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 THE DAUGHTER OF JORIO
 
 OF THE
 
 THE 
 
 DAUGHTER OF 
 
 A PASTORAL TRAGEDY 
 
 TRANSLATED FEOM THE ITALIAN 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLOTTE PORTER, PIETRO ISOLA 
 AND ALICE HENRY 
 
 BOSTON 
 LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
 
 1916
 
 Copyright, 1904, 
 BY GABRIELE D'Avwuxzio. 
 
 Copyright, 1907, 
 BY DIRCE ST. CYR. 
 
 Stage rights reserved 
 
 Copyright, 1907, 
 BY THE POET LORE COMPANY. 
 
 Copyright, 1907, 
 BY LITTLE, BROWN, & COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
 Printers 
 S. J. PAKHILL <fc Co., BOSTOS, U.S.A.
 
 / 
 
 THE LAND OF THE ABRUZZI, TO MY MOTHER 
 
 GLS x 
 
 TO MY SISTERS, TO MY BROTHEBS 
 
 ALSO 
 
 
 TO MY FATHER, ENTOMBED, TO ALL MY DEAD 
 
 AND TO ALL MY RACE BETWEEN THE 
 
 MOUNTAIN AND THE SEA 
 
 THIS SONG OF THE ANTIQUE BLOOD 
 
 I CONSECRATE 

 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 AN elemental savor of the savage blood 
 of the ancient race clings to the 
 country of the Abruzzi. This ele- 
 mental quality, intensely impressional and 
 tragic, underlies the light sensitive beauty 
 and bright artistic grace characteristic of Italy 
 in general. 
 
 The lore and customs of the native folk, 
 growing the vine and olive in the sunny slopes 
 running seaward to the southern Adriatic, 
 have been shut away from the easy touch of 
 western Europe by the towering ridge of the 
 Apennines, on whose rugged slopes the sheep 
 are pastured. It is still the most archaic, the 
 most stubbornly unmetropolitan corner of 
 Italy. Here, even more than elsewhere in the 
 country beloved of all other younger countries, 
 the mediaeval and the Pagan worlds linger in- 
 timately together, blending faiths and customs. 
 It is a good soil and a fertile for growing an 
 enduring masterpiece that shall gather Italy 
 
 xi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 up into its being, and taste of the profound, 
 immortal heart of the land. 
 
 In this land of the Abruzzi, and in the dim 
 enchanted epoch of " once upon a time," " The 
 Daughter of Jorio " is set. As the drama un- 
 folds it carries with it this charmed atmosphere. 
 Who reads or hears this " song of the antique 
 blood " is suddenly at home, too, in the Abruzzi, 
 and catches the life along with the music of 
 many years ago. 
 
 As descendants from the Abruzzi stock, two 
 friends D'Annunzio, the poet, and Michetti, 
 the painter, travelled throughout their father- 
 land together, faring up the majestic snow- 
 cloaked Maella and the precipitous Gran 
 Sasso, to and fro among the rocky sheepsteads 
 and caverns of the mountains, and along the 
 bordering stretches of sea-shore. 
 
 They heard, then, a name, spoken in a way 
 belonging to common custom there. Grown 
 persons in this pastoral region are still known 
 in patriarchal manner, not by their own names 
 but merely as son or daughter of their father. 
 The melody of the name thus heard haunted 
 the memories of the artist-travellers. As the 
 gipsy refrain Browning heard while a boy 
 thrilled his blood like a call from the Wild 
 
 xii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 " Following the Queen of the Gipsies, O ! " and 
 bore poetic fruit long afterward in " The Flight 
 of the Duchess," so, likewise, this sonorous 
 name stirred the secret chords of artistic re- 
 sponse in the imagination of these two friends 
 and bore subconscious fruit in them. The 
 fruit is different enough, yet of a kindred germ 
 and flavor. Each has rendered it as a tribute 
 to the mother-country in whose traditions he 
 was cradled. 
 
 The name they heard " La figlia di Jorio," 
 meaning much to them, little to another, 
 may now be understood to be in itself eloquent 
 of the old tribal feeling. This feeling, sinking 
 the son in the father, places him apart from 
 any other rule or influence than that of his own 
 kith and kin. It admits no honorable union with 
 one outside the clan without pang and social 
 upheaval. 
 
 The mere name thus held within it, for the 
 imaginative conception of genius, the seed of 
 tragic social clash between alien castes or war- 
 ring rival families. Such clash between war- 
 ring Italian families Shakespeare showed in 
 the love of a Capulet and a Montague. 
 The imperative elemental drawing together of 
 Juliet and her Romeo ran counter to long- 
 
 xiii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 established grooves of social cleavage. It was 
 a cleavage not to be welded except through the 
 woe and spiritual triumph of love. Such clash 
 between the established pastoral clan and the 
 outcast is the theme which slumbered in this 
 name for both D'Annunzio and Michetti. 
 D'Annunzio's development of it leads by a 
 different path to a triumph of love as spirit- 
 ually exalting and as socially significant as 
 Shakespeare's. 
 
 For Michetti, the haunting name resulted, 
 shortly after their journey, in some wonderful 
 pictures, sketches in water-color for a great 
 painting in oil, now owned in Berlin, where it 
 gives lustre to the Geeger collection, later 
 a large pastel exhibited in 1895, in the Inter- 
 national Exposition of the Fine Arts at Venice. 
 
 Michetti's imagination presented the daugh- 
 ter of Jorio as a wanderer, with a cloak cover- 
 ing her head and held shieldingly over the 
 breast by the right hand, while she passes a 
 group of staring rustics. Her long rushing 
 strides, as of one who " knows well the path- 
 ways," have a strangely alluring motion, like 
 that of a majestic hunted fugitive. One of 
 the five men whose gaze she attracts is riveted 
 by her look. To the others she means less than 
 
 xiv
 
 nothing. She is an outcast or a laughing-stock. 
 To this one she means a mystic appeal thrown 
 into his life to stamp it forever. 
 
 Not until many years after the journey 
 through the Abruzzi, in 1903, at Mettuno, the 
 haunting name, fused with some germinal 
 impression flowing from Michetti's pictures, 
 resulted for D'Annunzio in his " La Figlia 
 di Jorio." The plot is of his own pure imagi- 
 nation all compact. It rests upon no legend, 
 he says. The creative idea came in a compel- 
 ling influence that gripped him while busied 
 in other absorbing poetic work belonging to a 
 series he has had in mind, and involving his- 
 toric research in the past of Italy. These an- 
 nals of the Malatesta this sudden influence bade 
 him put aside. It called him, instead, to pour 
 himself out, with an ardor imperious and self- 
 assured, in a glowing flood of strongly-stressed 
 rhythmic poetry. The flood of fire took molten 
 shape in this tragedy. It embodied not the 
 historic life of warring nobles, but the obscure, 
 toiling, pastoral life of antique Italy. 
 
 The result is a tragedy vividly spectacular, 
 dramatically strong and simple. The pictur- 
 esque loveliness belonging to the opening of 
 each act is cut sharply across with the ruthless 
 
 xv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 inrush of direct vital action. Into the graceful 
 beauty of the lyrical espousal scene of the first 
 Act is thrust the pitiless hunting down of Mila, 
 the daughter of Jorio, by the brutal barking 
 band of reapers. In the midst of the serene 
 idealism of the uplifted group in Aligi's meagre 
 mountain cave, where, in the second Act, love 
 and art and insight reinforce and befriend each 
 other, close, even, upon the sanctity of the kiss 
 of the kneeling lovers, is thrust the crass bestial 
 domination of the lusty Lazaro, equipped and 
 privileged to do his evil will. This, perforce, 
 leads to the lightning stroke of the murder. 
 Finally, in the third Act, the poetic veil of 
 meandering lament and tender commiseration 
 of the kindred for the stricken family is rent 
 away by the brusque entrance, the swift direct 
 speech, and decisive help of the daughter of 
 Jorio. The self -sacrifice of her ripened tran- 
 scendent love is then the opportunity for con- 
 centrating against her the blind clamor of their 
 crude social justice. The final climax of con- 
 trasts is attained by these tumultuous voices 
 of the surging mob on the one side crying, 
 ' To the fire, to the flames with the daughter 
 of Jorio! " and, on the other side, by the voice 
 of the clear-sighted Ornella calling in majesty, 
 
 xvi
 
 DUCTION 
 
 " Mila, Mila! My sister in Jesus, I kiss your 
 two feet that bear you away! Heaven is for 
 thee ! " and the soaring, rapturous voice of 
 Mila, the outcast, who has taken all their sins 
 upon herself, and who cries, " The flame is 
 beautiful! The flame is beautiful!" 
 
 These clear-cut contrasts are masterly for 
 the stage either of the theatre or the human 
 breast. They strike to the quick of each char- 
 acter, to the core of the meaning of every situa- 
 tion. Throwing open each particular heart in 
 its degree to comprehension, they reveal it also 
 to sympathy. At the same time they cast upon 
 the social sanction of the evil domination of 
 Lazaro and upon the separate woes of all those 
 " who suffer and know not wherefore," the 
 larger light insensibly illumining the plot as 
 a whole and disclosing its typical relation to 
 the plot of life in general. Thus, in the emo- 
 tionalized manner possible only to genius at 
 mountain-peak moments, the play illumines 
 the perennial relations of a predestined love to 
 art and aspiration and of all three to social 
 life, which sacrifices all three when it wists not 
 what it does. 
 
 The vivid picturesqueness of such scenes as 
 those of the espousal rites, in the first Act ; the 
 *> xvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 mourning of the kindred, and the folk- judg- 
 ment of the third Act; the interesting figures 
 of Malde, the treasure-seeker, the herb gath- 
 erer, and the wise old saint of the mountain 
 of the second Act ; in fact, the homely episodes 
 of pastoral life throughout the drama rest 
 upon traditional customs and rooted beliefs of 
 the Abruzzi. 
 
 At Pratola, Peligna, and other places in the 
 Abruzzi the mother-in-law receives her son's 
 bride into her house with a nuptial ritual full 
 of poetic symbolism, a ritual independent 
 of that of the Church. According to Antonio 
 de Nino, whose work on the " Habits and 
 Customs of the Abruzzi " scientifically verifies 
 the folk-lore D'Annunzio puts alive before us, 
 the mother breaks the bread, the symbol 
 of fertility, over the son and the daughter. 
 And as she touches the forehead, breast, and 
 shoulders, she says : " May we live together 
 like Christians and not like cats and dogs." 
 She initiates her new daughter to her fireside 
 by calling to her notice home-objects to which 
 special virtue was attributed: the andiron- 
 chain that could lull storms; the mortar that, 
 if placed on the window-sill, lured back the 
 stray pigeon; the salt, which if hung in a 
 
 xviii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 pouch around the baby's neck could keep it 
 safe from the vampire. 
 
 The bride's kindred came to share in the 
 ceremonial of espousal, as in the play, first 
 gathering at the house of the mother, whom 
 they always brought with them with honor at 
 the close of their procession. To the new home 
 they advanced in single file, bearing on their 
 heads the donora, gifts of baskets of grain, 
 with fluttering ribbons, and on top a loaf and 
 a flower. There was always some play of 
 chaffering at the door, barred, as in this drama, 
 with a ribbon or scarf stretched between a dis- 
 taff and a bident, the implements emblematic 
 of woman and man. The exchange of a piece 
 of money always closed the bargain and gained 
 them entrance. Then, every woman, passing 
 on in turn to the bridal pair, before lowering 
 her basket, took from it a handful of grain and 
 scattered it over each head, saying : " This is 
 the bread God and our Lady send you. May 
 you grow old together! " 
 
 The folk-ritual for burial and the improvi- 
 sation of the laments by the wailers were so 
 elaborate that the ecclesiastical authorities kept 
 a jealous eye over then* excesses. A decree of 
 1734 is peculiarly interesting on account of the 
 
 xix
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 recognition it supplies that these customs were 
 bequests from a Pagan age. It declares that 
 if the women who indulge in the abuse of 
 mourning at funerals " continue to disturb the 
 churchly office with lamentation and wailing 
 and other such practices of paganism," the 
 clergy shall cease all ministration and leave 
 them with the body until they go home and 
 " let the body alone, so that the service can be 
 followed according to the usage of the Roman 
 ritual." 
 
 Greater poetic interest belongs to the laudi 
 in the Abruzzi dialect, examples of which are 
 given in De Nino's fourth volume (Usi e cos- 
 tumi abbruzzesi par Antonio de Nino. 5 vols. 
 Barbera, Florence. 1879-1891). From the 
 text of one of these, several verses are employed 
 by D'Annunzio in the third Act. He greatly 
 enhances their dramatic effect by putting them 
 in the mouth of Candia, when with wandering, 
 benumbed wits she repeats bits of the dialogue 
 between the Sacred Mother and her suffering 
 Son, half confusing her own sorrows over her 
 son Aligi with those of the Mater Dolorosa. 
 
 In all such instances heightened beauty and 
 significance are given to the Abruzzi usages 
 with the surest and most delicate art. The 
 
 XX
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 throb of life animates it. Yet the homely truth 
 to reality behind the adroit touches of art gifts 
 the play with vigor and concreteness. 
 
 Even the passing reference of Splendore to 
 the petticoat " of a dozen breadths' fulness " 
 is true, for example, to the dress of the women 
 of Scanno. The bridal raiment of green, also, 
 "Of gold and silver the yoke is fashioned 
 But all the rest like the quiet verdure," is true 
 to the preference for green of the brides of 
 Canzano. 
 
 Such games of rivalry for the straightest 
 furrow, as that of which Candia reminds her 
 son, were held at Sora. In presence of the 
 old men the youths ran the plough from the 
 crest of the hill to the foot of the valley, when 
 the prize, a hat or a scarf, was adjudged. 
 
 The " barking " of the reapers " like dogs at 
 each passer " was an ancient license of disorder 
 at harvest time, called fare I'incanata. So, the 
 call for the wine- jug was a custom belonging 
 to the serenade of the bridal pair on the mar- 
 riage night. The song over, the singers ex- 
 pected wine, cheese, and a loaf to be handed 
 them outside the door. 
 
