The Collected Short Plays of Thornton Wilder, Volume II by Thornton Wilder
(Then gazing into Cheriander’s face) Do not tell lies to an old woman. He sent no message?
EPIMENES: None.
ALCESTIS: None?
EPIMENES: None but this. Can you see this belt? Queen Alcestis wove this for King Admetus before Epimenes was born.
ALCESTIS (Peers at it, and gives a cry): What manner of young man was he who gave you this belt?
EPIMENES (Mastering his impatience; as to a deaf person): Old woman, is Queen Alcestis near? Make some answer: yes or no. This is unendurable. Can you call Queen Alcestis, or can’t you?
ALCESTIS: I am Alcestis.
CHERIANDER (After amazed silence, falls on one knee; gazing into her face): You . . . you are Alcestis?
EPIMENES (Standing rigid, one fist on his forehead): I am ashamed to say my name. (He also sinks to one knee) I am Epimenes.
ALCESTIS: Yes—yes.
(Her eyes turning from palace to road) But in this danger . . . this danger . . .
EPIMENES: Forgive . . . me.
ALCESTIS (Touching his head): You are an impatient, self-willed young man, as I was an impatient, self-willed girl. It is time you were more like your father.
EPIMENES: You unhappy—
ALCESTIS (Almost sharply): —No. No, Epimenes. Do not call me unhappy.
EPIMENES: This misery . . .
ALCESTIS: No! Learn to know unhappiness when you see it. There is only one misery, and that is ignorance—ignorance of what our lives are. That is misery and despair.
CHERIANDER (Rising, intent): Ignorance?
ALCESTIS: Great happiness was given to me once, yes . . . but shall I forget that now? And forget the one who gave it to me? All that has happened since came from the same hands that gave me the happiness. I shall not doubt that it is good and has a part in something I cannot see . . . You must go now.
EPIMENES (Rising): We have come to kill King Agis and to regain the throne.
(Alcestis starts turning her face from side to side and murmuring, “No. No.”)
Our plans have been made in detail. This very night—
ALCESTIS: —No. No, Epimenes. The plague, the pestilence, has taken the place of all that. King Agis has only one thought, and one fear—not for himself, but for his child, Laodamia. The God is bringing things to pass in his own way.
CHERIANDER: We will do what she says, Epimenes, and go now.
ALCESTIS: Come back . . . in ten days. Go north. Hold your cloaks before your faces and go north.
CHERIANDER: Get your cloak, Epimenes.
(Epimenes descends to the spring.)
ALCESTIS: Where is your home, young man?
CHERIANDER: In Euboea—under Mount Dirphys.
ALCESTIS: Is your mother living?
CHERIANDER: Yes, Queen Alcestis.
ALCESTIS: Does she know my name?
CHERIANDER: Every child in Greece knows your name!
ALCESTIS: Tell her . . . Alcestis thanks her.
(Epimenes is beside her; she touches him lightly) Remember, I have not been unhappy. I was once miserable and in despair: I was saved from that.
(Pointing) Go through that grove . . . and follow the river.
(Sounds of Townspeople approaching. More breaking of gates. They come on to the edge of the stage, shouting. The Watchman and Guards come out of the palace in alarm. Alcestis beckons to the young men to descend and hide themselves by the spring. The Guards keep the people back by holding their spears horizontally before them.)
TOWNSPEOPLE: Water! We want water from the palace spring! The water’s been poisoned. King Agis, help us!
GUARDS: Back! Back and out—all of you!
(Enter from the palace King Agis. He is dressed in a barbaric, ornate costume. He is forty; a thick cap of black hair over a low forehead. His face is also streaked with ashes.)
AGIS: How did these people get into the court?
TOWNSPEOPLE: King Agis, help us!
AGIS: This eternal “Help us!” I’m doing what I can. Which one of you let these people in?
GUARDS (In confusion): Sire—they’ve broken the gates. We can’t hold them.
AGIS: Cowards! Do your duty. You’re afraid to go near them, that’s the trouble.
(To the Townspeople) Stand back!
(To a Guard) What is that they were saying about water?
FIRST GUARD: They say, Your Greatness, they think that the springs in the town have been poisoned, and they want some water from the springs in the palace.
