Neith Boyce

# THE FAITHFUL LOVER

## A Fantasy

### Characters:

Silvia

Marco

The Fool

Emilia, a Waiting-Woman

Four little Moorish Pages

### Scene:

A Venetian balcony overlooking the sea-- A black and white pavement.

At the backtwo very broad shallow steps across the stage lead up to a balustrade,-- white with black curtains at the sides. Centre front a curved couch with cushions of orange-tawny and silver, and a few stools and small tabourets.

Night-- Sky a deep green-blue. Scene brightly but softly lighted.

Silvia is standing by the balustrade. She is dressed in bright orange, with yellow veil. On the bottom step sits the Fool, playing with some flowers, (orange and yellow dahlias) which he strips of their petals, tossing them by handfuls in the air. He is dressed in orange and scarlet.

Fool. Lady, does the wanderer return?

Silvia. (indolently) I saw his boat pass. He is at the door.

-2-

**Fool:** (sardonically) Ah ha! That's not how he used to come, Madam

**Silvia:** I know!...Climbing--climbing up by a thin rope to your balcony!

**Silvia:** Times are changed, friend.

**Fool:** (inquisitively) My lady, is it true that he left you for another love?

**Silvia:** Yes, Fool--for one more beautiful...

**Fool:** Then, Madam Silvia, he ought to have my place! Perhaps he has come back to take it.

**Silvia:** (laughing a little) I would not change you for him. A fool should be faithful.

(Enter quickly at foot of steps L., Emilia, a middle-aged woman, dressed in dusky purple.)

**Emilia:** Madam it is--

**Silvia:** I know. Let him come.

**Emilia:** The young lord would have entered without your permission, Madam.

**Silvia:** (smiling) Remain with us, Emilia.

(Emilia strikes a gong. Enter two small Moors, dressed in banana color, with huge rose-pink turbans. They bow to Silvia and stand at attention.)

**Emilia:** Admit the visitor.

(The pages bow and go out. Emilia stands stiffly-- The Fool springs up and makes a low mocking reverence as the pages usher in Marco--He enters quickly, passing before Emilia. He is dressed in black and gold. Silvia comes down the steps slowly and meets him smiling, holding out her hands, which he bends to kiss.)

**Marco:** Silvia!

**Silvia:** (smiling) You are welcome, my friend Marco!

**Marco:** (eagerly, still holding her hands)

Silvia! Silvia! You see--I have come! At last!

**Silvia:** Truly, you have come a long journey, Marco.

-3-

(He releases her hands and steps back a pace. Silvia turns.)

Emilia, can we not offer our guest some refreshment?

(Emilia makes a sign to the two Moors, who bow and go out.)

**Marco:** I want nothing, Silvia--except your welcome.

**Silvia:** You will break bread with us, Marco? Come and rest--you must be weary.

(Silvia moves down toward couch, centre. Marco looks for a moment at Emilia and the Fool--Emilia stands rigid, looking straight before her--Marco makes a careless gesture of greeting to the Fool, who reponds by another low mocking bow--As Marco turns away the Fool bounds up the two steps and seats himself on the balustrade, watching. Marco comes forward to the other end of the couch.)

**Marco:** (with caution) Silvia, I feel like a stranger here !

**Silvia:** (sinking down on the couch) You have been absent--

**Marco:** A century, Silvia !

**Silvia:** Some months..... Come sit beside me, my dear Marco, and tell me all your news. The sun of Sicily has browned your face--How well and young you look, Marco !

**Marco:** (sullenly) I am ill.

**Silvia:** No, no, surely !

**Marco:** And you, Silvia--you are well?

**Silvia:** Perfectly, my dear Marco.

**Marco:** And--happy, Silvia?

**Silvia:** Yes, I should say happy, Marco.

**Marco:** (gloomily) I rejoice to hear it.

(a pause--They look intently at one another)

**Silvia:** (smiling) You must be weary from the journey. How did you come?

**Marco:** By a fast galley... Three days' voyage to reach you -- and now -- this !

-4-

**Silvia:** (looking up at him) This, my dear Marco? What do you mean? Am I at fault in some way?

**Marco:** You know well enough ! You receive me with ceremony, like a stranger !

**Silvia:** Oh, no, no--an honored friend, Marco--one always dear to me.

**Marco:** (bitterly) Friend ! (He turns and looks savagely at the Fool, who grins) So I am your friend, am I?... Silvia, when we parted, we weren't friends... We were lovers !

