1.SCENE 1.—The Palace of NIGHT.
A large and wonderful hall of an austere, rigid, metallic and sepulchral magnificence, giving the impression of a Greek temple with columns, architraves, flagstones and ornaments of black marble, gold and ebony. The hall is trapezium-shaped. Basalt steps, occupying almost the entire width, divide it into three successive stages, which rise gradually toward the back. On the right and left, between the columns, are doors of sombre bronze. At the back, a monumental door of brass. The palace is lit only by a vague light that seems to emanate mainly from the brilliancy of the marble and the ebony. At the rise of the curtain, NIGHT, in the form of a very old woman, clad in long, black garments, is seated on the steps of the second stage between two children, of whom one, almost naked, like Cupid, is smiling in a deep sleep, while the other is standing up, motionless and veiled from head to foot.
2.(Enter timidly, on the right, in the foreground, TYLTYL, MYTYL, BREAD, SUGAR and the DOG.)
THE CAT (rushing up to TYLTYL) This way, little master, this way.... I have told Night, who is delighted to see you.... You must forgive her, she is a little indisposed; that is why she was not able to come to meet you....
TYLTYL Good-day, Mrs. Night....
NIGHT (in an offended voice) Good-day?... I am not used to that.... You might say, Good-night, or, at least. Good-evening....
TYLTYL (mortified) I beg your pardon, ma'am....I did not know....(Pointing to the two CHILDREN.) Are those your two little boys?... They are very nice....
NIGHT This is Sleep....
TYLTYL Why is he so fat?...
NIGHT That is because he sleeps well....
TYLTYL And the other, hiding himself?... Why does he veil his face?...Is he ill?... What is his name?...
NIGHT That is Sleep's sister.... It is better not to mention her name....
TYLTYL Why?...
NIGHT Because her name is not pleasant to hear.... But let us talk of something else.... The Cat tells me that you have come here to look for the Blue Bird....
TYLTYL Yes, ma'am, if you will allow me.... Will you tell me where he is?...
NIGHT I don't know, dear.... All I can say is that he is not here.... I have never seen him...
3.TYLTYL Yes, yes.... Light told me that he was here; and Light knows what she is saying.... Will you hand me your keys?...
NIGHT But you must understand, dear, that I cannot give my keys like that to the first comer.... I have the keeping of all Nature's secrets and I am absolutely forbidden to deliver them to anybody, especially to a child....
TYLTYL You have no right to refuse them to Man when he asks you for them....I know that....
NIGHT Who told you?...
TYLTYL Light....
NIGHT Light again! Always Light!... How dare she interfere, how dare she?...
THE DOG Shall I take them from her by force, my little god?...
TYLTYL Hold your tongue, keep quiet and try to behave.... (ToNIGHT) Come, madam, give me your keys, please....
NIGHT Have you the sign, at least?... Where is it?...
TYLTYL (touching his hat) Behold the Diamond!...
NIGHT (resigning herself to the inevitable) Well, then... Here is the key that opens all the doors of the hall.... Look to yourself if you meet with a misfortune.... I will not be responsible....
BREAD (very anxiously) Is it dangerous?...
NIGHT Dangerous?... I will go so far as to say that I myself do not know what I shall do when certain of those bronze doors open upon the abyss.... All around the hall, in each of those basalt caves, are all the evils, all the plagues, all the sicknesses, all the terrors, all the catastrophes, all the mysteries that have afflicted life since the beginning of the world.... I have had trouble enough to Imprison them there with the aid of Destiny; and it is not without difficulty, I assure you, that I keep some little order among those undisciplined characters.... You have seen what happens when one of them escapes and shows itself on earth....
4.TYLTYL (taking the key and climbing the first steps) Let us begin here.... What is behind this bronze door?...
NIGHT I think it is the Ghosts.... It is long since I opened the door and since they came out....
TYLTYL (placing the key in the lock) I will see.... (To BREAD) Have you the cage for the Blue Bird?...
BREAD (with chattering teeth) I'm not frightened, but don't you think it would be better not to open the door, but to peep through the keyhole?...
TYLTYL I don't want your advice....
MYTYL (suddenly beginning to cry) I am frightened!... Where is Sugar?... I want to go home!...
SUGAR (eagerly, obsequiously) Here I am, miss, here I am.... Don't cry, I will break off one of my fingers so that you may have a sugar-stick....
TYLTYL Enough of this!...
(He turns the key and cautiously opens the door. Forthwith, five or six GHOSTS of strange and different forms escape and disperse on every side. MYTYL gives a scream of fright, BREAD, terrified, throws away the cage and goes and hides at the back of the hall, while NIGHT, running after the GHOSTS, cries out to TYLTYL.)
