Words and Music
Page 3
WORDS: ... blunted. Some moments later however, such are the powers of recuperation at this age, the head is drawn back to a distance of two or three feet, the eyes widen to a stare and begin to feast again. (Pause.) What then is seen would have been better seen in the light of day, that is incontestable. But bow often has it not, in recent months, bow often, at all hours, under all angles, in cloud and shine, been seen, I mean. And there is, is there not, in that clarity of silver ... that clarity of silver ... is there not ... my Lord ... (Pause.) Now and then the rye, swayed by a light wind, casts and withdraws its shadow.
Pause.
CROAK: Groans.
WORDS: Leaving aside the features or lineaments proper, matchless severally and in their ordonnance-
CROAK: Groans.
WORDS: -flare of the black disordered hair as though spread wide on water, the brows knitted in a groove suggesting pain but simply concentration more likely all things considered on some consummate inner process, the eyes of course closed in keeping with this, the lashes . . . (pause) . . . the nose ... (pause) ... nothing, a little pinched perhaps, the lips...
CROAK: (anguished). Lily!
WORDS: ... tight, a gleam of tooth biting on the under, no coral, no swell, whereas normally...
CROAK: Groans.
WORDS: ... the whole so blanched and still that were it not for the great white rise and fall of the breasts, spreading as they mount and then subsiding to their natural ... aperture-
MUSIC: Irrepressible burst of spreading and subsiding music with vain protestations-"Peace!" "No!" "Please!" etc.-from WORDS. Triumph and conclusion.
Pause.
WORDS: (gently expostulatory). My Lord! (Pause. Faint thump of club.) I resume, so wan and still and so ravished away that it seems no more of the earth than Mira in the Whale, at her tenth and greatest magnitude on this particular night and shining coldly down-as we say, looking up. (Pause.) Some moments later however, such are the powers-
CROAK: (anguished). No!
WORDS: -the brows uncloud, the lips part and the eyes ... (pause) . . . the brows uncloud, the nostrils dilate, the lips part and the eyes ... (pause) ... the lips part, a little colour comes back into the cheeks and the eyes (reverently) ... open. (Pause.) Then down a little way (Pause. Change to poetic tone. Low.)
Then down a little way
Through the trash
To where ... towards where...
Pause.
MUSIC: Discreet suggestion for above.
WORDS: (trying to sing this).
Then down a little way
Through the trash
Towards where...
Pause.
MUSIC: Discreet suggestion for following.
WORDS: (trying to sing this).
All dark no begging
No giving no words
No sense no need...
Pause.
MUSIC: More confident suggestion for following.
WORDS: (trying to sing this).
Through the scum
Down a little way
To whence one glimpse
Of that wellhead.
Pause.
MUSIC: Invites with opening, pause, invites again and finally accompanies very softly.
WORDS: (trying to sing, softly).
Then down a little way
Through the trash
Towards where
All dark no begging
No giving no words
No sense no need
Through the scum
Down a little way
To whence one glimpse
Of that wellhead.
(Pause. Shocked.) My Lord! (Sound of club let fall. As before.) My Lord! (Shuffling slippers, with halts. They die away. Long pause.) Bob. (Pause.) Bob!
MUSIC: Brief rude retort.
WORDS: Music. (Imploring.) Music!
Pause.
MUSIC: Rap of baton and statement with elements already used or wellhead alone.
Pause.
WORDS: Again. (Pause. Imploring.) Again!
MUSIC: As before or only very slightly varied.
Pause.
WORDS: Deep sigh.
END
|