 As Aligi's cavern, the scene of the second 
 Act, has its prototype in an actual cavern on 
 
 xxi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the mountain in Abruzzia, from which Michetti 
 made sketches for stage use in the Milan pro- 
 duction, so also the shepherd life, as it is pre- 
 sented especially in this Act, has its model in 
 reality. Their quiet existence, aloft among the 
 peaks, leaves the shepherds time to carve their 
 sheep-hooks, as Aligi did, and to achieve such 
 other artistry in wood as Aligi masters. Their 
 neighbor, the sky, makes dreamers of them, too, 
 like Aligi, and not infrequently poets. The 
 mountain affords them such comrades as Aligi 
 had in Malde, the treasure-diviner, the herb- 
 woman, wise in efficacious simples, and the 
 lofty, serene-minded Cosmo. Perhaps Cosmo 
 is not meant to differ greatly in nature from 
 the distinguished saint of the Morrone men- 
 tioned by Aligi, Pietro Celestino, who was made 
 Pope Celestin V. in 1294, but who, only a few 
 months afterwards, abjured the stateliness of 
 Rome for the hermit's retired life upon the 
 mountain-side. The habit of life, indicated by 
 Aligi, is that of the shepherds described by 
 Finamore (II pastor e e la pastorizia in Abruzzo 
 in Archivo per lo studio delta tradizioni popo- 
 lari, IV. 190) . They select a sheepstead in the 
 spring and collect their flocks, living near them 
 in caves or huts during the summer, but going 
 
 xxii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 down to the village fortnightly for a three days' 
 rest; and in the autumn coming down with 
 their flocks, and going on with them either 
 toward Rome or Puglia. Through the valleys 
 and across the mountains they hear the singing 
 Pilgrims passing continually, as they so effec- 
 tively come and go in the stage directions of 
 the second Act, faring to and fro on the way 
 to such shrines as Splendore mentions in her 
 reassuring words to Mila, Santa Maria 
 della Potenza, and the Incoronata. 
 
 On the eve of the Celebration of St. John's 
 Beheading (August 29) the Plaia or the Vir- 
 gine is climbed, according to custom, toward 
 midnight, so that the red disk of the August 
 sun may be seen at dawn from the hilltop. 
 To the beholder of the apparition of the saint's 
 bleeding head in the disk it was accounted, as 
 Aligi deemed it, a miraculous sign of God's 
 favor. 
 
 D'Annunzio himself maintains as to one of 
 the superstitions he has known how to weave 
 predominatingly into the plot, namely, the 
 sanctity of the fireplace as a refuge from vio- 
 lence, that it is Jewish rather than Italian. It 
 may be so. In any case he has exercised the 
 right of a poet to use for his higher verities
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 what he needs and has the art to employ vitally 
 and well. It may be, too, that he has been 
 peculiarly happy in grafting so distinctly Jew- 
 ish a belief on the rest of his more peculiarly 
 Christian and Latin beliefs, because there is 
 an inner link of association between Mila's 
 fireside and such a sanctuary from their pur- 
 suers as the Adonijahs and Joabs claimed when 
 they " laid hold upon the horns of the altar." 
 Feasts were held and burnt offerings were de- 
 voted to Jehovah on such altars. And simi- 
 larly sacred to the gods of the hearthstone of 
 the ancient race the Lares and Penates 
 was the fireside of the Romans. The antique 
 usage that marks the fireplace and sets it apart 
 as the altar or temple of the homestead is 
 architecturally preserved in ancient Italian 
 buildings by the monumental setting of the 
 hearthstone above the level of the floor and 
 the prominent hood to the chimney. The utility 
 of this arrangement, as usual with folk-myths, 
 has not hindered, but rather attracted, a reli- 
 gious explanation. 
 
 Such a fireplace is an imporant trait of the 
 stage directions in the first Act for the scene- 
 setting of the home of the Di Roio family. It 
 is in accord, like all the rest of the furnishings 
 
 xxiv 
 
 V.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the house, with the record De Nino supplies 
 of the typical Abruzzi homestead. 
 
 When the daughter of the alien, of the sor- 
 cerer Jorio, claims sanctuary at the hearth, she 
 claims it not alone because she is Christian and 
 therefore can justly make appeal to the God 
 of this hearth and this household. It is sig- 
 nificant that she also makes her appeal by 
 virtue of the old laws of the hearthstone, to 
 gods of the Pagan race and the ancient kins- 
 folk. The sacredness of the fireplace as the 
 altar of each home is, in fact, not confined to 
 any race. The North American Indian, as 
 well as the Roman, regards it religiously. Such 
 faiths grow from a human root. 
 
 In the play, the hearth, like the Jewish 
 altar, becomes a mercy-seat, to be held invio- 
 late from violence and also from profanation. 
 Mila seeks it as a shrine and shield from 
 violence. The kindred declare that she 
 profanes it. 
 
 The dependence of the second and third 
 Acts upon the Roman law of the absolute do- 
 minion of the father over the son, and the 
 extreme penalty for parricide of the sack and 
 the mastiff and the deep sea is justified by the 
 ancient Latin code, as given in the digest of
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Modestinus (xlviii, tit. 9, 9) . The persistence 
 in the bucolic mind of such grim ancestral 
 morality causes such a code to outlive its 
 natural decay. 
 
 One of the allusions to the ancient credulities 
 of the Abruzzi which is most essential to the 
 plot is Aligi's vision in the first Act of Mila's 
 guardian angel standing behind her weeping, 
 and thus in silence revealing the innocency of 
 her wronged soul. The common faith in the 
 judgment of God upon the deeds of men being 
 made clear in a flash by the sudden sight of the 
 angel in tears finds expression in the proverbial 
 sayings: "If you would measure the offence, 
 look behind the right shoulder of him whom 
 you have offended." " If you make your sister 
 weep, you make the silent angel weep." " If 
 you forget to be just, the angel weeps." 
 
 Curious and interesting as all these veritable 
 traces of folk-lore may seem, they are but the 
 dry bones to which the poet has given flesh and 
 breath. Not alone the rich deep soil of primi- 
 tive custom and religion in which he has rooted 
 the play, but the spirit of mystery primeval 
 older than Christianity or any one religious in- 
 fluence in which the play is wrapped, as in 
 the atmosphere necessary to its life, is indi- 
 
 XXVI
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 cated by D'Annunzio himself in his " Triumph 
 of Death": 
 
 " Rites of religions dead and forgotten sur- 
 vive there ; incomprehensible symbols of poten- 
 cies long fallen into decay remain intact there ; 
 habits of primitive peoples forever passed away 
 persist there, handed down without change 
 from generation to generation; rich customs, 
 foreign and useless, retained there are the wit- 
 nesses to the nobility and beauty of an anterior 
 life. ... In all pomps and ceremonies, work 
 and play, in births and love, nuptials and fu- 
 nerals, everywhere present and visible, there 
 is a georgic symbolism ; everywhere the Titanic 
 generating Mother Earth is represented and 
 reverenced as the bosom whence sprang the 
 founts of all good and all happiness." 
 
 When Mila is left in the cav% in the second 
 Act, alone with the ecstasy and -anguish of her 
 love for Aligi, and while she kneels before the 
 Christian symbol of motherhood, she turns also 
 to this hoary Earth, the mother of all mother- 
 hood, as the child in trouble to the all-embrac- 
 ing mother-heart. 
 
 The love which she and Aligi feel within 
 them is profoundly rooted in that elemental 
 mystery to which it has newly opened their 
 
 xxvii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 consciousness. It is more ancient far than any 
 of the ties of habit and family to which Aligi 
 has been the embodiment of faithful allegiance 
 all his life before. Older than allegiance to 
 the family or the clan is the allegiance of lover 
 and beloved, as the individual man is prior to 
 the tribal man. 
 
 As the play opens, the divine trouble of 
 allegiance to this more fundamental power has 
 come upon Aligi dimly. Forebodings of the 
 woe of his attempted reconciliation of the two 
 allegiances are sapping his energy. In the 
 depths of his soul is divined the fatal approach 
 of supreme love, the predestined child of this 
 secret power of the older time. The shadow 
 of this approach girds him about in slumber 
 as in a shield by the side of the bride whose 
 soul is no mate for his soul. It holds him 
 aloof until Mila comes. Then it plunges his 
 old allegiance, his most religiously dutiful sub- 
 ordination to the life of kindred and family, 
 into vital conflict with the inward sense of the 
 mystical power claiming a higher allegiance, 
 a deeper, all-embracing reverence. 
 
 The situation is a dramatic bodying forth of 
 further words of D'Annunzio upon the mys- 
 tery brooding in the land of the antique blood: 
 
 xxviii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 " Mystery intervenes in all events, envelops 
 and constrains every existence; and super- 
 natural life dominates, overwhelms, and ab- 
 sorbs ordinary life." 
 
 Put into action, this is the clash of the or- 
 dinary fealty with a fealty older, more per- 
 sonal, and through the art and the sacrifice 
 begotten of love, more rewarding to spiritual 
 life. The hand of the tribe has been ever 
 against an overlordship of this spiritual kind, 
 knitting together the clansman and the alien, 
 and substituting for the child recruiting the 
 solidarity of the clan, the Angel of Art recruit- 
 ing the very soul of the clan. To burn as an 
 Apostate Angel this Angel of Art along with 
 the witch whose charm has awakened in the 
 lover's soul the capacity to show it forth 
 this is the usual course of the clan. Only the 
 Ornellas, the youngest and littlest of its gen- 
 eration, are as prompt to see and to save as 
 its privileged heads, the Lazaros, are to dese- 
 crate and embrutalize. 
 
 Like Heinrich in Hauptmann's " Sunken 
 Bell," Aligi is a dreamer. But unlike Hein- 
 rich, he is no waverer. His dream is true. To 
 the divination it bestows he is true. As long 
 as his soul and his senses are intact to repel 
 
 xxix
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the benumbing influence of the potion he dis- 
 claims Mila's sacrifice. 
 
 All larger meanings involved in the action 
 are to be inferred as they are in life. Each 
 may behold for himself. Yet Ornella stands 
 behind the play, as the angel stood behind 
 Mila. For any, if any there be, who would 
 question the bearing of its conclusion, Ornella 
 is the rectification of any possible doubt or 
 mis judgment. Through the eyes of her vision 
 appears the transcendent loving of Mila. 
 
 No other works of D'Annunzio, not even 
 the beautiful " Francesca," reach such heights. 
 They have artistry, power, concrete truth to 
 life in common with ' The Daughter of 
 Jorio " ; but they do not approach it in that 
 inner truth to life which unveils the purity 
 and aspiration of the power of supreme love 
 in life and in art. That inner life of the power 
 of love hallows this tragedy. Hence the poet's 
 art gains an unerring potency of touch, and 
 it makes the loving of Mila worthy of a younger 
 brother of the Dante of the " Vita Nuova " 
 and the " Paradiso." 
 
 Inseparable from the power of this tragedy 
 to cause the deep things within to be heard - 
 " The deep things within that come from afar " 
 
 XXX
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 are the incomparably beautiful rhythms in 
 which they are chanted. 
 
 They are the rhythms belonging to the land 
 of the Abruzzi and to " many years ago." 
 There, says the poet: 
 
 " Mystery and rhythm, these two essential 
 elements of every cult, were everywhere scat- 
 tered. Men and women constantly expressed 
 their souls in song, accompanied by song all 
 their labors under the roof or under the sky, 
 celebrated by song life and death. Over cradles 
 and winding-sheets undulated melodies slow 
 and prolonged, very ancient, as ancient, per- 
 haps, as the race whose profound sadness they 
 revealed. . . . Fixed in unalterable rhythm 
 they seemed fragments of hymns belonging 
 to immemorial liturgies, surviving the destruc- 
 tion of some great primordial mythus." 
 
 The poet seems to have loosed the pent-up 
 sources of these immemorial rhythms. He has 
 dared in part to invent a free dramatico-lyric 
 verse, in part to recur to archaic forms of verse 
 of like freedom. In this way he has clothed 
 every motion and gesture, every quiver of the 
 body of his drama, in a beauty begotten of 
 " the antique blood." 
 
 Such music, sensitive to each catch of the 
 
 XXXI
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 living breath of emotion, must seek a form 
 more flexible than the iambic pentameters of 
 English usage or the hexameters or Alexan- 
 drines of French. The beauty belonging to 
 these in their perfection has yet led to a dull 
 monotony of always-anticipated stress in the 
 perpetuity of their dramatic use by modern 
 dramatists. The artifice side of verse has 
 been so over-emphasized, by limitation to a 
 form shut out from the thrill of an unexpected 
 cadence, that audiences instinctively flee the 
 infliction of sitting out a modern poetic drama, 
 despite the general superstition, because of its 
 past glory, that it ought to be forever and 
 only liked. 
 
 Since the only alternative offered by con- 
 ventional usage is bald prose, even this has 
 been gladly accepted in preference, and the 
 penalty paid of a totally commonplace effect, 
 usually as bare of the uplift and melody of art 
 as a trolley car. 
 
 D'Annunzio has devised a better way. 
 Heeding the secret of the manifold effects, 
 now of the ancient laudi dramatiche of his 
 own Abruzzi, now of the austerely simple plain- 
 song of the mediaeval hymn, now of some 
 strongly four-stressed Tuscan lyric of the 
 
 xxxii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 twelfth century, or even the two-stressed line 
 of the rustic charm, he has varied his verse 
 to suit every phase of emotion. He has used 
 iambic ascending rhythms, in hendecasyllabic 
 lines, generally, for the serener utterances, such 
 as Candia's blessing in the espousal rites of 
 Act I; strongly marked trochaic rhythms, in 
 octosyllabic lines, for intense lyrical outpour- 
 ings of spirit, such as Mila's song at the open- 
 ing of Act II, and swiftly descending dactyllic 
 rhythms, giving jets of voice to sharp seizures 
 of feeling, such as the fierce outcry of the 
 Chorus of the Kindred in Act III Tempia e 
 tempia, i denti le sgrani " Temple to temple 
 and shell out her teeth." Not only, moreover, 
 by the frequent employment of a strong initial 
 syllable, along with iambic or anapestic verse, 
 and other such allowed liberties, but also by 
 the intercalation of extra syllables or the omis- 
 sion of others within the normal foot, he has 
 slowed or raced the pace of the line, in obedi- 
 ence to some push of thought or beat of pur- 
 pose. So varied is the effect that the verse is 
 as flexible as prose speech. Yet the impres- 
 sion is never lawless, for the verse never escapes 
 the ictus of a pervading inward shapeliness. 
 The artistic comeliness is felt along with the 
 xxxiii
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 impetus each variation pours into the sway 
 of the line. 
 
 Internal rhyme, assonance, and thrice re- 
 peated double rhymes still further prolong or 
 break up the normal effects, so that to the 
 fluency of the wave of speech is added some 
 momentary shimmering of its surface, like the 
 fleeting touches of the wind of the spirit other- 
 wise viewless. 
 
 Such internal rhymes, repetitions, and as- 
 sonances, for example, occur in the dialogue 
 of Mila and Aligi in the second Act: Pel 
 monti coglierai le genzianelle Eper le spiagge 
 le stelle marine. - - " To cull on the hilltop the 
 blue gentian lonely, On the sea-shore only 
 the star-fish flower." Si cammina cammina 
 lungo il mare. "I border the bordering 
 stretches of sea-shore." Or such double rhymes 
 appear as in Femo di Nerfa's: Prima che la 
 mano gli taglino, Prima che nel sacco lo ser- 
 rino, Col can mastino e lo gettino, Al fiume in 
 dove fa gorgo. - " Before his right hand they 
 shall sever, Before in the leathern sack they 
 sew him With the savage mastiff and throw 
 him Where the deep restless waters o'erflow 
 him." 
 