**Silvia:** True, Marco. Many things have happened since that time.

**Marco:** (throwing himself on couch and leaning toward her) But even so, Silvia--even so--why are you so changed?

(Enter two little Moors, bearing broad salvers heaped with fruit and confections. They come forward, one on either side the couch, and place the salvers on the tabourets before the couch, then retreat backwards and go out.)

**Silvia:** Changed, my dear Marco ? All things are changed. You are changed.

**Marco:** No, Silvia--I am not !

**Silvia:** Ah? You surprise me, Marco !

**Marco:** And yet--I did think, Silvia, that you might understand me better--you so wise !... But even had I changed toward you, as you thought, still to find you like this !

(Enter the other two pages. They carry broad silver platters, one heaped with flowers, the other bearing two tall Venetian glasses and a tall crystal wine-jug. They come forward to right and left of couch and kneel, the one with flowers before Marco, the one with the wine-jug and glasses before Silvia. Marco absently takes a handful of flowers from the platter.)

**Marco:** I understand you, Silvia. Perhaps it is reasonable you should think so.

-5-

**Silvia:** Yes, Marco, I think it is reasonable.

**Silvia:** (pouring wine into the glasses) Eat and drink, Marco. It rejoices me to see you.

**Marco:** (with a gesture of refusal, moodily) I cannot eat... So you rejoice to see me !... I thought, Silvia, your door might be closed against me--

**Silvia:** Ah?.. Perhaps, Marco, you thought to enter by the ladder?

**Marco:** No, Silvia---

**Silvia**-(laughing) I believe you did, Marco. ! This hour -- all just as it used to be--and your boat paused under the balcony t-Confess you looked for the ladder !

(She laughs. The Fool laughs, too, noiselessly, doubling up in convulsions of mirth)

**Marco:** (angrily) No, Silvia !... I have told you, I thought perhaps you would not receive me at all.

**Silvia:** (offering glass to Marco) Drink, Marco---drink with me--to our good friendship !

(She lifts her glass)

(During the foregoing, Emilia has brought a stool and seated herself at the left of the couch, and the Fool has come slowly down and sits cross-legged on the floor at the right, near Silvia.)

**Marco:** (sullenly) I cannot, Silvia.

**Silvia:** (mildly) There is no poison in the food or wine, Marco.

**Marco:** Poison?

**Silvia:** (smiling) Did you not fear I would kill you, when you left me?

**Marco:** I could never leave you, Silvia ! Come, I will drink with you to our better understanding !

(Lifts his glass)

**Silvia:** Agreed, Marco. (She drinks)

-6-

**Marco:** (impatiently) And now--let them clear this away and leave us,
Silvia--I have much to say to you !

**Silvia:** (turning to Fool, gently) Ah, my faithful Folly, are you here?
Will you leave your share ?

(She takes a colored cake and gives it to Fool. He takes it, kissing her fingers.)

**Marco:** Send them away, Silvia !

**Silvia:** Emilia, our guest has no wish to eat. Let them be taken away.

**Emilia:** Yes, Madam.

(Rising, she motions to the pages, who rise and go out with the platters. Enter the pages and carry out the other two salvers.)

**Silvia:** And you may leave us, Emilia, but be within call.

**Emilia:** (stiffly) As you will, Madam..

(Emilia retires to back of scene.)

**Silvia:** But I must have Folly here beside me. Sit here, Fool, between us.

(The Fool springs up and leaps into the air with delight. He catches up a tabouret and sets it on one side, then with a bound seats himself on the floor before the couch between Silvia and Marco--)

**Marco:** (springing up) Silvia, do you mean this?

**Silvia:** (laughing) I mean it, Marco. When were you and I together that Folly did not make a third?.. And now-- now we are both wise--we shall be sad if we have not his company. I must have my way.

**Marco:** ( giving a savage glance at the Fool, who sits with his head modestly bent and his hands over his ears) Be it so. My stay will be brief.