AGIS: Very well, you shall have water from these springs.
(Holding a corner of his robe before his nose, he points to a man who has crawled far forward on his knees.)
Get back, you! People of Pherai, I have news for you. I thought I had done all a king could do; and now I find there is one more thing to be done. Where’s this Alcestis?
WATCHMAN: She is here, Your Greatness.
AGIS (Turns and looks at her in long, slow contempt, and says slowly): So . . . you . . . are . . . the bringer of all this evil! This is a great day, people of Pherai, for at last we have come to the heart of this matter. If it can be shown that this woman has brought this disease upon us, she will be stoned to death or driven from the country.
(To Alcestis) Woman, is it true that you were dead—dead and buried—and that you were brought back to life?
ALCESTIS: It is true.
AGIS: And that you and your husband believed that this was done by Hercules, with the aid of Apollo, and as a sign of Apollo’s favor?
ALCESTIS: We believed it, and it is true.
AGIS: And is it true that you and your husband believed that Apollo was here for a year’s time, out of love and favor for you and Thessaly?
ALCESTIS: We believed it, and it is true.
AGIS: And where is that love now? People of Pherai, this is Apollo’s land. If Apollo formerly extended favor to this woman and to her family, is it not clear to you now that his favor has turned to hatred?
(The crowd is silent) Yes or no?
(Contradictory murmurs) What? You are of mixed mind? You dolts! Have you forgotten that this plague is raging among you? Watchman!
WATCHMAN: Yes, sire?
AGIS: Before the gates of the palace were closed, did you see the effects of the disease, and how it struck?
WATCHMAN: Yes, sire, I saw it.
AGIS: Describe it!
WATCHMAN: Your Greatness, it is not just one—there are three diseases. The first comes suddenly, like—
(A Guard has come from the palace, and presents himself before King Agis.)
AGIS (Irritably): Well, what is it? What is it?
SECOND GUARD: Sire, your daughter is beating on her door. She says she wishes to be let out. She says she wishes to be where you are. Without stopping she is beating on her door.
AGIS (With a reflection of his tenderness for her; urgently): Tell her that I shall be with her soon; that I have work to do here. Tell her to be patient; tell her that I shall come to her soon.
SECOND GUARD: Yes, sire.
(He starts toward the palace door.)
AGIS: Wait! (Torn) Tell her to be patient. I shall take her from her room for a walk in the garden later.
SECOND GUARD: Yes, sire.
(Exit.)
AGIS (To the Watchman): Three? Three diseases, you say?
WATCHMAN: The first one strikes suddenly, Your Greatness, like lightning.
AGIS (With a shudder, turning to Alcestis): Your work, old woman!
ALCESTIS: No! No!
WATCHMAN (His hands on his stomach): Like fire. That’s the one that strikes young people and children.
AGIS (Beside himself): Children! Idiot! Don’t you know better than to say words of ill omen here? I’ll have your tongue torn out. Avert, you immortal gods, avert the omen! Hear not the omen!
(To the Watchman) I want no more of this.
(Turning to the palace in despairing frustration) Oh, go away—all of you! Who shall save us from this night . . . this swamp . . . this evil cloud?
(He turns his head from side to side in helplessness and revulsion; then suddenly pulls himself together; resolutely, pointing at Alcestis.)
Speak then! Apollo the God hates you, and through you has brought this curse upon Thessaly.
(Alcestis, in silence, looks at him with a level gaze.)
Is that not so? Speak!
ALCESTIS (Taking her time): When Apollo came to this city, King Agis, his priest Teiresias said that that great honor brought with it a great peril.
AGIS: Peril?
ALCESTIS: You stand in that peril now. This floor is still warm-—is hot—from the footprints of the God . . .
(As though to herself almost dreamily) For a long time I did not understand this. It is solitude—and slavery—that have made it clear to me. Beware what you do here, King Agis.
AGIS (Throws up his chin, curtly dismissing this warning): Answer my question.
ALCESTIS: The gods are not like you and me, King Agis—but at times we are like them. They do not love us for a day or a year and then hate what they have loved. Nor do you love your child Laodamia today and tomorrow drive her out upon the road.
AGIS (Outraged): Do not name her, you . . . you bringer of death and destruction!