 The tendency of English verse during the 
 xxxiv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Elizabethan renaissance was toward a musi- 
 cal flexibility akin to D'Annunzio's. Shake- 
 speare's verse, especially in his ripest work, 
 showed the same tendency before it was regu- 
 lated by Pope, who cut it into even lengths 
 of ten syllables, with every even one stressed, 
 as nearly as he could, by transposing, elid- 
 ing, cutting off, or adding a regulation still 
 masking as well as marring the native wood- 
 notes wild in all our modernized texts. 
 
 A similar flexibility belonged to Coleridge's 
 " Christabel," wherein he recurred to the elder 
 fashion of marking the rhythm sufficiently 
 by stress to carry the voice as he willed it to 
 go, instead of the dominant fashion of met- 
 ing it into uniformly even lengths of counted 
 syllables. 
 
 Each way should have its own uses for the 
 modern poet according to the impressional 
 effect he desires. The elder fashion is no more 
 lawless than the one which has come to be so 
 exclusively followed through the dominance of 
 French influences at the English Court, in the 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, influences 
 suiting the growing formalism of the English 
 temperament. Indeed the elder fashion re- 
 quires a more expert metrical handling, while 
 
 xxxv
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the other is more open to mediocre poetic 
 ability. 
 
 It would be well for the closer hold of 
 poetic art on life, especially for dramatic use, 
 if less automatically regulated verse should be 
 revived and developed in England, above all 
 in America, such flexible verse as D'An- 
 nunzio has revived and developed in " The 
 Daughter of Jorio." 
 
 To translate such verse into set metres of 
 blank verse or Alexandrines, in no way cor- 
 responding to its peculiar variability, would 
 be like prisoning a live creature. To do it 
 violence by uniformly substituting strong end- 
 ings for weak endings; to reiterate uniformly 
 the metre arbitrarily chosen to begin with; to 
 exclude all grace of internal rhyme would be 
 like binding a mobile thing from any flutter- 
 ing. Surely it would be to cage the bird 
 whose sensitive wings the genius of D'An- 
 nunzio has freed. 
 
 It has fallen to my especial share in this 
 joint translation to give to it a verse form. 
 It has seemed to me hopeless, and my col- 
 leagues are agreed with me in this view to 
 attempt to give any glimmering impression of 
 the rhythmic beauty essential to the mystical 
 
 xxxvi
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 soul of this tragedy, save by seeking to re- 
 produce for English ears, by similarly free 
 methods in freely stressed English verse, an 
 audible impression corresponding to the im- 
 pression which the stresses of the Italian verse 
 have made on my ear as they were spoken. 
 Hence the desire has been not to be led by 
 the eye, nor to transliterate analytically the 
 Italian effects in some recognized forms of 
 imitative prosody, but merely to listen and 
 echo in English some faint synthetic reflex of 
 the flowing music. 
 
 CHARLOTTE PORTER. 
 
 XXXVll
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS 
 
 LAZARO Di Roio, Father of Aligi 
 
 CANDIA BELLA LEONESSA, Mother of Aligi 
 
 ALIGI, The Shepherd- Artist 
 
 SPLENDORE, FAVETTA, ORNELLA, Aligi s Sisters 
 
 VIENDA Di GIAVE, Aligi s Bride 
 
 MARIA Di GIAVE, Mother of the Bride 
 
 TEODULA Di CINZIO, LA CINERELLA, MONICA DELLA COGNA, 
 
 ANNA Di BOVA, FELAVIA, LA CATALANA, MARIA CORA : 
 
 The Kindred 
 MILA Di CODRA, the Daughter of Jorio the Sorcerer dalle 
 
 Fame 
 FEMO Di NERFA 
 
 T T^ -C- -iO >^l O 
 
 JENNE DELL ETA 
 
 IONA Di MIDIA 
 
 THE OLD HERBWOMAN 
 
 THE SAINT OF THE MOUNTAIN 
 
 THE TREASURE DIVINER 
 
 THE DEVIL-POSSESSED YOUTH 
 
 A SHEPHERD 
 
 R O I O ft I 
 ANOTHER SHEPHERD 
 
 A t> 
 
 A REAPER 
 ANOTHER REAPER
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS 
 
 THE CROWD OF PEOPLE 
 THE CHORUS OF THE KINDRED 
 THE CHORUS OF REAPERS 
 THE CHORUS OF WAILERS 
 
 SCENE : The Land of the Abruzzi 
 
 TIME : Many years ago. (Placed about the sixteenth cen- 
 tury by the Painter Michetti, who designed the scenes 
 and costumes for the initial production in Milan).
 
 THE 
 
 DAUGHTER OF JORIO 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 A ROOM on the ground floor of a 
 rustic house. The large entrance 
 door opens on a large sunlit yard. 
 Across the door is stretched, to prevent entrance, 
 a scarlet woollen scarf, held in place at each end 
 by a forked hoe and a distaff. At one side 
 of the door jamb is a waxen cross to keep off 
 evil spirits. A smaller closed door, with its 
 architrave adorned with boxwood green, is on 
 the wall at the right, and close against the same 
 wall are three ancient wooden chests. At the 
 left, and set in the depth of the wall, is a 
 chimney and fire-place with a prominent hood ; 
 and a little at one side a small door, and near 
 
 this an ancient loom. In the room are to be 
 i 1
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 seen such utensils and articles of furniture as 
 tables, benches, hasps, a swift, and hanks of flax 
 and wool hanging from light ropes drawn be- 
 tween nails or hooks. Also to be seen are jugs, 
 dishes, plates, bottles and flasks of various sizes 
 and materials, with many gourds, dried and 
 emptied. Also an ancient bread and flour chest, 
 the cover of it having a carved panel represent- 
 ing the image of the Madonna. Beside this 
 the water basin and a rude old table. Sus- 
 pended from the ceiling by ropes is a wide, 
 broad board laden with cheeses. Two windows, 
 iron-grated and high up from the ground, give 
 light, one at each side of the large door, and 
 in each of the gratings is stuck a bunch of red 
 buckwheat to ward off evil. 
 
 SPLENDORE, FAVETTA, ORNELLA, the three 
 young sisters, are kneeling each in front of 
 one of the three chests containing the wedding 
 dresses. They are bending over them and pick- 
 ing out suitable dresses and ornaments for the 
 bride. Their gay, fresh tones are like the 
 chanting of morning songs. 
 
 2
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 What's your will, our own Vienda? 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 What's your will, our dear new sister? 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Will you choose the gown of woolen, 
 Would you sooner have the silken, 
 Sprayed with flowrets red and yellow? 
 
 ORNELLA [singing} 
 
 Only of green shall be my arraying. 
 Only of green for Santo Giovanni, \ ) 
 For mid the green meadows he came to seek 
 
 me, 
 Oili, Oili, Oila! 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Look I Here is the bodice of wondrous em- 
 broidery, 
 
 And the yoke with the gleaming thread of 
 silver, 
 
 8
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT L 
 
 Petticoat rich of a dozen breadths' fulness, 
 Necklace strung with hundred-beaded coral, - 
 All these given you by your new mother. 
 
 ORNELLA [ringing] 
 
 Only of green be or gown or bridal chamber! 
 Oili, oili, oila! 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 What 's your will, our own Vienda? 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 What 's your will, our dear new sister? 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Pendant earrings, clinging necklace, 
 Blushing ribbons, cherry red? 
 Hear the ringing bells of noonday, 
 Hear the bells ring out high noon! 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 See the kindred hither coming, 
 
 On their heads the hampers bearing, 
 
 4
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 Hampers laden with wheat all golden, 
 And you yet not dressed and ready 1 
 
 ORNELIA 
 
 Bounding, rebounding, 
 Sheep pass, the hills rounding. 
 The wolf, through valleys winding, 
 The nut he seeks is finding, 
 The pistachio nut is finding. 
 See, the Bride of the Morning! 
 Matinal as the field-mouse 
 Going forth at the dawning, 
 As the woodchuck and squirrel. 
 Hear, O hear, the bells' whirl! 
 
 [All these words are spoken very swiftly, 
 and at the close ORNKLLA laughs joyously f her 
 two sisters joining with her.~\ 
 
 THE THREE SISTERS 
 
 Oh! Aligi, why then don't you come? 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Oh ! in velvet then must you dress ? 
 
 5
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Seven centuries quite, must you rest 
 With your beautiful, magical Spouse? 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 O your father stays at the harvesting, 
 
 c f 
 
 Brother mine, and the star of the dawning 
 In his sickle-blade is showing, 
 In his sickle, no rest knowing. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 And your mother has flavored the wine-cup 
 And anise-seed mixed with the water, 
 Sticking cloves in the roast meat 
 And sweet thyme in the cheeses. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 And a lamb of the flock we have slaughtered, 
 Yea, a yearling, but fattened one season, 
 With head markings and spottings of sable, 
 For the Bride and the Bridegroom. 
 
 6
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 / 
 
 And the mantle, long-sleeved, and cowl- 
 hooded, > 
 
 For Astorgio we chose it and kept it, 
 For the long-lived gray man of the mountain, 
 So our fate upon that he foretell us. 
 
 OKNELLA 
 
 And to-morrow will be San Giovanni, 
 Dear, my brother! with dawn, San Giovanni! 
 Up the Plaia hill then shall I hie me, 
 To behold once again the head severed 
 In the sun's disc, the holy head severed, 
 On the platter all gleaming and golden, 
 Where again the blood runs, flows and babbles. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Up, Viendal head all golden, 
 Keeping long vigil; O golden sweet tresses! 
 Now they harvest in the grain-fields 
 Wheat as golden as your tresses. 
 
 7
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Our mother was saying : " Now heed me ! 
 Three olives I nurtured here with me; 
 Unto these now a plum have I added. 
 Ay! three daughters, and, also, a daughter." 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Come, Vienda, golden-plum girl! 
 Why delay you? Aj-e you writing 
 To the sun a fair blue letter 
 That to-night it know no setting? 
 
 [She laughs and the other sisters join in 
 with her. From the small door enters their 
 mother, CANDIA BELLA LEONESSA.] 
 
 CANDIA [playfully chiding] 
 
 Ah! you magpies, sweet cicales! 
 Once for over- joy of singing 
 One was burst upon the poplar. 
 Now the cock 's no longer crowing 
 To awaken tardy sleepers. 
 Only sing on these cicales, 
 
 8
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 These cicales of high noonday. 
 These three magpies take my roof -tree 
 Take my door's wood for a tree-branch. 
 Still the new child does not heed them. 
 Oh! Aligi, Aligi, dear fellow! 
 
 [The door opens. The beardless bride- 
 groom appears. He greets them with a stave 
 voice, fixed eyes, and in an almost religious 
 manner.] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 All praise to Jesus and to Mary! 
 You, too, my mother, who this mortal 
 Christian flesh to me have given, 
 Be you blessed, my dear mother! 
 Blessed be ye, also, sisters, 
 Blossoms of my blood! 
 For you, for me, I cross my forehead, 
 That never there come before us to thwart us 
 The enemy subtle, in death, in life, 
 In heat of sun, or flame of fire, 
 Or poison, or any enchantment, 
 
 9
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT L 
 
 Or sweat unholy the forehead moist'ning. 
 Father, and Saviour, and Holy Spirit! 
 
 [The sisters cross themselves and go out 
 by the small door, carrying the bridal dresses. 
 AJJGI approaches his mother as if in a dream.] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Flesh of my flesh, thus touch I your forehead 
 With bread, with this fair wheaten loaf of 
 
 white flour, 
 
 Prepared in this bowl of a hundred years old, 
 Born long before thee, born long before me, 
 Kneaded long on the board of a hundred years 
 
 By these hands that have tended and held you. 
 On the brow, thus, I touch: Be it sunny and 
 
 clear ! 
 I touch thus the breast: Be it free from all 
 
 sighing 1 
 
 I touch this shoulder, and that: Be it strong! 
 Let them bear up your arms for long labor! 
 Let her rest there her head gray or golden! 
 And may Christ to you speak and you heed him! 
 
 10
 
 SCENEI.1 OF JORIO 
 
 [With the loaf she makes the sign of the 
 cross above her son, who has fallen on his knees 
 before her.] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 I lay down and meseemed of Jesus I dreamed. 
 He came to me saying: " Be not fearful." 
 San Giovanni said to me : " Rest in safety. 
 Without holy candles thou shalt not die." 
 Said he : " Thou shalt not die the death ac- 
 cursed." 
 
 And you, you have cast my lot in life, mother, 
 Allotted the bride you have chosen for me, 
 YOUF son, and here, within your own house, 
 
 mother, 
 
 You have brought her to couple with me, 
 That she slumber with me on my pillow, 
 That she eat with me out of my platter. 
 Then I was pasturing flocks on the mountain. 
 Now back to the mountain I must be turning. 
 
 {His mother touches his head with the palm 
 of her hand as if to chase away evil thoughts.] 
 
 11
 
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Rise up, my son! You are strangely talking. 
 All your words are now changing in color, 
 As the olive tree changes pressed by the 
 breezes. 
 
 [He rises, as if in a daze.~\ 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 But where is my father? Still nowhere I see 
 him. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Gone to the harvesting, out with the reapers, 
 The good grain reaping, by grace of our 
 Saviour. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 I reaped once, too, by his body shaded, 
 Ere I was signed with the cross on my 
 
 forehead, 
 When my brow scarcely reached up to his 
 
 haunches. 
 
 But on my first day a vein here I severed, 
 Here where the scar stays. Then with leaves 
 
 he was bruising 
 
 12
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 The while he stanched the red blood from 
 flowing, 
 
 " Son Aligi," said he unto me, " Son Aligi, 
 
 Give up the sickle and take up the sheep- 
 crook : 
 
 Be you a shepherd and go to the moun- 
 tain." 
 
 This his command was kept in obedience. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Son of mine, what is this pain the heart of 
 
 you hurting? 
 
 What dream like an incubus over you hovers, 
 That these your words are like a wayfarer, 
 Sitting down on his road at night's coming, 
 Who is halting his footsteps for knowing, 
 Beyond attaining is his heart's desiring, 
 Past his ears' hearing the Ave Maria. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Now to the mountain must I be returning. 
 Mother, where is my stout shepherd's sheep- 
 hook 
 
 13
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 Used to the pasture paths, daily or nightly? 
 Let me have that, so the kindred arriving, 
 May see thereupon all the carving I Ve carved. 
 
 [His mother takes the shepherd's crook 
 from the corner of the fireplace.'] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Lo ! here it is, son of mine, take it : your sisters 
 Have hung it with garlands for Santo Giovanni, 
 With pinks red and fragrant festooned it. 
 
 ALJGI [pointing out the carving on iC\ 
 
 And I have them here on the bloodwood all 
 
 with me, 
 
 As if by the hand I were leading my sisters. 
 So, along they go with me threading green 
 
 pathways, 
 Guarding them, mother, these three virgin 
 
 damsels, 
 
 See! three bright angels here over them hover, 
 And three starry comets, and three meek doves 
 
 also. 
 
