Page:Masque of the Edwards of England (1902).djvu/47

 TWO OR THREE SCHOLARS or blue coat boys from some foundation of William of Wykeham or Edward VI.

TWO OR THREE GIRL SCHOLARS of the time of Lady Jane Grey.

TWO OR THREE BEDESWOMEN, with badges and bowls.

TWO OR THREE EMBROIDERESSES AND WEAVERS, with wools and bobbins.

TWO OR THREE SISTERS OF AN ORDER, and

A NUMBER OF HOMELY HOUSEWIVES, with keys and distaves.

THE PROLOCUTOR.

See ye now a strange thing and a meaningful. Prophecy in the dance, and the sign of the future in the music and the picture that it brings. Mad is the movement of Time, & Time the great dancer spins, now grotesquely, growing ugly with the riot of wanton movement and now beautiful beyond the ken of man with the grace and dignity of divine achievement. See ye now a dance prophetic.

There was once in this England of ours, ere yet she had conquered the sea, or discovered the greater secrets of speed and power, a life fair for the record it has left us, noble for the great ones who led it, & whom in pageant ye have seen pass before you. Ere the coming of the seventh Edward, all has changed and there is growing up a new life, whose secret is still to read.

The sweet cities of old times have passed away, while begotten of Giant Machine, and from the womb of Power, has come to us the City of Dreadful Night. Sphinx-like she sits and terrible, offering her riddle to the Child Century to guess, but the young Oedipus, strong in the hope of the future, wise in the beauty of the past, comes to guess and to destroy.

The children enter:-mark the symbol and the prophecy!

The quire of minstrels enter bearing old instruments, flutes, violins, viols, tabors and pipes, they order themselves at the side of the stage and start playing, upon which there enter the masons. They dance, and in their dancing, with line and rule they mark out the site of the city state; Henry Eveleigh, the master builder, enters to oversee the work, then the smiths bring in the gilded vanes of it, & St. Hugh of Lincoln gives it his blessing.

After this there enter the armourers to defend it, they make ado to forge upon the stage the sword of Henry V., about whom in the dance the sword being forged, they gird it.

Then there enter the housewives bringing into the city order and sweet ways: to them comes Margaret Roper the type of all womanliness, they bow to her with seemly deference.

Upon this there enter the vintners, brewers, bakers, & cutlers, bringing the state good cheer, the housewives join in the dance and there is laughter and merriment.

The clothworkers, leather sellers, embroideresses, and goldsmiths next enter with a varying movement & bring to the state the things of their beautiful achievement, whereupon there is a great medley with all the previous dancers, and the motive of the music is full of joy and gladness.

After this the note changes again to a greater sobriety, the dancers draw back and there enter demurely the boy and girl scholars, with them comes first William of Wykeham who gives his charge to them and passes out, and after Caxton with the printers, they pull sheets from the press, which, the dance still continuing, they distribute among the scholars.

Following upon them enter the bedes women, there is a pass between them and the friars, who stand for charity and kindliness, and the bowls of the bedes women are filled by the abundance of the vintners, brewers, bakers, and goldsmiths. After this the note grows hymnal, and at the entry of the sisters of the order, William of Wykeham again leading, the dancers pass in stately movement about the stage as if to some festival, until the builder bishop again passes out, when the note grows merrier, and all form for the final figure which shall be one of triumph at the entry of Queen Elizabeth who shall typify the perfected city state. She stands in the centre of the scene, all the children dancing about her in honour, and the dance shall be somewhat as the great masque dances of the time of per coming on earth. All the crafts and occupations now join gaily in, and there is a triumphant movement as of life realised and good things achieved to the honour and joy of mankind.

Then just as the great dance is crowned to fulfilment, a low mournful note is heard & there enters from the back a gaunt figure arrayed in black & masked fearfully, The City of Dreadful Night, the great city of modern progress. She reaches out from her long black tentacles, ever lengthening coils of black twine, and as these touch the children they shudder together and the dance slackens, throbbing slow and more slowly. At the same time there begins a lamentation of the little ones, and this grows louder as each group is caught in the toils of the black figure. Then the stage gradually darkens and the moaning dies down, & there is heard but a gradual throbbing and tripping as of little feet vanishing; till all is still, and the stage quite dark. For a while this tripping continues, gradually changing, however, and growing more regular till it is as the distant thudding of some vast machine. Then silence.

After a period of black silence there shall come a sudden blast of fierce music, and with it a flash of light, and the stage shall be revealed bare, but for the City of Dreadful Night sitting alone and throned: & the same shall happen a second time, upon which the Imps of Progress shall come whirling round the figure. And likewise shall it

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