NIGHT Quick! Quick!... Shut the door!... They will all escape and we should never be able to catch them again!... They have felt bored in there, ever since Man ceased to take them seriously.... (She runs after the GHOSTS and endeavours, with the aid of a whip formed of snakes, to drive them back to the door of their prison.) Help me!... Here!... Here!...
5.TYLTYL (going to the next door) Let us look at this one..... What is in here?...
NIGHT Take care!... It is the Wars.... They are more terrible and powerful than ever.... Heaven knows what would happen if one of them escaped!... Fortunately, they are rather heavy and slow-moving.... But we must stand ready to push back the door, all of us together, while you take a rapid glance into the cavern....
(TYLTYL, with a thousand precautions, opens the door ajar so that there is only a little gap to which he can put his eye. He at once doubles his back against the door, shouting.)
TYLTYL Quick! Quick!... Push with all your might!... They have seen me!... They are all coming!... They are breaking down the door!...
NIGHT Come, all together!... Push hard!... Bread, what are you doing?... Push, all of you!... How strong they are!... Ah, that's it!... They are giving way!... It was high time!... Did you see them?...
TYLTYL Yes, yes!... They are huge and awful!... I don't think that they have the Blue Bird....
NIGHT You may be sure they haven't.... If they had, they would eat him at once.... Well, have you had enough of it?... You see there is nothing to be done....
6. (He places the key in the lock. A cry of alarm comes from the other end of the hall, where the runaways have taken refuge. The key has hardly touched the door before its tall and wide leaves open in the middle, glide apart and disappear on either side in the thickness of the walls, suddenly revealing the most unexpected of gardens, unreal, infinite and ineffable, a dream-garden bathed in nocturnal light, where, among stars and planets, illumining all that they touch, flying ceaselessly from jewel to jewel and from moonbeam to moonbeam, fairy-like blue birds hover perpetually and harmoniously down to the confines of the horizon, birds innumerable to the point of appearing to be the breath, the azured atmosphere, the very substance of the wonderful garden.)
TYLTYL (dazzled, bewildered, standing in the light of the garden) Oh!... Heaven!... (Turning to those who have fled) Come quickly!... They are here!... It's they, it's they, it's they!... We have them at last!... Thousands of blue birds!... Millions!.... Thousands of millions!... There will be too many!... Come, Mytyl!... Come, Tylô!... Come, all!... Help me!... (Darting in among the birds.) You can catch them by handfuls!... They are not shy!... They are not afraid of us!.... Here! Here!.... (MYTYL and the others run up. They all enter the dazzling garden, except NIGHT and the CAT.) You see!... There are too many of them!... They fly into my hands!... Look, they are eating the moonbeams!... Mytyl, where are you?.... There are so many blue wings, so many feathers falling that one cannot see anything for them!.... Don't bite them, Tylô!.... Don't hurt them!.... Take them very gently!....
MYTYL (covered with blue birds) I have caught seven already!.... Oh, how they flap their wings!.... I can't hold them!....
TYLTYL Nor can I!.... I have too many of them!... They're escaping!.... They're coming back!.... Tylô has some, too!.... They will drag us with them!.... They will take us up to the sky!.... Quick, let us go out this way!.... Light is waiting for us!.... How pleased she will be!.... This way, this way!...
7. (They escape from the garden, with their hands full of struggling birds, and, crossing the whole hall amid the mad whirl of the azure wings, go out on the right, where they first entered, followed by BREAD and SUGAR, who have caught no birds. NIGHT and the CAT, left alone, return to the back of the stage and look anxiously into the garden.)
NIGHT Haven't they got him?...
THE CAT No.... I see him there, on that moonbeam.... They could not reach him, he kept too high....
(The CURTAIN falls. Immediately after, before the dropped curtain, ENTER, at the same time, on the left, LIGHT and on the right, TYLTYL, MYTYL and the DOG, who run up all covered by the birds which they have captured. But already the birds appear lifeless and, with hanging heads and drooping wings, are nothing more in their hands than inert remains.)
LIGHT Well, have you caught him?...
TYLTYL Yes, yes!...As many as we wanted!... There are thousands of them!... Here they are!... Do you see them?... (Looking at the birds, which he holds out to LIGHT, and perceiving that they are dead) Why, they are dead!... What have they done to them?... Yours too, Mytyl?... Tylô's also?... (Angrily flinging down the dead bodies of the birds) Oh, this is too bad?... Who killed them?... I am too unhappy!...
(He hides his head in his arms and his whole frame is shaken with sobs.)
LIGHT (pressing him maternally in her arms) Do not cry, my child.... You did not catch the one that is able to live in broad daylight.... He has gone elsewhere.... We shall find him again....
THE DOG (looking at the dead birds)) Are they good to eat?....
(They all go out on the left.)