(He starts toward the palace door.)
ALCESTIS: We ask of them health . . . and riches . . . and our happiness. But they are trying to give us something else, and better: understanding. And we are so quick to refuse their gift . . . No! No! Apollo has not turned his face away from me . . . People of Pherai, had you ever been told that King Admetus was unjust to you?
TOWNSPEOPLE: No, Queen Alcestis.
ALCESTIS: Or I?
TOWNSPEOPLE: No-o-o-o, Queen Alcestis!
ALCESTIS: Do you believe that this disease has been sent to punish you for any wickedness of ours?
TOWNSPEOPLE: No! No!
ALCESTIS: If Hercules brought someone back from the dead, do you think he could have done it without the full approval of the gods?
TOWNSPEOPLE: No! No!
AGIS: Then what is the cause of this pestilence?
ALCESTIS: It has been sent . . . to call our attention to . . . to make us stop, to open our eyes . . .
AGIS: To call our attention to what, Alcestis?
ALCESTIS (Lifted head, as though listening): I don’t know. To some sign.
(There is a moment of suspended waiting. Then suddenly the First Guard, at the head of the path, sees the two Young Men and cries:)
FIRST GUARD: Sire, there are two strangers here.
AGIS (Coming forward as near as he dares): How did they come here? Guards! Close in on them!
(Guards gather above and in front of them.)
Throw down your swords!
EPIMENES: Never, King Agis!
AGIS: What can you do—caught in that hole there? Throw down your swords!
(Alcestis has been shaking her head from side to side, and murmuring, “King Agis, King Agis . . .”)
(To Alcestis) You brought them in. Neither you nor they have put ashes on your faces.
(To the Guards) Kill them! Kill them!
(Two Guards start gingerly down the path.)
Cowards! Traitors! Do what I command!
(Suddenly a Third Guard on the stage is stricken with the plague. He throws down his spear and cries.)
THIRD GUARD: King Agis! Water! The plague! I’m on fire. Save me! Help me! I’m on fire!
(Intermittently he yawns.)
AGIS (Recoiling, as all recoil): Drive him out! Strike his back with your spears.
THIRD GUARD (Alternately lurching from side to side, and yawning, and crying out): Water! Water! Sleeeeep!
AGIS (Holding his hands before his face): Push him out into the road.
(General tumult. The Third Guard tries to drag himself to the gate. Other Guards and Townspeople, averting their faces, try, with spears, with kicks, to hurry his departure. In these horrors, the Guards have removed their attention from Epimenes and Cheriander. For a second all that can be heard is exhausted panting.)
(Screaming) My wagons! My horses! . . . To Thrace! To Thrace!
(To Alcestis) Take back your Thessaly the Hospitable, Queen Alcestis! Rule over your dead and dying . . .
EPIMENES: Now, Cheriander!
(They rush upon the stage.)
CHERIANDER: Strike, Epimenes!
EPIMENES: Agis—I am Epimenes, son of King Admetus!
AGIS: Who? What is this? Guards!
(Alcestis, shaking her head, stands in front of King Agis, and with raised hands opposes Epimenes.)
ALCESTIS: No, Epimenes! No!
EPIMENES (Outraged by Alcestis’s attitude): Mother! The moment has come. He killed my father!
ALCESTIS: Don’t do it!
AGIS: Guards! (Taking distraught steps, right and left) Coward! Guards!
CHERIANDER: Listen to your mother, Epimenes.
ALCESTIS (Her back to Agis, but talking to him): Yes, King
Agis, go back to your own kingdom.
AGIS: Is that your son? Alcestis, answer me: is this your son?
(In rage and frustration at seeing his revenge frustrated, Epimenes is on one knee, beating the floor with the hilt of his own sword.)
EPIMENES: Revenge! Revenge!
ALCESTIS: Epimenes, remember your father’s words: that the murderer cuts the sinews of his own heart.
EPIMENES (Sobbing, his forehead near the ground): He killed my father . . . my brother . . . my sister . . .
(The Second Guard rushes from the palace.)
SECOND GUARD: King Agis! Your daughter, the Princess Laodamia! She is beating on her door and calling for you—in pain, King Agis, in pain!