 14
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 And a flower for each one I have carved here, 
 The growing half -moon and the sun I have 
 
 carved here; 
 This is the priestly stole; and this is the cup 
 
 sacramental; 
 
 And this is the belfry of San Biagio. 
 And this is the river, and this my own cabin; 
 
 [with mystery, as if with second sight] 
 
 (But who, who is this one who stands in my 
 doorway? 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Aligi, why is it you set me to weeping! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 And see at the end here that in the ground 
 enters, 
 
 Here are the sheep, and here also their shep- 
 herd, 
 
 And here is the mountain where I must be 
 going, 
 
 Though you weep, though I weep, my mother I 
 
 15
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 [He leans on the crook with both hands, 
 resting his head upon them, lost in his 
 thoughts. ] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 But where then is Hoe? What have you 
 made of her, son? 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Her face has shone on me seldom; 
 Carve her, I could not, sooth! mother. 
 
 [From a distance a savage clamor rises.~\ 
 Mother, who shouts out so loud there? 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 The harvesters heated and frenzied, 
 From the craze of their passions defend them, 
 From sins of their blood San Giovanni restrain 
 them! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Ah ! Who then has drawn but that scarf there, 
 Athwart the wide door of our dwelling, 
 
 16
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 Leaning on it the forked hoe and distaff, 
 
 That naught enter in that is evil? 
 
 Ah! Lay there the ploughshare, the wain, 
 
 and the oxen, 
 
 Pile stones there against both the door-posts, 
 With slaked lime from all of the lime-kilns, 
 The bowlder with footprints of Samson, 
 And Maella Hill with its snow-drifts! 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 What is coming to birth in your heart, son 
 
 of mine? 
 
 Did not Christ say to you, " Be not fear- 
 ful"? 
 
 Are you awake? Heed the waxen cross there, 
 That was blessed on the Day of Ascension, 
 The door-hinges, too, with holy water 
 
 sprinkled, 
 
 No evil spirit can enter our doorway, 
 Your sisters have drawn the scarlet scarf 'cross 
 
 it,- 
 
 The scarlet scarf you won in the field-match 
 Long before you ever became a shepherd, 
 ft 17
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT L 
 
 In the match that you ran for the straightest 
 
 furrow, 
 (You still remember it, son of mine?) Thus 
 
 have they stretched it 
 So that the kindred who must pass through 
 
 there 
 
 Offer what gifts they choose when they enter. 
 Why do you ask, for you well know our 
 custom? 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mother! mother! I have slept years seven 
 
 hundred 
 
 Years seven hundred! I come from afar off. 
 I remember no longer the days of my cradle. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 What ails you, son? Like one in a dazement 
 
 you answer. 
 Black wine was it your bride poured out for 
 
 you? 
 And perhaps you drank it while yet you were 
 
 fasting, 
 
 18
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 So that your mind is far off on a journey? 
 O Mary, blest Virgin! do thou grant me 
 blessing I 
 
 The voice of OENELLA singing the nuptial 
 song. 
 
 Only of green shall be my arraying, 
 Only of green for Santo Giovanni. 
 Oili, oili, oila! 
 
 [The Bride appears dressed in green and 
 is brought forward joyously by the sisters.] 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Lo I the bride comes whom we have apparelled 
 With all the joy of the spring-time season. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Of gold and silver the yoke is fashioned, 
 But all the rest like the quiet verdure. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 You, mother, take her! in your arms take her! 
 O dear my mother, take and console her! 
 
 19
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Shedding tears at the bedside we fpund 
 
 her, 
 
 Thus lamenting for thinking so sorely 
 Of the gray head at home left so lonely. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Of the jar full of pinks in the window 
 Her dear face not again shall lean over. 
 You, mother, take her! in your arms take her! 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Daughter, daughter, with this loaf in blessing 
 
 I have touched my own son. Lo! now I di- 
 vide it, 
 
 And over your fair shining head I now break 
 it. 
 
 May our house have increase of abundance! 
 
 Be thou unto the dough as good leaven 
 
 That may swell it out over the bread-board! 
 
 Bring unto me peace and ah! do not bring 
 strife to me! 
 
 20
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 THE THREE SISTERS 
 
 So be it! We kiss the earth, mother! 
 
 [They kiss the ground by leaning over and 
 touching it with forefinger and middle finger, 
 and then touching their lips. ALIGI is kneeling 
 on one side as if in deep prayer.] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 O now daughter mine to my house be 
 As the spindle is unto the distaff; 
 As unto the skein is the spindle; 
 And as unto the loom is the shuttle! 
 
 THE THREE SISTERS 
 
 So be it! We kiss the earth, mother! 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 O Vienda! new daughter, child blessed! 
 
 Lo! midst home and pure food thus I place 
 you. 
 
 Lo! The walls of this house the four cor- 
 ners! 
 
 21
 
 God willing, the sun rises there; sinks there, 
 God willing! 
 
 This is the northward, this is the southward. 
 
 The ridgepole this, the eaves with nests 
 hanging, 
 
 And the chain and the crane with the and- 
 irons; 
 
 There the mortar the white salt is crushed in, 
 
 And there, too, the crock it is kept in. 
 
 O new daughter! I call you to witness 
 
 How midst home things and pure food I 
 place you 
 
 Both for this life and life everlasting. 
 
 THE THREE SISTERS 
 
 So be it! We kiss the earth, mother! 
 
 [VIENDA rests her head, weeping, on the 
 shoulder of the mother. CANDIA embraces her, 
 still holding a half -loaf in each hand. The cry 
 of the reapers is heard nearer. ALIGI rises like 
 one suddenly wakened and goes toward the 
 door. The sisters follow him.'] 
 
 22
 
 SCENBI.J OF JORIO 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Now by the great heat are the reapers all 
 
 maddened, 
 They are barking and snapping like dogs at 
 
 each passer. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Now the last of the rows they are reaching, 
 With the red wine they never mix water* 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 At the end of each row, they are drinking, 
 In the shade of the stack the jug lying. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Lord of heaven! The heat is infernal, 
 At her tail bites the old gammer serpent. 
 
 ORNELLA [chanting] 
 
 Oh, for mercy! Wheat and wheat, and stub- 
 ble, stubble, 
 
 First in sun burn the sickles, then wounds they 
 trouble. 
 
 23
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acri. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Oh mercy for father! for his arms tired, 
 And all his veins with labor swollen. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 O Aligil you saddest of grooms 
 
 Keeping yet in your nostrils sleep's fumes! 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 O, you know very well the rhyme turned about. 
 You have placed the good loaf in the jug, 
 You have poured the red wine in the sack. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Lo! now the kindred! Lo! now the women! 
 
 they are coming. 
 
 Up, up! Vienda! and cease your weeping. 
 Mother! How now! They are coming. Set 
 
 her free then. 
 
 Up! Golden tresses, cease your weeping! 
 You have wept too long. Your fine eyes are 
 
 reddened! 
 
 24
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 [VrENDA dries her tears on "her apron and 
 taking the apron up by the two corners receives 
 in it the two pieces of the loaf from the 
 mother.] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 In blood and in milk return it to me! 
 Goldenhair, come now, sit on the settle. 
 Oh ! Aligi, you too, come sit here ! and wake up ! 
 One of you here, one of you there, thus stay ye, 
 Children, thus, at each side of the door. 
 Be it wide open for all to see in there 
 The wide bed so wide that in order to fill it 
 The mattress to fill I used up the straw- 
 stack. 
 
 Ay! the whole of the stack to the bare pole, 
 With the crock sticking up on the tiptop! 
 
 [CANDIA and SPLENDORE place a small 
 bench each side of the door, where the couple 
 sit composed and silent, looking at each other. 
 ORNELLA and FAVETTA looking out toward 
 the road at the large door. The yard is in daz- 
 zling sunlight.] 
 
 25
 
 THE DAUGHTER [AcrL 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 See! They are coming up the road slowly 
 In single file, all: Teodula di Cinzio 
 And Cinerella, Monica, Felavia, 
 And Catalana delle Tre Bisacce, 
 Anna di Bova, Maria Cora . . . but who is 
 the last one? 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Come on then, Splendore, do help me spread 
 
 out now 
 
 The bedspread I wove of silk doubled, 
 Woven for you, Vienda, dear green bud, 
 As green as the grass of the meadow, 
 The sweet grass, early bee, where you hover. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Who is last? Can you tell us, Vienda? 
 Oh! I see yellow grain in the hampers, 
 And it glitters like gold. Who can she be? 
 Gray at the temple, beneath the white linen, 
 Gray as the feathery bryony branches. 
 
 26
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Your mommy! dear child, is she your mommy? 
 
 [VIENDA rises suddenly as if to rush to her 
 mother. In so doing she lets the bread fall 
 from her apron. She stops, shocked. ALIGI 
 rises and stands so as to prevent the mother 
 from seeing. ~\ 
 
 ORNELLA [greatly concerned, in a frightened voice] 
 
 O Lord save us! Pick it up again. 
 Pick it up, kiss it, ere mamma see it. 
 
 [VIENDA., terrified and overwhelmed by 
 frightful superstition, is stricken immovable, 
 rigid, staring at the two half -loaves with glassy 
 eyes.~\ 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Pick it up, kiss it, sad is the angel. 
 Make a vow silently, promise greatly, 
 Call on San Sisto, lest Death should appear. 
 
 [From within are heard the blows given 
 with the hand on mattress and pillows and the 
 
 27
 
 THE DAUGHTER Ucri. 
 
 wind carries to the ear the clamor of the 
 reapers.] 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 San Sisto! San Sisto! 
 
 Oh! hear ye, and list, oh! 
 
 Black death, evil sprite, 
 
 By day, by night, 
 
 Chase from our walls! 
 
 Drive from our souls! 
 
 Oh! crumble and tear 
 
 The evil eye's snare, 
 
 As the sign of the cross I make! 
 
 [While murmuring the conjuring words 
 she rapidly gathers up the two half-loaves, 
 pressing each to VIENDA'S lips, kissing them 
 herself, and then placing each in the apron, 
 making the sign of the cross over them. She 
 then leads the bridal couple to their benches, as 
 the first of the women kindred appears at the 
 door with the offerings, stopping in front of 
 the scarlet scarf. The women each carry on the 
 head a hamper of wheat adorned with flowing
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 ribbons of various colors. On each basket rests 
 a loaf of bread,, and on top of each loaf a wild 
 flower. ORNELLA and FAVETTA take each one 
 end of the scarf while still leaving hoe and 
 distaff in place against the wall, but so posed 
 as to bar entrance. ] 
 
 FIRST WOMAN, TEODTJLA DI CINZIO 
 
 Ohe! Who watches the bridges? 
 
 FAVETTA and ORNELLA [in unison] 
 
 Love open-eyed and Love blind. 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 To cross over there I desire. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 To desire is not to acquire. 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 I clambered the mountain ridges, 
 
 Now down through the valley I '11 wind.
 
 THE DAUGHTER UcrL 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 The torrent has taken the bridges, 
 Too swift runs the river, you '11 find. 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 Set me over in your boat. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 She leaks too fast to keep afloat. 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 I '11 calk her with tow and resin. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Leaks full seven split and stove her. 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 Then I '11 give you pieces seven. 
 On your shoulder bear me over. 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Oh, no! Help of mine you must lack. 
 The wild water fills me with fright. 
 
 30
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 Lend me a lift on your back. 
 
 I '11 give you this silver piece bright. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Too little! Your eight bits, indeed, 
 Would not keep my ribbons new. 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 Tuck up your skirt. Plunge in bare-kneed. 
 A ducat of gold I '11 give to you. 
 
 [The first woman, TEODULA,, gives OR- 
 NELLA a piece of money. She receives it in her 
 left hand, while the other women come closer 
 to the door. The bridal pair remain seated and 
 silent. CANDIA and SPLENDORE enter from the 
 small door.] 
 
 ORNELLA and FAVETTA [in unison] 
 
 Pass on then, O you fair Lady! 
 And all these in your company! 
 
 31
 
 THE DAUGHTER UcrL 
 
 [OENELLA puts the money in her bosom 
 and takes away the distaff, FAVETTA, the hoe. 
 They then leave both leaning against the wall. 
 ORNELLA, with a quick movement , withdraws 
 the scarf, making it wave like a slender pen- 
 nant. The women then enter one by one, in 
 line, still holding their baskets balanced on 
 their heads. ,] 
 
 TEODULA 
 
 Peace be with you, Candia della Leonessa! 
 And peace, too, with you, son of Lazaro di 
 
 Roio! 
 And peace to the bride whom Christ has given ! 
 
 [She places her basket at the bride's feet 
 and, taking out of it a handful of wheat, she 
 scatters it over VIENDA'S head. She then takes 
 another handful and scatters it over AXJGI'S.] 
 
 This is the peace that is sent you from Heaven: 
 That on the same pillow your hair may whiten, 
 On the same pillow to old age ending. 
 Nor sin nor vengeance be between you,
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Falsehood nor wrath, but love, love only, 
 Daily, till time for the long, long journey. 
 
 [The next woman repeats the same cere- 
 mony and action, the others meanwhile remain- 
 ing in line awaiting their turn, with the hampers 
 on their heads. The last one, the mother of the 
 bride, remains motionless near the threshold, 
 and dries her face of tears and perspiration. 
 The noise of the riotous reapers increases and 
 seems to come nearer. Besides this noise, from 
 time to time, in pauses, now and again the ring- 
 ing of bells is heard.~\ 
 
 
 , 
 
 CINERELLA 
 
 For this is peace and this is plenty. 
 
 [Suddenly a woman's cry is heard outside, 
 coming from the yard.~] 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE UNKNOWN WOMAN 
 
 Help! Help! For Jesus' sake, our Saviour! 
 People of God, O people of God, save ye me ! 
 3 33
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT L/ 
 
 / 
 
 [Running, panting from fright and exer- 
 tion, covered with dust and briars, like a hart 
 run down by a pack of hunting dogs, a woman 
 enters. Her face is covered by a mantle. She 
 looks about bewildered, and withdraws to the 
 corner near the fireplace, opposite to the bridal 
 pair.] 
 
 THE UNKNOWN WOMAN 
 
 People of God! O save ye me! 
 The door there! O shut tight the door there, 
 Put ye up all the bars ! Securely. 
 They are many, and all have their sickles. 
 They are crazed, crazed with heat and 
 
 strong drinking. 
 
 They are brutal with lust and with cursing. 
 Me would they hunt, they would seize me ; 
 They would hunt me, they would seize me, 
 
 me, 
 
 The creature of Christ, ay, me, - 
 The unhappy one, doing no evil! 
 Passing I was alone by the roadside. 
 They saw me. They cried. They insulted, 
 
 84
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 They hurled sods and stones. They chased 
 me. 
 