**Silvia:** Yes, as was your love.

**Marco:** (drops on couch, forgetting everything else but her)

Silvia ! Silvia ! Listen to me ! I never ceased to love you !

-7-

(The Fool has uncovered his ears and listens with his head on one side critically.)

**Silvia:** (laughing) Ah, Marco ! I burnt your letters, but I remember them ! Did you not tell me that you loved me no longer--nay, that you never had loved me? Did you not assure me that you had found the real love at last with the fair Sicilian ---

**Marco:** Silvia, it was a fancy, a dream, a brief madness --- !

(The Fool nods his head very gravely)

**Silvia:** My dear Marco, did you not remind me how for a year you and I had tormented one another, how we had suffered, how we had quarreled--even to daggers' points--

**Marco:** Ah, Silvia, that was love !

(The Fool smiles knowingly)

**Silvia:** Then, Marco, you begged me to forgive you for leaving me--

**Marco:** Silvia, I repeat to you that was a moment of madness !. I never left you!

(The Fool cocks his head on one side, with an air of acute interest.)

**Silvia:** (calmly) So I did forgive you--What else could I do, Marco? I let you go. Could I hold you, when you loved another woman?

**Marco:** I did not love her!

(The Fool raises his hands with a shocked air)

**Silvia:** Marco! And your letters to me-- so full of her beauty--the arch of her black brows, the oval of her face, her lips, her melting eyes-- !

**Marco:** It is true -- she is beautiful. And I -- yes, I have confessed it, I was mad about her for a time -- yes, it is true, Silvia, I thought I loved her--

(The Fool shakes his head dolefully from side to side)

**Silvia:** So, Marco!

-8-

**Marco:** ( impetuously) But what I cannot comprehend, Silvia, is your
giving me up as you did, carelessly, without a struggle --!

(The Fool chuckles noiselessly, his sides shaking)

**Silvia:** But, my dear Marco, what else --?

**Marco:** (excitedly) When I think what you were last year'. What jealous
scenes you made me! How you threatened to stab yourself when I but
looked at another woman!

(The Fool suddenly looks angry)

**Silvia:** Yes, that's true -- I did--

**Marco:** Well, what can I think now except that you have absolutely
ceased to love me!

(The Fool listens intently.)

**Silvia:** But, Marco, did you want me to go on loving you when you had
left me for another love?

**Marco:** I never left you!

**Fool:** (softly) He never left you!

**Silvia:** Ah ?

**Marco:** And even so --you ceased loving me. The truth is -- You never
loved me !

**Fool:** You never loved him. (softly)

**Silvia:** Ah, yes, I loved you, Marco.

**Marco:** No ! Else you couldn't have ceased loving ! Had you loved
me, Silvia, even though you thought me unworthy, you would not have
changed. You would have loved me forever!

**Fool:** (softly) Forever!

**Silvia:** Ah, Marco, you are really wonderful! And you? Did you not
send to me to say that your love for me was dead?

**Marco:** I have told you, it was a fever-fit, a brief madness! I soon

-9-

found out my mistake. But you! Unless you love someone else--and I
believe you do! I have believed it since your first letter to me --
calmly relinquishing me! Otherwise you could not have shown me such--
such--

**Silvia:** Such generosity?

**Marco:** If you call it that.

**Silvia:** I do, Marco. I think I showed you perfect kindness.

**Marco:** Kindness!

**Fool:** (softly) Kindness?

**Silvia:** I love no one else, and I never shall--I have done with love.

**Marco:** Ah, no, Silvia!

**Fool:** (softly) She has done with love!

**Silvia:** Why not? What did love bring me --but torment?

**Marco:** Ah, Silvia--!

**Fool:** (softly) Torment!

**Silvia:** And then betrayal! You left me--

**Marco:** Silvia, I never left you--I could never leave you! Surely
you know that I have loved you always since first I saw you--that I
could never cease to love you.

**Silvia:** My dear Marco! And the Sicilian, for whom you deserted me?

**Fool:** (softly) The dark lady?

**Marco:** I loved you all the time, Silvia--always--more and more!'
Why else should I have come back to you? Did you not understand? What
did you think I meant when I sent the messenger to say I was returning?

**Silvia:** I thought, Marco, that you were coming to pay me a friendly
visit and perhaps to make sure of my forgiveness.

