PATIENCE Gentle Sir, although to marry I design--(Hey, but he's hopeful, willow willow waly!)As yet I do not know you, and so I must decline.
Hey willow waly O!
To other maidens go you--
As yet I do not know you,BOTH Hey willow waly O!
GROS.Patience! Can it be that you don't recognize me?
PATIENCE [down L.] Recognize you? No, indeed I don't!
GROS.Have fifteen years so greatly changed me?
PATIENCE [turning to him] Fifteen years? What do you mean?
GROS.Have you forgotten the friend of your youth, your Archibald? -- your little playfellow? Oh, Chronos, Chronos, this is too bad of you! [Comes down, C.]
PATIENCE Archibald! Is it possible? Why, let me look! It is!
It is! [takes his hands.] It must be! Oh, how happy I am! Ithought we should never meet again! And how you've grown!
GROS.Yes, Patience, I am much taller and much stouter than Iwas.
PATIENCE And how you've improved!
GROS.[dropping her hands and turning] Yes, Patience, I am very beautiful! [Sighs.]
PATIENCE But surely that doesn't make you unhappy?
GROS.Yes, Patience.Gifted as I am with a beauty which probably has not its rival on earth, I am, nevertheless, utterly and completely miserable.
PATIENCE Oh -- but why?
GROS.My child-love for you has never faded.Conceive, then, the horror of my situation when I tell you that it is my hideous destiny to be madly loved at first sight by every woman I come across!
PATIENCE But why do you make yourself so picturesque? Why not disguise yourself, disfigure yourself, anything to escape this persecution?
GROS.No, Patience, that may not be.These gifts -- irksome as they are -- were given to me for the enjoyment and delectation of my fellow-creatures.I am a trustee for Beauty, and it is my duty to see that the conditions of my trust are faithfully discharged.
PATIENCE And you, too, are a Poet?
GROS.Yes, I am the Apostle of Simplicity.I am called "Archibald the All-Right" -- for I am infallible!
PATIENCE And is it possible that you condescend to love such a girl as I?
GROS.Yes, Patience, is it not strange? I have loved you with a Florentine fourteenth-century frenzy for full fifteen years!
PATIENCE Oh, marvelous! I have hitherto been deaf to the voice of love.I seem now to know what love is! It has been revealed to me -- it is Archibald Grosvenor!
GROS.Yes, Patience, it is! [She goes into his arms.]
PATIENCE [as in a trance] We will never, never part!
GROS.We will live and die together!
PATIENCE I swear it!
GROS.We both swear it!
PATIENCE [recoiling from him] But -- oh, horror!
GROS.What's the matter?
PATIENCE Why, you are perfection! A source of endless ecstasy to all who know you!
GROS.I know I am.Well?
PATIENCE Then, bless my heart, there can be nothing unselfish in loving you!
GROS.Merciful powers! I never thought of that!
PATIENCE To monopolize those features on which all women love to linger! It would be unpardonable!
GROS.Why, so it would! Oh, fatal perfection, again you interpose between me and my happiness!
PATIENCE Oh, if you were but a thought less beautiful than you are!
GROS.Would that I were; but candour compels me to admit that I'm not!
PATIENCE Our duty is clear; we must part, and for ever!
GROS.Oh, misery! And yet I cannot question the propriety of your decision.Farewell, Patience!
PATIENCE Farewell, Archibald! [they both turn to go.]
[suddenly] But stay!
GROS.Yes, Patience?
PATIENCE Although I may not love you -- for you are perfection -- there is nothing to prevent your loving me.I am plain, homely, unattractive!
GROS.Why, that's true!
PATIENCE The love of such a man as you for such a girl as I must be unselfish!
GROS.Unselfishness itself!
No.8a.Though to marry you would very selfish be (Duet)Patience and GrosvenorPATIENCE Though to marry you would very selfish be--GROSVENOR Hey, but I'm doleful -- willow willow waly!
PATIENCE You may, all the same, continue loving me --GROSVENOR Hey willow waly O!
BOTH All the world ignoring, You'll/I'll go on adoring--Hey, willow waly O!
[They go off sadly -- PATIENCE, L., GROSVENOR, R.U.E.]
No.9.Let the merry cymbals sound (Finale of Act I)Ensemble[Enter BUNTHORNE, crowned with roses and hung about with garlands, and looking very miserable.He is led by ANGELAand SAPHIR (each of whom holds an end of the rose-garland by which he is bound), and accompanied by procession of Maidens.They are dancing classically, and playing on cymbals, double pipes, and other archaic instruments.JANElast, with a very large pair of cymbals.]
[The procession enters over the drawbridge, BUNTHORNE being preceded by the Chorus.They go R.and round the stage, ending with BUNTHORNE down L.C., with ANGELA on his R., SAPHIR on his L., JANE up C.]
MAIDENS Let the merry cymbals sound, Gaily pipe Pandaean pleasure, With a Daphnephoric bound Tread a gay but classic measure, Tread a gay but classic measure.
Ev'ry heart with hope is beating, For, at this exciting meeting Fickle Fortune will decide Who shall be our Bunthorne's bride!
Ev'ry heart with hope is beating, For, at this exciting meeting Fickle Fortune will decide Who shall be our Bunthorne's bride!
Let the merry cymbals sound, Gaily pipe Pandaean pleasure, With a Daphnephoric bound Tread a gay but classic, classic measure, Tread a gay but classic, classic measure, A classic measure.
[DRAGOONS enter down R., forming a line diagonally up to up-stage, C.]
Chorus of DragoonsNow tell us, we pray you, Why thus they array you--Oh, poet, how say you--What is it you've [optional -- you have] done?
Now tell us, we pray you, Why thus they array you--Oh, poet, how say you--What is it you've done?
Oh, poet, how say you--
What is it you've done?
DUKE [C.] Of rite sacrificial, By sentence judicial, This seems the initial, Then why don't you run?
COLONEL [R.C.] They cannot have led you To hang or behead you, Nor may they all wed you, Unfortunate one!
DRAGOONS Then tell us, we pray you, Why thus they array you--Oh, poet, how say you--What is it you've done?
[optional -- Enter SOLICITOR.]