 Ay! like unto hounds that are hungry, 
 
 They would seize me and tear me and torture. 
 
 They are following me, O most wretched! 
 
 They are hunting me down, people of God! 
 
 Help ye! Save me! The door, O shut it to! 
 
 The door! -- They are maddened will enter! 
 
 They will take me from here, from your 
 hearthstone 
 
 (The deed even God cannot pardon)! 
 
 From your hearthstone that blest is and sacred 
 
 (And aught else but that deed God par- 
 dons) 
 
 And my soul is baptized, I am Christian 
 
 Oh! help! O for San Giovanni's sake, help 
 me! 
 
 For Mary's sake, her of the seven dolors! 
 
 For the sake of my soul. For your own 
 soul! 
 [She stays by the hearth, all the women 
 
 gathering at the side opposite her. VIENDA 
 
 close to her mother and godmother. ALIGI 
 
 W
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 stands outside the circle unmoved, leaning on 
 his crook. Suddenly ORNELLA rushes to the 
 door, closes it, and bars it. A somewhat in- 
 imical murmur arises from the circle of 
 women.'} 
 
 Ah ! tell me your name, how they call 
 you, 
 
 Your name, that wherever I wander, 
 
 Over mountains, in valleys I bless it, 
 
 You, who in pity are first here, 
 
 Though in years yours are least in the count- 
 ing! 
 
 [Overcome she lets herself drop on the 
 hearth, bowed over upon herself with her head 
 resting on her knees. The women are huddled 
 together like frightened sheep. ORNELLA 
 steps forward toward the stranger.] 
 
 ANNA 
 
 Who is this woman? Holy Virgin! 
 
 MARIA 
 
 And is this the right way to enter 
 The dwelling of God-fearing people? 
 
 36
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 MONICA 
 
 And Candia, you! What say you? 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 Will you let the door stay bolted? 
 
 ANNA 
 
 Is the last to be born of your daughters, 
 The first to command in your household? 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 She will bring down upon you bad fortune, 
 The wandering she-dog, for certain! 
 
 FELAVIA 
 
 Did you mark how she entered that instant 
 While yet Cinerella was pouring 
 On Vienda her handful of wheat flour 
 Ere Aligi had got his share fully? 
 
 [ORNELLA goes a step nearer the wretched 
 fugitive. FAVETTA leaves the circle and joins 
 
 37
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACT i. 
 
 MONICA 
 
 How now! Are we, then, to remain here, 
 With our baskets still on our heads loaded? 
 
 MARIA 
 
 Sure it would be a terrible omen 
 
 To put down on the ground here our baskets 
 
 Before giving our offerings to them. 
 
 MARIA DI GIAVE 
 
 My daughter, may Saint Luke defend you! 
 Saint Mark and Saint Matthew attend you! 
 Grope for your scapulary round your neck 
 
 hanging, 
 Hold it closely and offer your prayer. 
 
 [SPLENDORE, too, comes forward and joins 
 the sisters. The three girls stand before the 
 fugitive, who is still prostrate f panting and 
 trembling with fear.~\ 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 You are over sore-pressed, sister, 
 
 38
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 And dusty and tired, you tremble. 
 Weep no more, since now you are safe here. 
 You are thirsty. Your drink is your tears. 
 Will you drink of our water and wine? Your 
 face bathe? 
 
 [She takes a small bowl, draws water from 
 the earthen receptacle and pours wine into it.] 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Are you of the valleys or elsewhere? 
 Do you come from afar? And whither 
 Do you now bend your steps, O woman! 
 All desolate thus by the roadside! 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Some malady ails you, unlucky one? 
 A vow then of penitence made you? 
 To the Incoronata were travelling? 
 May the Virgin answer your prayers! 
 
 [The fugitive lifts her head slowly and cau- 
 tiously, with her face still hidden in the 
 mantle. ~\ 
 
 39
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acri. 
 
 ORNELLA [offering the bowl] 
 
 Will you drink, now, daughter of Jesus? 
 
 [From outside a noise is heard as of bare 
 feet shuffling in the yard and voices murmur- 
 ing. The stranger, again stricken with fear, 
 does not drink from the proffered bowl but 
 places it on the hearth and retires trembling to 
 the further corner of the chimney. ,] 
 
 THE UNKNOWN ONE 
 
 They are here, oh, they come! They are 
 
 seeking 
 
 For me! They will seize me and take me. 
 For mercy's sake, answer not, speak not. 
 They will go if they think the house empty, 
 And do nothing evil; hut if you 
 Are heard, if you speak or you answer 
 They will certainly know I have entered. 
 They will open the door, force it open. 
 With the heat and the wine they are frenzied, 
 Mad dogs! and here is but one man, 
 And many are they and all have their sickles, 
 
 40
 
 SCENEI.) OF JORIO 
 
 Their scythes. Oh! for dear pity's sake, 
 For the sake of these innocent maidens, 
 For your sake, dear daughter of kindness! 
 You, women holy! 
 
 THE BAND OF REAPERS [in chorus outside at the door] 
 
 The dwelling of Lazaro! Surely 
 Into this house entered the woman. 
 
 They have closed the door, they have barred 
 it! 
 
 Look out for her there in the stubble. 
 
 Search well in the hay there, Gonzelvo. 
 
 Hah! Hah! In the dwelling of Lazaro, 
 Right into the maw of the wolf. Hah! Hah! 
 
 O! Candia della Leonessa! 
 
 Ho! all of you there! Are you dead? 
 
 [They knock at the door.~\ 
 Oh! Candia della Leonessa! 
 Do you offer a shelter to harlots? 
 
 Do you find that you need such temptation 
 To still the fain flesh of your husband? 
 
 If the woman be there, I say, open ! 
 Open the door, good folks, give her to us 
 
 41
 
 THE DAUGHTER [AcrL 
 
 And on a soft bed we will lay her. 
 
 Bring her out to us ! Bring her out to us, 
 
 For we only want to know her better. 
 
 To the hay-cock, the hay-cock, the hay-cock I 
 
 [They knock and clamor. ALIGI moves 
 toward the door.} 
 
 THE UNKNOWN ONE [whitpering imploringly] 
 
 Young man, O young man, pray have mercy! 
 O have mercy! Do not open! 
 Not for my sake, not mine, but for others, 
 Since they will not seize now on me only, 
 Since imbruted are they. You must hear it ! 
 In their voices? How now the fiend holds 
 
 them? 
 
 The bestial mad fiend of high noonday, 
 The sweltering dog-days' infection. 
 If they gain entry here, what can you do? 
 
 [The greatest excitement prevails among 
 the women, but they restrain themselves.'} 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 Ye see now to what shame we all are submitted, 
 
 42
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 We women of peace here, for this woman, 
 She who dares not show her face to us! 
 
 ANNA 
 
 Open, Aligi, open the door there, 
 
 But wide enough to let her pass out. 
 
 Grip hold of her and toss her out there, 
 
 Then close and bar the entrance, giving praises 
 
 To Lord Jesus our salvation. 
 
 And perdition overtake all wretches! 
 
 [The shepherd turns toward the woman, 
 hesitating. ORNELLA, stepping forward, stops 
 his way; making a sign of silence, she goes 
 to the door.'} 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Who is there? Who knocks at the door there? 
 
 VOICES OF THE REAPERS [outside, aU confusedly] 
 
 Silence there! Hush up! Hush sh! 
 
 Hush sh! 
 
 There is some one within who is speaking, 
 
 O Candia della Leonessa, 
 
 43
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT L 
 
 Is it you who are speaking? Open! Open! 
 
 -We are the reapers here of Norca, 
 All the company are we of Cataldo. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 I am not Candia. For Candia is busied now. 
 Abroad is she since early morning. 
 
 A VOICE 
 And you? Say who are you then? 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 I belong to Lazaro, Ornella, 
 
 My father is Lazaro di Roio. 
 
 But ye, say ye, why ye have come here? 
 
 A VOICE 
 Open, we but want to look inside there. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Open, that I cannot. For my mother 
 Locked me in here with her kindred 
 Going out, for we are marrying. 
 
 44
 
 'SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 The betrothal we are having of my brother, 
 Aligi, the shepherd, who is taking 
 To wife here, Vienda di Giave. 
 
 A VOICE 
 
 Did you then not let in a woman, 
 
 But a short while ago, a woman frightened? 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 A woman? Then in peace go away. 
 Seek ye elsewhere to find her. 
 O reapers of Norca ! I return to my loom here, 
 For each cast that is lost by my shuttle 
 Will be lost and can never be gathered. 
 God, be with you to keep you from evil, 
 O ye reapers of Norca! May he give you 
 Strength for your work in the grain fields 
 Till by evening you reach the end of your labor, 
 And I, also, poor woman, the ending 
 Of the breadth of this cloth I am weaving. 
 
 [Suddenly at the side window two muscular 
 hands seize the iron bars and a brutal face peers 
 in.~\ 
 
 45
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT L 
 
 THE REAPER [shouting in a laud voice] 
 
 Ho! Captain! the woman is in there! 
 
 She 's inside ! She 's inside ! The youngster 
 
 Was fooling us here, yes, the youngster! 
 
 The woman is in there! See, inside there, 
 
 In the corner. I see her, I see her! 
 
 And there too is the bride and the bridegroom, 
 
 And the kindred who brought them their 
 
 presents. 
 
 This is the feast of the grain-pouring spousal. 
 Ah, ho! Captain! A fine lot of girls there! 
 
 CHORUS OF REAPERS [outside} 
 
 If the woman's within, we say, open! 
 For you it is shame to protect her. 
 
 Send her out here! Send her out here! 
 And we will give her some honey. 
 
 Ho! open there, open, you, and give her 
 to us. 
 
 To the hay-cock with her, to the hay-cock. 
 
 [They clamor and shout. The women in- 
 side are all confused and agitated. The un- 
 
 46
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 known one keeps in the shadow, shrinking close 
 to the wall, as if she sought to sink herself 
 in it.~\ 
 
 CHORUS OF KINDRED 
 
 O help us, O holy Virgin! 
 Is this what the vigil gives us, 
 The eve of Santo Giovanni? 
 
 What disgrace is this you give us, what 
 
 sorrow 
 
 This that you give us, Beheaded one! 
 Just to-day of all days. 
 
 Candia, have you lost your reason? 
 
 O Candia, have you lost your senses? 
 
 Ornella, and all your sisters with you? 
 
 She was always a bit of a madcap. 
 
 Give her up to them, give her, give her 
 To these hungry, ravening wolves! 
 
 THE REAPER [still holding the bars] 
 
 Shepherd Aligi, Oho! shepherd Aligi, 
 Will you give, at your feast of espousal, 
 A place to a sheep that is rotten, 
 
 47
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acri. 
 
 A sheep that is mangy and lousy? 
 
 Take care she infect not your sheepfold, 
 
 Or give to your wife her contagion. 
 
 O Candia della Leonessa, 
 
 Know you whom in your home there you 
 
 harbor, 
 In your home there with your new-found 
 
 daughter? 
 
 The daughter of Jorio, the daughter 
 Of the Sorcerer of Codra! 
 She-dog roamer o'er mountains and valleys, 
 A haunter of stables and straw-stacks, 
 Mila the shameless? Mila di Codra. 
 The woman of stables and straw-heaps, 
 Very well known of all companies; 
 And now it has come to be our turn, 
 The turn of the reapers of Norca. 
 Send her out here, send her out here! 
 We must have her, have her, have her! 
 
 [ALioi,pale and trembling, advances toward 
 the wretched woman,, who remains persistently 
 in the shadow; and pulling off her mantle, he 
 uncovers her face.] 
 
 48
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 MILA DI CODRA 
 
 No! No! It is not true! A cruel lie! 
 A cruel lie ! Do not believe him, 
 Do not believe what such a dog says! 
 It is but the cursed wine speaking 
 And out of his mouth bubbling evil. 
 If God heard it, may He to poison 
 Turn his black words, and he drown in 't ! 
 No ! It is not true. A cruel he ! 
 
 [The three sisters stop their ears while the 
 reaper renews his vituperations. ,] 
 
 THE REAPER 
 
 You shameless one! you are common, 
 Well known are you as the ditches, 
 The field-grass to dry straw turning, 
 Under your body's sins burning, 
 Men for your body have gambled 
 And fought with pitchforks and sickles. 
 Only wait just a bit for your man, Candia, 
 And you '11 see! He '11 come back to you 
 bandaged, 
 4 49
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I 
 
 For sure! From a fight with Rainero, 
 A fight in the grain-field of Mispa, 
 For whom but for Jorio's daughter? 
 And now you keep her in your home, here, 
 To give her to your man Lazaro, 
 To have him find her here all ready. 
 Aligi! Vienda di Giave! 
 Give up to her your bridal bedstead ! 
 And all ye women, go and scatter wheat- 
 grains, 
 
 Upon her head the golden wheat-grains! 
 We '11 come back ourselves here with music, 
 A little later and ask for the wine- jug. 
 
 [The reaper jumps down and disappears 
 mid an outbreak of coarse laughter from the 
 others.'} 
 
 CHORUS OF REAPERS [outside] 
 
 Hand us out the wine- jug. That 's the custom, 
 The wine- jug, the wine- jug, and the woman! 
 
 [ AXIGI stands rigid > with his eyes fixed upon 
 the floor, perplexed, still holding in his hand 
 the mantle he has taken.'] 
 
 50
 
 SCENE I. ] 
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 O innocence, O innocence, of all these 
 Young maidens here, you have heard not, 
 The filthiness, you have heard not, 
 Oh! Tell me you have heard not, heard not! 
 At least not you, Ornella, oh, no, not 
 You who hare wished to save me! 
 
 ANNA 
 
 Do not go near her, Ornella! Or would you 
 Have her ruin you? She, the daughter of the 
 
 Sorcerer, 
 Must to every one bring ruin. 
 
 MILA 
 
 She comes to me because behind me 
 She sees here weeping the silent angel 
 The guardian over my soul keeping vigil. 
 
 [AuGi turns quickly toward MILA at these 
 words, and gazes at her fixedly. ~\ 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 Oh! Oh! it is sacrilege! Sacrilege! 
 
 51
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACT! 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 Ha ! She has blasphemed, she has blasphemed, 
 Against the heavenly angel. 
 
 FELAVIA 
 
 She will desecrate your hearthstone, 
 Candia, unless hence you chase her. 
 
 ANNA 
 
 Out with her, out, in good time, Aligi, 
 Seize her, and out to the dogs toss her! 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 Well I know you, Mila di Codra, 
 
 Well at Farne do they fear you, 
 
 And well I know j r our doings. 
 
 You brought death to Giovanna Cametra, 
 
 And death to the son of Panfilo. 
 
 You turned the head of poor Alfonso, 
 
 Gave Tillura the evil sickness, 
 
 Caused the death of your father, even, 
 
 Who now in damnation damns you! 
 