**Marco:** Yes! But real forgiveness, my Silvia!--

**Silvia:** Yes-- I have forgiven you, Marco. I bear you no malice.

**Fool:** Malice! (chuckles)

-10-

**Marco:** Peace, Fool! (The Fool crouches down and puts his hands over his ears.) Silvia! You must love me, after all!

**Silvia:** You shall be my dear friend, Marco.

**Marco:** No! I have come back to you. I love you as always--only more. You must love me as you did before!

**Silvia:** No, Marco! That was a fever! I was mad with jealousy of you. I tried to keep you faithful to me and I could not. I will not go back to that!

**Marco:** You will not?

**Silvia:** (coolly) No! To have you leave me again--for another woman? No! (The Fool has uncovered his ears cautiously and sits erect.)

**Marco:** Silvia, I should always return to you!

(The Fool nods very gravely and folds his hands.)

**Silvia:** And that is your fidelity! (She laughs) You would always-- return.!

**Marco:** Yes, always! I couldn't help it. I couldn't stay away for long. I couldn't forget you!

**Fool:** He could not forget you!

**Silvia:** You forgot me easily.

**Marco:** I never forgot you! You were always in my mind! I saw you suffering, wounded, desperate--perhaps even--you know what you threatened once--

**Silvia:** This?

(She draws a small stiletto from her belt and turns the point against her breast.)

**Marco:** I didn't know--I was in despair--Put that away, Silvia!

(Silvia leans forward and drops the dagger into the Fool's hands)

-11-

**Silvia:** Keep it for me, Folly! I could use it once!--Sq Marco, you thought I might die of the wound you had dealt me--?

**Marco:** I feared you---

**Silvia:** And yet you thought, too, that I had a new love!

**Fool:** (playing with the dagger, touches his breast with its point)
Aha! a hit!

**Marco:** (sullenly) I thought everything!

**Silvia:** The one thing you could not believe was that I had-- simply ceased to feel about you--as a lover.

**Marco:** Yes.

**Silvia:** And yet--was it not right that I should do so?

**Marco:** Right!

**Fool:** (shaking his head, softly) Right?

**Silvia:** If I had shown myself a jealous fury, pursued you, threatened you, hired bravoes to kill you, perhaps, or to kill the Sicilian--that would, you think, have been reasonable?

**Marco:** (gloomily) Yes--if you loved me.

**Fool:** (softly) Love!

**Silvia:** I think otherwise. You left me--and I bowed my head to the blow you dealt me.

**Marco:** It was easy!

**Silvia:** It is done now.

**Marco:** And you will not undo it? You will not take me back?

**Silvia:** Love passes--Friendship endures.

**Fool:** (sadly) Love passes.

**Marco:** Love never ends--real love. But you know nothing about it. You never loved me.

**Silvia:** Marco, I loved you for a year. I lived only for you, thought only of you. No one existed for me but you. I was faithful to you ev-

-12-

very instant-- while I loved you.

**Marco:** While you loved me! That is your fidelity!

**Fool:** Fidelity !

**Silvia:** And yours ! To love a hundred women and come back, in the intervals-- to me !

**Marco:** And you ! ..I love you, I have always loved you. Because I have been what you call unfaithful, you throw me off-- you say it's ended for you !

**Silvia:** Yes ! I will not have love without fidelity ! It tortures me!... Yes, it is ended. When you left me, it was ended.

**Fool:** (softly) Ended !

**Marco:** Ah, Silvia ! (For a moment he drops his face into his hands.)

**Fool:** (sorrowfully) Love is dead !

**Marco:** Ah--if the beloved could but understand the nature of Love !

How the eyes and the senses may wander and the heart remain faithful !

**Silvia:** Ah, if the beloved could but understand the nature of Love !
How the heart is wounded--and grows cold ! How Love may be wounded unto death !

**Fool:** Poor Love !

**Marco:** It is pride that speaks, not Love !

**Silvia:** It is Love that you killed speaks from the tomb !

**Fool:** Love is dead.

(Marco springs up, looks for a moment at Silvia, strides away up the steps to the balustrade.)

