PROSERPINA AND THE DEVIL

A PLAY FOR MARIONETTES

PROSERPINA AND THE DEVIL

A PLAY FOR MARIONETTES

A puppet-show has been set up in Venice, 1640 A.D. The characters of this play are its manager and two manipulators; the puppets are Demeter, Proserpina, Hermes and Dîs.

THE MANAGER

[Winningly.]

Citizens and little citizens! We are going to give you a delicious foretaste of our great performance this afternoon, to which the whole world is coming. This is a pantomime about how a beautiful girl named Proserpina was snatched away by the Devil; and how her mother searched for her over all the hills of the world; and how at last she was able to bring her back to the earth for six months out of every year.

THE FIRST MANIPULATOR

[Behind the scenes.]

Let go them strings.

THE MANAGER

At our great performance this afternoon this same play will be given with words; and besides it the story of the brave Melusina and her wanderings when she was driven out of Parma.

THE SECOND MANIPULATOR

[His voice rising in anger.]

You don’t have to show me!

THE MANAGER

On with the play!—but don’t forget to bring your rich aunts this afternoon.

[To the Manipulators.]

Hurry through with it. I’m off for a cup of wine.

[The curtain rises with indecent haste and shows the underworld. The rivers Styx and Acheron have been replaced by a circular piece of cloth, sulphur-colored, with waves delicately embroidered about the margin. This is the Lake of Wrath and in it are seen floating arms and legs—all that are left, alas, of great puppets, Abraham, Penelope and Jephtha’s daughter, Midas and Harlequin. Beside the lake Proserpina is straying, robed in bluish black as one anticipating grief. Pluto—now a medieval Satan—is stealthily approaching her. Suddenly Proserpina throws up her arms, runs to him and buries her face in his scarlet bosom. Noah’s Ark—mutely protesting against the part it must play, with all its Christianized animals within it, of Charon’s barge—is lowered from the proscenium and the curtain falls.]

THE FIRST MANIPULATOR

[Sotto voce.]

Beard of Medusa! You made her run in the wrong direction: the hussy courted death. Didn’t I tell you he was to chase her three times around the lake?

THE SECOND MANIPULATOR

[Sulkily.]

I don’t care. A person can’t tell which is his right hand and which is his left in this place.

THE FIRST MANIPULATOR

Here, you let me take her; you take the Devil.—Got the orange?

[When the puppets are next seen Proserpina is exhibiting grief in pantomime. Her lord with affectionate gestures urges her to eat of a yellow pomegranate. Sadly she puts it to her mouth. With an odd recollection of the Garden of Eden, she tempts him into eating the remaining half. They go out cheerlessly.]

THE FIRST MANIPULATOR

All right for that. Now I’ll take the mother and the Devil. You take the other fellow and the daughter.

[Demeter, a handsome Italian matron in a wide gown of brocade, enters with her arms outstretched. At her elbow Hermes, the Archangel Gabriel, guides her through the Lake of Perdition. Proserpina and her husband return and throw up their hands in amazement. Again the frantic girl runs in the wrong direction and casts herself into the arms of Satan. Demeter tries to draw her away, but a matter of pins and hooks-and-eyes prevents her rescue.]

THE FIRST MANIPULATOR

Oh, you Gazoon! You lack-eyed Silenus! Your hands are nothing but feet.

THE SECOND MANIPULATOR

The Devil take your show and you with it.

[The altercation behind the scenes grows out of bounds and one blow knocks down the stage. The Archangel falls upon the pavement and is cherished by gamins unto the third generation; the Devil rolls into the Lake; Proserpina is struck by a falling cloud, and lies motionless on her face; Demeter by reason of the stiffness of her brocade stands upright, viewing with staring eyes the ills of her daughter.]