 MILA 
 
 May thou, God, protect his spirit 
 
 52
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 And unto peace his soul gather. 
 Ah! You it is who have blasphemed 
 Against a soul that is departed 
 And may your blaspheming speeches 
 Fall on you, whenever death fronts you! 
 
 [CANDIA, seated on one of the chests, is sad 
 and silent. Now she rises., passes through the 
 restless circle of women, and advances toward 
 the persecuted one, slowly, without anger. ~\ 
 
 CHORUS OF REAPERS 
 
 Ahey! Ahey! How long to wait? 
 Have you come to an agreement? 
 
 Oh, I say, shepherd, ho ! you shepherd, 
 For yourself, then, do you keep her? 
 
 Candia, what if Lazaro come back now? 
 
 Is she then unwilling? But open, 
 Open! A hand we will lend her. 
 And meanwhile give us the wine-jug, 
 The wine- jug, the wine- jug's the custom! 
 
 [Another reaper peers in through the 
 grating. ~\ 
 
 53
 
 THE DAUGHTER Ucri. 
 
 THE REAPER 
 
 Mila di Codra, come out here! 
 
 For you that will be much the better. 
 
 To try to escape us is useless, 
 
 We '11 seek now the oak-tree shady, 
 
 And throw dice for the one to have you, 
 
 That the chance for us all be equal, 
 
 Now, we will not quarrel for you, 
 
 As Lazaro did with Rainero, 
 
 No, we '11 have no useless bloodshed. 
 
 But, now, if you don't come out here, 
 
 Ere the last one turns up his dice-box, 
 
 Then this door we all shall break open 
 
 And carry things here with a free hand. 
 
 You are warned now; best heed this your 
 
 warning, 
 Candia della Leonessa! 
 
 [He jumps down and the clamor is much 
 abated. The ringing of the village church bells 
 can be heard in the distance. ] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Woman, hear me. Lo, I am the mother 
 
 54
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 Of these three innocent maidens, 
 Also of this youth, the bridegroom. 
 We were in peace in our home here, 
 In peace and in rest with God's favor, 
 And blessing with home rites the marriage, 
 You may see the wheat still in the baskets 
 And in the blest loaf the fresh flower! 
 You have entered in here and brought us 
 Suddenly conflict and sorrow, 
 Interrupted the kindred's giving, 
 In our hearts sowing thoughts of dark omen, 
 That have set my children weeping, 
 And my bowels yearn and weep with them. 
 All to chaff our good wheat grain is turning, 
 And a worse thing still may follow. 
 It is best for you to go now. 
 Go thou with God, knowing surely 
 He will help you, if you trust Him. 
 Ohl There is cause for all this our sorrow. 
 We would fain have desired your safety. 
 Yet now, turn your steps hence, swiftly, 
 So that none of this house need harm you. 
 The door, this my son will now open. 
 
 65
 
 THE DAUGHTER Ucri. 
 
 [The victim listens in humility with bent 
 head, pale and trembling. ALIGI steps toward 
 the door and listens. His face shows great 
 sorrow.] 
 
 MELA 
 
 Christian mother, lo! the earth here 
 I kiss where your feet have trodden, 
 And I ask of you forgiveness. 
 With my heart in my hand lying, 
 In the palm of my hand, grieving, 
 For this sorrow of my bringing. 
 But I did not seek your dwelling: 
 I was blinded, with fear blinded, 
 And the Father, He, all-seeing, 
 Led me here thus to your fireside, 
 So that I, the persecuted, 
 Might find mercy by your fireplace, 
 Mercy making this day sacred. 
 O have mercy! Christian mother. 
 O have mercy! and each wheat grain 
 Resting here within these hampers 
 God will return a hundred-fold. 
 
 56
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 LA CATALANA [whispering] 
 
 Listen not. Whoever listens 
 Will be lost. The false one is she. 
 Oh! I know! Her father gave her, 
 To make herjvoice so sweet and gentle, 
 Evil roots of secret magic. 
 
 ANNA r/^ 
 
 Just see now how Aligi 's spellbound! 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 Beware! beware! lest she give him 
 Fatal illness. O Lord, save us! 
 Have you not heard what all the reapers 
 Have been saying about Lazaro? 
 
 MONICA 
 
 Shall we stay here then till vespers 
 With these baskets on our heads thus? 
 I shall put mine on the ground soon. 
 
 [CANDIA gazes intently upon her son, who is 
 fastened upon MILA. Suddenly fear and rage 
 seize her, and she cries aloud '.] 
 
 57
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT I. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Begone, begone, you sorcerer's 
 Daughter! Go to the dogs! Begone! 
 In my house remain no longer! 
 Fling open the door, Aligi ! 
 
 MELA 
 
 Mother of Ornella, Love's own mother, 
 All, but not this, God forgiveth. 
 Trample on me, God forgiveth, 
 Cut off my hands, yet God forgiveth, 
 Gouge out my eyes, pluck my tongue out, 
 Tear me to shreds, yet God forgiveth, 
 Strangle me, yet God forgiveth, 
 But if you now (heed me, O heed me! 
 While the bells are ringing for Santo Gio- 
 vanni). 
 
 If now you seize upon this body, 
 This poor tortured flesh signed in Christ's 
 
 name, 
 
 And toss it out there in that courtyard, 
 In sight of these your spotless daughters, 
 Abandoning it to sin of that rabble, 
 
 58
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 To hatred and to brutal lusting, 
 Then, O mother of Ornella, 
 Mother of innocence in so doing, 
 Doing that thing, God condemns you! 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 She was never christened, never, 
 Her father was never buried 
 In consecrated ground; under 
 A thorn-bush he lies. I swear it. 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 Demons are behind you, woman! 
 
 Black and foul and false your mouth is! 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 O Candia, hear her, hear her, 
 
 Curses heaping! But a little, 
 
 And she '11 drive you from your dwelling, 
 
 And then all the reapers threatened 
 
 Will most surely fall upon us. 
 
 ANNA DI BOVA 
 
 Up, Aligi! Drag her out there! 
 
 59
 
 THE DAUGHTER Ucri. 
 
 MAMA CORA 
 
 See you not how your Vienda, 
 
 Your young bride, looks like one dying? 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 What kind of a man are you? Forsaken 
 Thus of all force in your muscles? 
 Is the tongue within your mouth, then, 
 Dried and shrivelled that you speak not? 
 
 FELAVIA 
 
 You seem lost. How then? Did your senses 
 Go astray afar off in the mountain ?- 
 Did you lose your wits down in the valley? 
 
 MONICA 
 
 Look ! He has n't let go of her mantle, 
 Since the time he took it from her. 
 To his fingers it seems rooted. 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 Do you think your son Aligi's 
 Mind is going? Heaven help us! 
 
 60
 
 SCENEl.1 OF JORIO 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Aligi, Aligi! You hear me? 
 
 What ails you? Where are you? Gone are 
 
 your senses? 
 What i g coming to birth in your heart, son? 
 
 [Taking the mantle out of his hand, she 
 throws it to the woman. ,] 
 
 I myself will open the door; take her 
 And push her out of here straightway. 
 Aligi, to you I speak. You hear me? 
 Ah! verily you have been sleeping 
 For seven hundred hundred years, 
 And all of us are long forgotten. 
 Kindred! God wills my undoing. 
 I hoped these last days would bring solace 
 And that God would now give me repose, 
 That less bitterness now need I swallow; 
 But bitterness overpowers me. 
 My daughters! Take ye my black mantle 
 From out of the ancient chest there, 
 And cover my head and my sorrows, 
 Within my own soul be my wailing! 
 
 61
 
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acri. 
 
 {The son shakes his head, his face showing 
 perpleocity and sorrow, and he speaks as one in 
 a dream.'} 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 What is your will of me, mother? 
 Unto you said I: "Ah! lay there 
 Against both of the door-posts the ploughshare, 
 The wain and the oxen, put sods there and 
 
 stones there, 
 
 Yea, the mountain with all of its snow-drifts." 
 What did I say then? And how answered 
 
 you? 
 
 " Heed the waxen cross that is holy, 
 That was blest on the Day of Ascension, 
 And the hinges with holy water sprinkled." 
 O, what is your will that I do? It was night 
 
 still 
 
 When she took the road that comes hither. 
 Profound, then, profound was my slumber, 
 O mother! although you had not mingled for 
 ^ me, 
 
 1) The wine with the seed of the poppy. 
 Now that slumber of Christ falls and fails me: 
 
 62
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 And though well I know whence this pro- 
 
 ceedeth, 
 My lips are yet stricken with dumbness. 
 
 woman! what then is your bidding? 
 That I seize her here now by her tresses, 
 That I drag her out there in the courtyard, 
 That I toss her for these dogs to raven? 
 Well! So be it! So be it! I do so. 
 
 [ALIGI advances toward MILA, but she 
 shrinks within the fireplace, clinging for 
 refuge.] 
 
 MILA 
 
 Touch me not! Oh! you, you are sinning, 
 Against the old laws of the hearthstone 
 You are sinning the great sin that 's mortal 
 Against your own blood and the sanction 
 Of your race, of your own ancient kinfolk. 
 Lo! over the stone of the fireplace 
 
 1 pour out the wine that was given 
 
 To me by your sister, in blood bound; 
 So now if you touch me, molest me, 
 All the dead in your land, in your country, 
 
 63
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 All those of the long years forgotten, 
 Generation to past generation,' 
 That lie underground eighty fathoms 
 Will abhor you with horror eternal. 
 
 [Taking the bowl of wine, MILA pours it 
 over the inviolate hearth. The women utter 
 fierce and frantic cries. ] 
 
 THE CHORUS OF KINDRED 
 
 woe ! She bewitches bewitches the fire- 
 place 1 
 
 She poured with the wine there a mixture. 
 
 1 saw it, I saw her. 'T was stealthy ! 
 
 O take her, O take her, Aligi, 
 
 And force her away from the hearthstone. 
 
 By the hair, O seize her, seize her! 
 
 Aligi, fear you naught, fear nothing, 
 All her conjuring yet will be nothing. 
 
 Take her away and shiver the wine-bowl! 
 Shiver it there against the andirons. 
 
 Break the chain loose and engirdle 
 Her neck with it, three times twist it. 
 
 64
 
 Scorn I.] OF JORIO 
 
 She has surely bewitched the hearthstone. 
 
 Woe! Woe for the house that totters! 
 Ah! What lamenting will here be lamented! 
 
 THE CHORUS OF REAPERS 
 
 Oho there! All quarrelling, are you? 
 We are waiting here and we 're watching. 
 We have cast the dice, we know the winner. 
 Bring her out to us, you shepherd! 
 Yes, yes ! Or the door we '11 break down. 
 
 [They join in blows on the. door and in 
 clamoring.'} 
 
 ANNA DI BOVA 
 
 Hold on! Hold on! and have patience a little, 
 But a little while longer, good jnenfolk. 
 Aligi is taking her. Soon you will have her. 
 
 [AxiGi, Uke one demented, takes her by the 
 wrists, but she resists and tries to free her self. ~\ 
 
 MILA 
 
 No! No! You are sinning, are sinning. 
 Crush under your feet my forehead 
 5 65
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acri. 
 
 Or stun it with blows of your sheep-hook, 
 
 And when I am dead toss me out there. 
 
 No, no! God's punishment on you! 
 
 From the womb of your wife serpents 
 
 To you shall be born and brought forth. 
 
 You shall sleep no more, no more, 
 
 And rest shall forsake your eyelids, 
 
 From your eyes tears of blood shall gush forth. 
 
 Ornella, Ornella, defend me, 
 
 Aid me, O thou, and have mercy! 
 
 Ye sisters in Christ, do thou help me! 
 
 ^S he frees herself and goes to the three sis- 
 ters, who surround her. Blind with rage and 
 horror, ALIGI lifts his hook to strike her on the 
 head. Immediately his three sisters begin to 
 cry and moan. This stoics him at once; he lets 
 the hook fall on his knees and with open arms he 
 stares behind her.~\ 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mercy of God! O give me forgiveness! 
 I saw the angel, silent, weeping. 
 
 \ V -I 
 
 He is weeping with you, O my sisters! 
 
 66
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 And at me he is gazing and weeping. 
 Even thus shall I see him forever, 
 Till the hour for my passing, yea! past it. 
 I have sinned thus against my own hearth- 
 stone, 
 
 My own dead and the land of my fathers; 
 It will spurn me and scorn me forever, 
 Deny rest to my weary dead body! 
 For my sins, sisters, purification, 
 Seven times, seven times, I do ask it. 
 Seven days shall my lips touch the ashes, 
 And as many times more as the tears shed 
 From your gentle eyes, O my sisters! 
 Let the angel count them, my sisters, 
 And brand on my heart all their number! 
 It is thus that I ask you forgiveness. 
 Before God thus I ask you, my sisters, 
 Oh! pray you for brother Aligi, 
 Who must now return to the mountain. 
 And she who has suffered such shame here, 
 I pray you console her, refresh her 
 With drink, wipe the dust from her garments, 
 Bathe her feet with water and vinegar. 
 
 07
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACIL 
 
 Comfort her! I wished not to harm her. 
 
 Spurred on was I by these voices. 
 
 And those who to this wrong have brought 
 
 me 
 
 Shall suffer for many days greatly. 
 Mila di Codra! sister in Jesus, 
 
 give me peace for my offences. 
 These flowerets of Santo Giovanni 
 
 Off from my sheep-hook now do I take them 
 And thus at your feet here I place them. 
 Look at you I cannot. I 'm shamefaced. 
 Behind you I see the sad angel. 
 But this hand which did you offence here, 
 
 1 burn in that fire with live embers. 
 
 [Dragging himself on his knees to the fire- 
 place, he bends over and finds a burning ember. 
 Taking it with his left hand, he puts the point of 
 it in the palm of the right.] 
 
 MILA. 
 
 It is forgiven. No, no. Do not wound 
 
 yourself. 
 
 For me, I forgive you, and God shall receive 
 
 68
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 Your penitent prayer. Rise up from the fire- 
 
 place ! 
 
 One only, God only may punish; 
 And He that hand hath given to you 
 To guide your flocks to the pasture. 
 And how then your sheep can you pasture 
 If your hand is infirm, O Aligi? 
 For me, in all humbleness, I forgive you, 
 And your name I shall ever remember, 
 Morn, eve, and midday shall my blessing 
 Follow you with your flocks in the mountains. 
 
 THE CHORUS OF REAPERS [outside] 
 
 Oho, there! Oho, there! How now? 
 
 What is the row? Do you fool us? 
 
 Ho ! We '11 tear down the door there. 
 
 Yes, yes! Take that timber, the plough- 
 beam. 
 
 Shepherd, we '11 not have you fool us. 
 Now, now, that iron there, take it! 
 
 Down with it! Crash down the door there! 
 
 Ho, shepherd Aligi! Now answer! 
 One, then! Two! Three, and down goes it! 
 
 69
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acri. 
 