**Silvia:** (leaning toward the Fool) Am I not wise, O Folly, my faithful Folly?

**Fool:** (pitifully) Poor Love ! (He drops his face into his hands.)

**Silvia:** Folly answers me.

**Marco:** Look, Silvia ! How many times have I come to you up over this balcony-- and you were happy then ! You wouldn't have sent me away then !

S

-13-

**Silvia:** It was a fever ! This is real, my friend Marco.

**Marco:** I want you back as you were before !

**Silvia:** (rising) she stands looking at him.) You want to make me unhappy again. You want to see me suffer ! No, Marco !

(The Fool turns, throws himself across the couch, watching them.)

**Marco:** I do not believe you. Come to me, Silvia !

(She goes slowly toward him, up the steps.) Come to me, Silvia!

(He holds out his arms) Kiss me.

(The Fool writhes across the couch and crouching bounds to the steps, kneeling on the lower one. He has the dagger in his hand. Silvia takes Marco's head in her hands, and kisses him on the forehead, the cheeks and the mouth. He crushes her in his arms and kisses her, then pushes her away, against the balustrade)

**Marco:** So you mean it ! You mean it ! You love me no longer !

(The Fool raises himself to the upper step, still kneeling.)

**Silvia:** Cry for the moon, Marco ! So long as you haven't it, you are dying for it ! If you should get it, you would go on to something else. I understand you--you are charming, adorable, but like all men, restless and fickle.

**Marco:** (furiously) You understand ! **You** are the moon, I suppose, and you certainly are as inconstant ! How can you change like this ! I come back to you, loving you as I always did, the same to you as ever, and I find you completely altered--your love for me gone, as though it never had been--And you tell me it's no new love has driven it out. I could understand that,--but **this** !... It's true, as all the world says--Women have no souls--no memory--they are incapable of fidelity !

**Silvia:** Fidelity !

-14-

**Marco:** (in a rage) Yes, fidelity! Have I not been faithful in my soul to you? Perhaps I have had fancies for other women--but have I not come back to you?

**Silvia:** (laughing, looking at him with her two hands joined as a token of admiration) Marco, you are perfect! You are a perfect man!

**Marco:** (savagely) And you, Silvia! Assuredly you are a complete woman!

**Silvia:** (sweeping him a deep curtsey) There is no more to say! We have slain one another!

(She comes slowly down the steps and sees the Fool.) What are you doing there? Give me my dagger!

(She stops and snatches it from and comes down the stage. The Fool follows her and sinks on his knees with his hands clasped imploringly.)

**Fool:** My lady!

**Silvia:** (turning) Get up, Fool!

**Fool:** Mercy! Forgiveness!

(Marco comes slowly down L. Silvia is standing R. The Fool kneeling between them. Silvia is playing with the dagger.)

**Marco:** For whom is the dagger, Silvia?

**Silvia:** Neither for you nor for myself, Marco. That time is past. I will bestow it on the Fool for a toy. If he cuts his fingers so much the worse for him.

(She tosses the dagger to the Fool, who catches it with a cry of pleasure.)

**Marco:** I am going. You never loved me.

**Silvia:** I did, Marco....Have you forgotten?

**Marco:** I have forgotten nothing. It's *you* who have forgotten. It's *you* who have been unfaithful! I come back to you, and you treat me like

-15-

a stranger ! You turn me out ! You say you no longer love me -- !

**Silvia:** You killed my love, Marco !

**Fool:** (sadly) Love is dead !

**Marco:** A poor weak love -- to be so easily killed !

**Fool:** (sadly) Poor Love !

**Silvia:** Emilia !

(Emilia comes forward. L.)

**Emilia:** Yes, madam.

**Silvia:** Our guest takes his departure.

(Emilia strikes the gong. Enter the four little Moors, who range themselves in a line Before the steps.)

**Marco:** Farewell, Silvia, my tender mistress !

**Silvia:** Farewell, Marco--my faithful lover !

**Fool:** Faithless ! Faithful ! Poor Love !

(Marco goes back, passing before the pages, who bow deeply.)

He turns and looks at Silvia. She sweeps a deep curtsey. With a gesture he turns to go, the pages following him. The Fool lays the danger on the ground before him and spreads out his arms with an expression of grief. Silvia stands, proud and unrelenting.)

**Fool:** Love is dead. They have killed him ! Poor Love !

Curtain.