring Vuthsa to me from his tower. His music is a voice that cries to me, His songs are chains he hangs around my heart. I must not hear them often; I forget That I am Vasavadutta, that he is My house’s foe and only Vuthsa feel, Think Vuthsa only, while my captive heart Beats in world-Vuthsa and on Vuthsa throbs. This must not be.

Umba brings in Vuthsa and retires.

Go, Umba. Vuthsa, stand Before me.

VUTHSA

It is my sovereign’s voice that speaks.

Be silent! Lower thy eyes; they are too bold To gaze on me, my slave.

VUTHSA

Blame not my eyes; They follow the dumb motion of a heart Uplifted to adore thee.

Dost thou really Adore me, Vuthsa?

VUTHSA

Earth’s one goddess, yes.

But, Vuthsa, men adore with humble eyes Upon their deity’s feet.

VUTHSA

Oh, let me so Adore thee then, thus humble at thy feet, Their sleeping moonbeams in my eyes, and place My hands in Paradise beneath these flowers That bless too oft the chill unheeding earth. Let this not be forbidden to thy slave. So let me worship and the carolling of thy speech So listen.

Vuthsa, thou must not presume.

VUTHSA O even when faint thy voice, thy every word Reaches my soul.

Wilt thou not let me free?

VUTHSA Yes, if thou bid; but do not.

If really And as my slave thou adorest, nothing more, I will not bid.

VUTHSA

What more, when this means all?

But if thou art such, is not all thou hast Mine, mine? Why dost thou, Vuthsa, keep from me My own?

VUTHSA

Take all; claim all.

Cowsamby first.

VUTHSA It shall be thine, a jewel for thy feet.

Thy kingdom, Vuthsa, for my will to rule.

VUTHSA It shall be thine, the garden of thy pomp.

Shall?

VUTHSA

Is it not far? We must go there, my queen, Thou to receive and I to give.

I wish To be there. But, Udaian, thou must vow, And the word bind thee, that none else shall be Cowsamby’s queen and thou my servant live Vowed to obedience underneath my throne.

VUTHSA Thou only shalt be over my heart a queen, Yes, if thou wilt, the despot of my thoughts, My hopes, my aims, but I will not obey If thou command disloyalty to thee, My sweet, sole sovereign.

This reserve I yield.

(hesitatingly) But Vuthsa, if as subject of my sire, High Chunda Mahasegn, I bid thee rule?

VUTHSA My queen, it will be void.

Void? And thy vow?

VUTHSA Would it not be disloyalty in me, To serve another sovereign?

O, thou playst with me.

VUTHSA No, queen. What’s wholly mine, that wholly take. But this belongs to many other souls.

To whom?

VUTHSA

Their names are endless. Bharuth first, Who ruled the Aryan earth that bears his name, And great Dushyanta and Pururavus’ Famed warlike son and all their peerless line, Urjoona and Parikshith and his sons Whom God descended to enthrone, and all Who shall come after us, my heirs and thine Who choosest me, and a great nation’s multitudes, And the Kuru ancestors and long posterity Who all must give consent.

Thy thoughts are high. But if thy life must fade a prisoner here? My father is inflexible and stern.

VUTHSA Dost thou desire this really in thy heart? Vuthsa degraded, art thou not degraded too?

My rule thou hast vowed?

VUTHSA

To obey thee in all things Throned in Cowsamby, not as here I must, Thy father’s captive. There I shall be thine.

Leave, Vuthsa, leave me. Take him, Umba, from me.

UMBA (entering, in Vasavadutta’s ear) Who now is bribed? We are all traitors now.

She goes out with Vuthsa.

O joy, if he and all were only mine. O greatness, to be queen of him and earth. I grow a rebel to my father’s house.