 [The heavy breathing of the men lifting the 
 timber and iron is heard.] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 For you, for me, and for all my people, 
 I make the sign of the cross! 
 
 [Rising and going toward the door, he 
 continues, ,] 
 
 Reapers of Norca! This door I open. 
 
 [The men answer in a unanimous clamor. 
 The wind brings the sound of the bells. ALIGI 
 draws the bars and bolts and silently crosses 
 himself, then he takes down from the wall the 
 cross of wax and kisses it.~\ 
 
 Women, God's servants, cross yourselves 
 praying. 
 
 [All the women cross themselves and kneel- 
 ing murmur the litany. ~] 
 
 WOMEN [together} 
 
 Kyrie eleison! 
 
 Lord have mercy upon us! 
 70
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 Christe eleison! 
 
 Christ have mercy upon us! 
 Kyrie eleison! 
 
 Lord have mercy upon us! 
 Christe audi nos! 
 
 O Christ hear us! 
 Christe exaudi nos! 
 
 O Christ hearken unto us! 
 
 [The shepherd then lays the cross on the 
 threshold between the hoe and the distaff and 
 opens the door. In the yard glittering in the 
 fierce sun the Unen-clad reapers appear.] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Brothers in Christ! Behold the cross 
 That was blest on the Day of Ascension! 
 I have placed it there on the threshold, 
 That you may not sin against this gentle 
 Lamb of Christ who here finds refuge, 
 Seeking safety in this iireplace. 
 
 [The reapers, struck silent and deeply 
 impressed, uncover their heads. ,] 
 
 71
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACTL 
 
 I saw there standing behind her 
 
 The angel who guards her, silent, 
 
 These eyes that shall see life eternal 
 
 Saw her angel that stood there weeping. 
 
 Look, brothers in Christ, I swear it! 
 
 Turn back to your wheat-fields and reap 
 
 them, 
 
 Harm you not one who has harmed you never! 
 Nor let the false enemy beguile you 
 Any longer with his potions. 
 Reapers of Norca, heaven bless you! 
 May the sheaves in your hands be doubled! 
 And may Santo Giovanni's head severed 
 Be shown unto you at the sunrise, 
 If, for this, to-night you ascend the hill Plaia. 
 Ajid wish ye no harm unto me, the shepherd, 
 To me, Aligi, our Saviour's servant! 
 
 [The kneeling women continue the litanies, 
 CANDIA invoking, the others responding.'] 
 
 CANDIA and CHORUS OF THE KINDRED 
 
 Mater purissima, Mother of Purity, 
 
 ora pro nobis. pray for us. 
 
 72
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 Mater castissima, Mother of Chastity, 
 ora pro nobis. pray for us. 
 
 Mater inviolata, Mother Inviolate, 
 ora pro nobis. pray for us. 
 
 [The reapers bow themselves, touch the cross 
 with their hands and then touch their lips and 
 silently withdraw toward the glittering fields 
 outside., ALIGI leaning against the jamb of the 
 door following with his eyes their departure, 
 the silence meanwhile broken only by voices 
 coming from the country pathways outside. ,] 
 
 FIRST VOICE 
 
 OI turn back, Lazaro di Rgio. 
 
 ANOTHER VOICE 
 
 Turn back, turn back, Lazaro! 
 
 [The shepherd, startled and shading his 
 face with his hands, looks toward the path.] 
 
 CANDIA and THE WOMEN 
 
 Virgo veneranda, Virgin venerated, 
 Virgo predicanda, Virgin admonishing, 
 Virgo potens, Virgin potential, 
 
 ora pro nobis. pray for us. 
 
 73
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, father, what is this? Why are you 
 bandaged? 
 
 Why are you bleeding, father? Speak out and 
 
 J 
 
 tell me, 
 O ye men of the Lord! Who wounded him? 
 
 [LAZARO appears at the door with his head 
 bandaged, two men in white linen supporting 
 him. CANDIA stops praying, rises to her feet 
 and goes to the entrance.} 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, halt there ! The cross lies there on the 
 
 door-sill, 
 You cannot pass through without kneeling 
 
 down. 
 If this blood be unjust blood you cannot pass 
 
 through. 
 
 [The two men sustain the tottering man 
 and he falls guiltily on his knees outside the 
 doorway.} 
 
 74
 
 ScENEi.3 OF JORIO 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 O daughters, my daughters, 't was true then ! 
 O weep, my daughters! let mourning enfold 
 us! 
 
 [The daughters embrace their mother. The 
 kindred before rising put their hampers down 
 on the ground. MILA takes up her mantle and 
 still kneeling wraps herself up in it, hiding her 
 face. Almost creeping, she approaches the 
 door toward the jamb opposite that where 
 AUGI leans. Silently and swiftly she rises and 
 leans against the wall, and stands there wrapt 
 and motionless, watching her chance to dis- 
 appear.] 
 
 75
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 A MOUNTAIN cavern is seen partially 
 protected by rough boards, straw, and 
 twigs and opening wide upon a stony 
 mountain path. From the wide opening are 
 seen green pastures, snow-clad peaks, and pass- 
 ing clouds. In the cavern are pallets made of 
 sheep-pelts, small, rude wooden tables, pouches 
 and skins, filled and empty, a rude bench for 
 wood turning and carving, with an axe upon 
 it, a draw-knife, plane, rasps, and other tools, 
 and near them finished pieces; distaffs, spoons 
 and ladles, mortars and pestles, musical instru- 
 ments, and candlesticks. A large Hock of the 
 trunk of a walnut tree has at its base the bark f 
 and above, in full relief, the figure of an angel 
 hewn into shape to the waist, with the two 
 wings almost finished. Before the image of 
 the Virgin in a depression of the cavern like a 
 niche, a lamp is burning. A shepherd's bag- 
 is
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 pipe hangs close by. The bells of the sheep 
 wandering in the stillness of the mountain may 
 be heard. The day is closing and it is about 
 the time of the autumnal equinox. 
 
 The treasure-seeker, MALDE, and ANNA 
 ONNA, the old herb-gatherer, are lying asleep 
 on the pelts, in their rags. COSMA, the saint, 
 dressed in a long friar's frock, is also asleep, 
 but in a sitting posture with his arms clasped 
 about his knees and his chin bowed over on 
 them. ALIGI is seated on a little bench, intent 
 upon carving with his tools the walnut block. 
 MILA DI CODBA is seated opposite, gazing at 
 
 him. 
 
 MILA 
 
 Bided mute the patron angel 
 From the walnut woodblock carven, 
 Deaf the wood stayed, secret, sacred, 
 Saint Onofrip vouchsafed nothing. 
 
 Till said one apart, a third one 
 (O have pity on us, Patron!) 
 Till said one apart, the fair one, 
 Lo! my heart all willing, waiting! 
 
 77
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT H. 
 
 Would he quaff a draught of marvel? 
 Let him take my heart's blood, quaff it! 
 But of this make no avowal, 
 But of this make no revealing. 
 
 Suddenly the stump budded branches, 
 Out of the mouth a branch sprang budding, 
 Every finger budded branches, 
 Saint Onofrio all grew green again! 
 
 [She bends over to gather the chips and 
 shavings around the carved block. ,] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 O Mila, this too is hewn from the stump of 
 
 a walnut, 
 Grow green will it, Mila? Grow green 
 
 again? 
 
 MILA [stitt bent over] 
 
 "Would he quaff a draught of marvel 
 Let him take my heart's blood." 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Grow green will it, Mila? Grow green 
 again? 
 
 78
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 MELA 
 
 " But of this make no avowal, 
 But of this make no revealing." 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mila, Mila, let a miracle now absolve us! 
 And may the mute patron angel grant us 
 
 protection. 
 'T is for him that I work, but not with my 
 
 chisel, 
 Ah! for him do I work with my soul in my 
 
 fingers ! 
 But what are you seeking? What have you 
 
 lost there? 
 
 MILA 
 
 I but gather the shavings, that in fire we burn 
 them 
 
 With each a grain of pure incense being added. 
 
 Make haste, then, Aligi, for the time is 
 nearing. 
 
 The moonlight of September fleeting, lessen- 
 ing; 
 
 79
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrii. 
 
 All of the shepherds now are leaving, depart- 
 ing, 
 
 Some on to Puglia fare, some Homeward 
 faring; 
 
 And whither then will my love his footsteps 
 be turning? 
 
 Wherever he journeys still may his pathway 
 
 Go facing fresh pastures and springs, not 
 winds keen and chilling, 
 
 And of me may he think when the night over- 
 takes him! 
 
 AIIGI 
 
 Romeward faring then shall go Aligi, 
 Onward to Rome whither all roads are leading, 
 His flock along with him to lofty Rome, 
 To beg an indulgence of the Vicar, 
 Of the Holy Vicar of Christ our Saviour, 
 For he of all shepherds is the Shepherd. 
 Not to Puglia land will go Aligi, 
 But to our blest Lady of Schiavonia, 
 Sending to her by Alai of Averna 
 These two candlesticks of cypress wood, only, 
 
 80
 
 SCENEI.1 OF JORIO 
 
 And with them merely two humble tapers, 
 So she forget not a lowly sinner 
 She, our Lady, who guardeth the sea-shore. 
 Then when this angel shall be all finished, 
 Aligi upon a mule's back will load it, 
 And step by step will he wend on with it. 
 
 MKA 
 
 O hasten, O hasten! for the time is ripening. 
 From the girdle downward very nearly 
 Sunk in the wood yet and lost is the angel; 
 The feet are held fast in the knots, the hands 
 
 without fingers, 
 
 The eyes with the forehead still level. 
 You hastened indeed his wings to give him, 
 Feather by feather, yet forth he flies not! 
 
 % 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Gostanzo will aid me in this, the painter, 
 Gostanzo di Bisegna; the painter is he 
 Who tells stories on wood in color. 
 Unto him I have spoken already, 
 And he will give unto me fine colors, 
 e 81
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrn. 
 
 Perhaps, too, the good monks at the abbey, 
 
 For a yearling, a little fine gold leaf 
 
 For the wings and the bosom will give me. 
 
 MILA 
 
 O hasten! Hasten! The time is rip'ning, 
 Longer than day is the night already, 
 From the valley the shades rise more quickly, 
 And unawares they shut down around us. 
 Soon the eye will guide the hand no longer, 
 And unsuccored of art will grope the blind 
 chisel! 
 
 [CosMA stirs in his sleep and moans. From 
 a distance the sacred songs of pilgrims crossing 
 the mountain are heard.] 
 
 Cosma is dreaming. Who knows what he's 
 
 dreaming! 
 
 Listen, listen, the songs of the pilgrims 
 Who across the mountain go journeying, 
 May be to Santa Maria della Potenza, 
 Aligi, toward your own country, toward 
 Your own home, where your mother is sitting. 
 
 82
 
 SCENBl.] OF JORIO 
 
 And may be they will pass by very near, 
 And your mother will hear, and Ornella, 
 Mayhap, and they '11 say: " These must be 
 
 pilgrims 
 
 Coming down from the place of the shepherds ; 
 And yet no loving token is sent us! " 
 
 [AuGi is bending over his work carving 
 the lower part of the block. Giving a blow 
 with the axe he leaves the iron in the wood and 
 comes forward anxiously.] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Ah! Why, why will you touch where the heart 
 is hurting? 
 
 Oh ! Mila, I will speed on, overtake their cross- 
 bearer 
 
 And beg him bear onward my loving thoughts 
 with them. 
 
 And yet, Mila, yet Oh ! how shall I say it, 
 Mila? 
 
 MILA 
 
 You will say: " O good cross-bearer, I prithee, 
 If ye cross through the valley of San Biagio, 
 
 83
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 Through the countryside called Acquanova, 
 Ask ye there for the house of a woman 
 Who is known as Candia della Leonessa, 
 And stay ye your steps there, for there most 
 
 surely 
 
 Drink shall ye have to restore you, and may be 
 Much beside given. Then stay there and say ye : 
 ' Aligi, your son, sends unto you greeting, 
 And to his sisters, and also the bride, Vienda, 
 And he promises he will be coming 
 To receive from your hands soon your blessing 
 Ere in peace he depart on long travels. 
 Ajid he says, too, that he is set free now, 
 From her the evil one during these late 
 
 days; 
 
 And he will be cause of dissension no longer, 
 And he will be cause of lamenting no longer, 
 To the mother, the bride, and the sisters.' ' 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mila, Mila, what ill wind strikes you 
 And stirs up your soul in you thus? A wind 
 sudden, 
 
 84
 
 Scon I.] OF JORIO 
 
 A wind full of fearing! And on your lips 
 dying, 
 
 Your voice is; your blood your cheek is drain- 
 ing. 
 
 And wherefore, tell me, should I be sending 
 
 This message of falsehood to my mother? 
 
 MILA 
 
 It is the truth, it is tjie truth, I tell you, 
 O brother mine and dear to the sister, 
 It is true what I say; as true is it 
 That I have remained by you untainted, 
 Like a sacred lamp before your faith burning, 
 With immaculate love before you shining. 
 It is the truth, it is the truth I tell you. 
 And I say : Go, go, speed ye on your pathway 
 And meet ye the cross-bearer so that he carry 
 Your greetings of peace on to Acquanova. 
 Now come is the hour of departure 
 For the daughter of Jorio. And let it be so. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Yea, verily, you have partaken of honey, wild 
 honey 
 
 85
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT IL 
 
 That your mind is thus troubled! 
 And you would go whither? Oh, whither, 
 Mila? 
 
 MELA 
 
 Pass on thither where all roads are leading. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Ah! Will you come then with me? O, come 
 
 with me! 
 
 Though full long the journey, you also, Mila, 
 Will I place on the mule's back and travel, 
 Cherishing hope, toward Rome the eternal! 
 
 MILA 
 
 Needs be that I go the opposite way, 
 With steps hurried, bereft of all hoping. 
 
 ALIGI [turning impatiently to the sleeping old herb-vxman] 
 
 Anna Onna! Up, arouse you! Go and find 
 
 me 
 
 Grains of black hellebore, hellebore ebon, 
 To give back to this woman her senses. 
 
 86
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 MLLA 
 
 O be not angry, Aligi, for if you are angry 
 For if you are also against me, how shall I 
 
 live through 
 This day till the evening? For behold, if you 
 
 trample 
 My heart beneath you, I shall gather it never 
 
 again 1 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 And I to my home shall be turning never 
 
 again, 
 
 If not with you, O daughter of Jorio, 
 Mila di Codra, my own by the Sacrament! 
 
 M3LA 
 
 Aligi, can I cross the very threshold 
 Whereon once the waxen cross was lying, 
 Where a man once appeared who was bloody? 
 And unto whom said the son of this man: 
 " If this blood be unjust blood you cannot 
 
 pass through " ? 
 
 High noonday 't was then, the eve of the day 
 Of Santo Giovanni, and harvest day. 
 
 87
 
 THE DAUGHTER tAcrn. 
 