AGIS (Arms upraised): The gods avert! Laodamia! Laodamia! Avert, you immortal gods!
(Agis rushes into the palace.)
ALCESTIS (Standing over Epimenes and placing her hand on his shoulder): A man who has known the joys of revenge may never know any other joy. That is the voice of your father.
(She turns to the Townspeople and says calmly and impartially) Friends, go to your homes and get baskets and jars. Go to the quarries beyond the South Gate, where sulfur is. Epimenes, you remember the quarries where you played as a child? That yellow sulfur that the workers in iron used . . . Burn it in the streets. Spread it on the dead.
(To the Guards) Help them in this work; there is nothing more for you to do here. Epimenes, stand—stand up. Direct them in this.
EPIMENES (Getting up): Yes, Mother.
(With quiet authority; to Guards and Townspeople) Come with me.
(They start off, but Cheriander returns and adds softly, in awe:)
CHERIANDER: Queen Alcestis . . . the sign you spoke of—from Apollo the God. Was this decision of King Agis—was that the sign?
ALCESTIS (With lifted listening head): No . . . the sign has not come yet.
CHERIANDER (With youthful ardor): You are the sign! You are message and sign, Queen Alcestis!
ALCESTIS (Almost insensible, shaking her head; softly): No . . . no . . .
(Cheriander dashes out after Epimenes. Enter from the palace King Agis, howling with grief.)
AGIS: She is dead! Laodamia is dead! Twelve years old. She is dead . . . (He beats his fists against columns and walls. He stamps down the stairs, then up them again) Twelve years old. Her arms around my neck. In excruciating pain. “Father, help me . . . Father, help me!” . . . Her hair. Her mother’s face. Her eyes, her eyes.
(He sees Alcestis) You—you brought this! You did this!
ALCESTIS (Murmuring through his words, as if entreating): Agis . . . Agis . . . Agis . . .
AGIS (Seizing her hand and touching it to his forehead and chest): Give me this plague. Let it destroy us all. “Father, help me!” She was everything to me. And she is dead—dead—dead!
ALCESTIS: Agis . . . Agis . . .
AGIS: You—whom Hercules brought back from the dead—you could do this.
(An idea strikes him) Hercules brought you back. Where was it?
ALCESTIS: Agis, I saw nothing. I heard nothing.
AGIS: You are lying.
ALCESTIS: Agis, listen to me—I have something to say to you.
AGIS: Speak! Speak!
ALCESTIS: “Father, help me!”
AGIS: Do not mock me.
ALCESTIS: I am not mocking you. What was Laodamia saying, King Agis?
AGIS: She was in pain, pain, excruciating pain!
ALCESTIS: Yes, but that was not all. What more did she mean?
AGIS: What more?
ALCESTIS: The bitterness of death, King Agis, is part pain—but that is not all. The last bitterness of death is not parting—though that is great grief. I died . . . once. What is the last bitterness of death, King Agis?
AGIS: Tell me!
ALCESTIS: It is the despair that one has not lived. It is the despair that one’s life has been without meaning. That it has been nonsense; happy or unhappy, that it has been senseless. “Father, help me.”
AGIS: She loved me, Alcestis.
ALCESTIS: Yes.
AGIS: She loved me.
ALCESTIS: Yes, but love is not enough.
AGIS: It was. It was for her and it was for me. I will not listen to you.
ALCESTIS: Love is not the meaning. It is one of the signs that there is a meaning—it is only one of the signs that there is a meaning. Laodamia is in despair and asks that you help her. That is what death is—it is despair. Her life is vain and empty, until you give it a meaning.
AGIS: What meaning could I give it?
ALCESTIS (Quietly): You are a brutal, cruel, and ignorant man. (Brief silence) You killed my Laodamia. Three times. Senselessly. Even you do not know how many times you have killed Laodamia.
AGIS: No!
ALCESTIS: You don’t know. Go back to your kingdom. There, and only there, can you help Laodamia.
(Agis comes up the path and, passing her, goes toward the palace door.)
All the dead, King Agis . . . (She points to the entrance to the underworld) All those millions lie imploring us to show them that their lives were not empty and foolish.
AGIS: And what is this meaning that I can give to Laodamia’s life?
ALCESTIS: Today you have begun to understand that.