 Now in peace on that wall hangs the idle 
 
 sickle ; 
 
 Now at rest lies the grain in the granary; 
 But of that sorrow's sowing the seeds are still 
 
 growing. 
 
 [COSMA moves in his sleep and moans. ~\ 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Know you, then, one who shall lead you by the 
 hand thither! 
 
 COSMA [crying out in his sleep] 
 
 O do not unbind him! No, no, do not unbind 
 him! 
 
 [The saint, stretching his arms, lifts up his 
 face from his knees.'] 
 
 MTLA 
 
 Cosma, Cosma, what are you dreaming? Tell 
 your dreaming! 
 
 [COSMA wakens and rises.'} 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 What have you been seeing ? Tell your seeing ! 
 
 88
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 COSMA 
 
 The face of Fear was turned full upon me. 
 I have beheld it. But I may not tell it. 
 Every dream that cometh of God must be 
 
 chastened 
 
 From the fire of it first before giving. 
 I have beheld it. And I shall speak, surely. 
 Yet not now, lest I speak the name vainly 
 Of my Lord and my God, lest I judge now 
 While my darkness is still overpowering. 
 
 AIIGI 
 
 O Cosma, thou art holy. Many a year 
 Have you bathed in the melting snow water, 
 In the water o'erflowing the mountain, 
 Quenching your thirst in the clear sight of 
 
 Heaven, 
 
 And this day you have slept in my cavern, 
 On the sheep-skin that 's steamed well in 
 
 sulphur 
 
 So the spirit of evil must shun it. 
 In your dreaming now you have seen visions, 
 And the eye of the Lord God is on you. 
 
 89
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 Help me then with your sure divination! 
 Now to you I shall speak. You will answer. 
 
 COSMA 
 
 All unready am I in wisdom, 
 Nor have I, O youth, understanding 
 Of so much as the stone in the path of the 
 shepherd. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Cosma, man of God, heed me and listen! 
 
 1 implore by the angel in that block enfolded, 
 Who has no ears to hear and yet heareth! 
 
 COSMA 
 
 Simple words speak ye, O shepherd, 
 And repose not your trust in me, 
 But in the holy truth only. 
 
 [MALDE and ANNA ONNA awaken and lean 
 upon their elbows listening, ,] 
 
 AUGI 
 
 Cosma, this, then, is the holy truth: 
 I turned from the mountain and Puglia valley 
 
 90
 
 SCENE L] 
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 With my flock on the day Corpus Domini, 
 And after I found for my flock good shelter 
 I went to my home for my three days' resting. 
 And I find there in my house my mother 
 Who says unto me: " Son of mine, a com- 
 panion 
 For you have I found." Then say I: 
 
 " Mother, 
 
 I ever obey your commandments." She an- 
 swered : 
 
 ; 'T is well. And lo ! here is the woman." 
 We were espoused. And the kindred gathered, 
 Escorting the bride to our threshold. 
 Aloof I stood like a man on the other 
 Bank of a river, seeing all things as yonder, 
 Afar, past the water flowing between, 
 The water that flows everlastingly. 
 Cosma, this was on a Sunday. And mingled 
 With my wine was no seed of the poppy. 
 Why then, notwithstanding, did slumber pro- 
 found 
 
 My heart all forgetting o'erpower? 
 I believe I slept years seven hundred. 
 
 91
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT II. 
 
 We awoke on the Monday belated. 
 Then the loaf of the Bridal my mother 
 Broke over the head of a weeping virgin. 
 Untouched had she lain by me. The kindred 
 Came then with their wheat in their hampers. 
 But mute stayed I wrapped up in great 
 
 sadness. 
 
 As one in the shadow of death I was dwelling. 
 Behold now! on a sudden, all trembling, 
 There appeared in our doorway this woman, 
 Hard pursuing and pressing her, reapers, 
 Hounds ! that wanted to seize her and have her. 
 Then implored she and pleaded for safety. 
 But not even one of us, Cosma, 
 Moved, except one, my sister, the littlest, 
 Who dared rush to the door and bar it. 
 And lo, now by those dogs was it shaken, 
 With uttering of curses and threat'ning. 
 And in hatred against this sad creature 
 Were their foul mouths unleashed and barking. 
 To the pack would the women have tossed her, 
 But she trembling still by the hearthstone, 
 Was pleading us not to make sacrifice of her. 
 
 92
 
 SCEKEL] OF JORIO 
 
 I, too, myself, seized her with hatred and 
 threat'ning, 
 
 Though it seemed to me, then, I was drag- 
 ging 
 
 At my own very heart, the heart of my child- 
 hood. 
 
 She cried out, and above her head I lifted 
 
 My sheep-hook to strike her. 
 
 Then wept my sisters! 
 
 ,- 
 
 Then behind her beheld I the angel weeping! 
 With these eyes, O saint, the angel watching 
 
 and weeping mutely. 
 
 Down on my knees fell I, 
 Imploring forgiveness. And then to punish 
 This, my hand, I took up from the fireplace 
 A burning ember. 
 
 " No, do not burn it," 
 She cried aloud, this woman cried to me. 
 O Cosma ! saint holy, with waters from 
 
 snow-peaks 
 
 Purified are you, dawning by dawning; 
 You, too, woman, who know all herbs growing 
 For the healing of flesh that is mortal, 
 
 93
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT IL 
 
 Yea, all virtue of roots that are secret; 
 
 Malde, you, too, with that branch of yours 
 
 forking 
 
 May fathom where treasure is hidden, 
 Entombed at the feet of the dead now dead 
 For a hundred years, or a thousand true is 
 
 it?- 
 In the depths of the depths of the heart of the 
 
 mountain. 
 
 Of ye then, I ask, of ye who can hear 
 The deep things within that come from afar, 
 Whence came that voice, O from what far 
 
 distance 
 That came and that spake so Aligi should 
 
 hear it? 
 (Oh, answer ye me!) When she said unto 
 
 me: 
 
 " And how then your flocks can you pasture 
 If your hand is infirm, O Aligi? " 
 Ah! with these her words did she gather 
 My soul from my body within me, 
 Even as you, O woman, gather your simples! 
 
 [MiLA weeps silently.] 
 
 94 
 
 7 ' 
 
 f
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 ANNA ONNA 
 
 There 's an herb that is red and called Glaspi, 
 
 And another is white called Egusa, 
 
 And the one and the other grow up far 
 
 apart, 
 
 But their roots grope together and meet 
 Underneath the blind earth, and entwine 
 So closely that sever them never could ever 
 Santa Lucia. Their leaves are diverse, 
 But one and the same is their seven years' 
 
 flower. 
 
 But all this is their record in records. 
 It is Cosma who knoweth the power of the 
 
 Lord. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Heed me then, Cosma! The slumber of for- 
 
 getfulness 
 
 Was by Commandment sent to my pillow. 
 By whom? Closed by the hand of Innocence 
 Was the door of Safety. Came to me the 
 
 apparition 
 The Angel of Counsel. And out of the 
 
 word 
 
 95
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrii. 
 
 Of her mouth was created the pledge eternal. 
 Who then was my wife, before ever 
 Good wheat, holy loaf, or fair flower? 
 
 COSMA 
 
 shepherd Aligi! God's are the just steel- 
 yards of Justice. 
 
 God's only is the just balance of Justice. 
 
 Notwithstanding, O take ye counsel, 
 
 From the Angel of Counsel, who gave you 
 
 your surety. 
 
 Yea, take pledge of him for this stranger. 
 But she left untouched, where is she? 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 For the sheepstead I left after vespers, 
 On the eve of Santo Giovanni. 
 
 At daybreak 
 
 1 found myself wending above Capracinta. 
 On the crest I awaited the sunrise, 
 
 And I saw in the disc of its blazing 
 The bleeding head that was severed. 
 
 To my sheepf old 
 96
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Then came I, and again I began guarding 
 
 my sheep to suffer 
 
 For me seemed that sleep still overwhelmed me, 
 And my flock on my life's force was browsing. 
 Oh! why still was my heart heavy laden? 
 O Cosma! first saw I the shadow, 
 Then the figure, there, there, at the entrance, 
 On the morning of San Teobaldo. 
 On the rock out there was sitting this woman, 
 And she did not arise for she could not, 
 So sore were her feet and bleeding. 
 
 Said she: "Aligi, 
 Do you know me? " 
 
 I answered : " Thou art Mila." 
 And no word more we spoke, for no more 
 
 were we 
 
 Twain. Nor on that day were contaminated 
 Nor after, ever. 
 
 I speak but the truth. 
 
 COSMA 
 
 O shepherd Aligi! You have verily lighted 
 A holy lamp in your darkness. 
 ~7~ 97
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrn. 
 
 Yet it is not enkindled in limits appointed, 
 Chosen out of old time by your fathers. 
 You have moved farther off the Term Sacred. 
 How then if the lamp were spent and were 
 
 quenched? 
 
 For wisdom is in man's heart a well-spring 
 Profound; but only the pure man may draw 
 
 of its waters. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Now pray I great God that He place upoa 
 
 us 
 
 The seal of the Sacrament eternal! 
 See ye this that I do? Not hand but soul 
 Is carving this wood in the similitude 
 Of the Angel apparition. I began 
 On the Day of Assumption. Rosary time 
 Shall it be finished. This my design is: 
 On to Rome with my flock I shall wander, 
 And along with me carry my Angel, 
 On mule-back laden. I will go to the Holy 
 
 Father, 
 
 In the name of San Pietro Celestino, 
 
 98
 
 Sara U OF JORIO 
 
 Who upon Mount Morrone did penance. 
 I shall go to the Shepherd of shepherds, 
 With this votive offering, humbly imploring 
 Indulgence, that the bride, yet untouched, may 
 
 return 
 
 To her mother, set free thus and blameless; 
 Then as mine I may cherish this stranger, 
 Who knows well how to weep all unheeded. / 
 So now I ask this of your deep-reaching wis- 
 dom, 
 Cosma; will this grace unto me be conceded? 
 
 COSMA 
 
 All the ways of mankind appear the direct 
 ways 
 
 To man: but the Lord God is weighing heart- 
 secrets. 
 
 High the walls, high the walls of man's strong- 
 hold, 
 
 Huge are its portals of iron; and around and 
 around it 
 
 Heavy the shade of tombs where grass grows 
 pallid. 
 
 99
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrii. 
 
 Let not your lamb browse upon that grass 
 
 grown pallid, 
 
 i c ^ J 
 
 O shepherd Aligi, best question the mother. 
 
 
 A VOICE [calling outside] 
 
 Cosma, Cosma! If you are within, come forth! 
 
 COSMA 
 
 Who is calling for me? Did you hear a voice 
 calling? 
 
 THE VOICE 
 
 Come forth, Cosma, by the blood that is 
 
 holy! 
 O Christian brothers, the sign of the cross 
 
 make ye! 
 
 COSMA 
 
 Behold me. Who calls me? Who wants me? 
 
 [At the mouth of the cavern two shepherds 
 appear., wearing sheep-skin coats , holding a 
 gaunt and sickly youth whose arms are bound 
 to his body with several turns of a rope.'] 
 
 100
 
 SCENBl.] OF JORIO 
 
 FIRST SHEPHERD 
 
 O Christian brothers! The sign of the cross 
 
 make ye! 
 
 May the Lord from the enemy keep you! 
 And to guard well the door say a prayer. 
 
 SECOND SHEPHERD 
 
 O Cosma, this youth is possessed of a demon. 
 Now for three days the devil has held him. 
 Behold, O behold how he tortures him now. 
 He froths at the mouth, turning livid and 
 
 shrieking. 
 With strong ropes we needed to tie and bind 
 
 him 
 To bring him to you. You who freed before 
 
 now 
 
 Bartolomeo dei Cionco ala Petrara, do you, 
 O wise man of mercy, do you this one 
 
 also 
 Liberate! Force now the demon to leave 
 
 him! 
 O chase him away from him, cure him and heal 
 
 him! 
 
 101
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 COSMA 
 
 What is his name and the name of his father? 
 
 FIRST SHEPHERD 
 
 Salvestro, di Mattia di Simeone. 
 
 COSMA 
 
 Salvestro, how then, you will to be healed? 
 Be of good heart, my son, O be trustful! 
 Lo! I say unto you, fear not! 
 
 And ye 
 
 Wherefore have ye bound him? Let him be 
 free! 
 
 SECOND SHEPHERD 
 
 Come with us then to the chapel, Cosma. 
 There we can let him be free. He would flee 
 
 away, here. 
 
 He is frantic always, for escape ever ready. 
 And sudden to take it. He 's frothing. Come 
 
 on then! 
 
 COSMA 
 
 That will I, God helping. Be of good heart, 
 my son! 
 
 102
 
 Son 1.1 OF JORIO 
 
 [The two shepherds carry the youth of. 
 MALDE and ANNA ONNA follow them for 
 awhile, then halt,, gazing after them, MALDE 
 with a forked olive branch with a small ball of 
 wax stuck on at the larger end, the old woman 
 leaning on her crutch and with her bag of 
 simples hanging in front. Finally they also 
 disappear from sight. The saint from the 
 doorway turns back toward his host.] 
 
 COSMA 
 
 I go in God's peace, shepherd Aligi. 
 
 For the comfort I found in your cavern, 
 
 May you be blessed! Lo! now they called 
 unto me 
 
 And therefore I answered. Before you may 
 enter 
 
 Upon your new way, the old laws well consider. 
 
 Who will change the old ways shall be win- 
 nowed. 
 
 See ye guard well your father's commandment. 
 
 See ye heed well your mother's instruction. 
 
 Hold them ever steadfast in your bosom. 
 
 103
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT II. 
 
 And God guide your feet, that you may not 
 
 be taken 
 In lariats nor into live embers stumble! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Cosma, quite well have you heard me? That 
 
 I remain sinless. 
 
 Never I tainted myself but kept good faith, 
 Quite well have you heard of the sign God 
 
 Almighty 
 
 Has revealed me and sent here unto me? 
 I await what will come, my flesh mortifying. 
 
 COSMA 
 
 I say unto you: Best question your parents 
 Ere you lead to your roof-tree this stranger. 
 
 A VOICE [calling from outside] 
 
 Cosma, don't delay longer! Surely 'twill kill 
 him. 
 
 COSMA [turning to MILA] 
 
 Peace unto you, woman! If good be within 
 you 
 
 104
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 Let it pour forth from you like tears falling 
 Without being heard. I may soon return. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 I come. I follow. Not all have I told you. 
 
 MILA 
 
 Aligi, 't is true : not all are you telling ! 
 
 Go to the roadside. The cross-bearer watch 
 
 for 
 And implore him to carry the message. 
 
 [The saint goes off over the pasture land. 
 The singing of the pilgrims is heard from time 
 to time.] 
 
 MILA 
 
 Aligi, Aligi: Not all did we tell! 
 
 Yet better it were that my mouth were choked 
 
 up, 
 
 Better that stones and that ashes 
 Held me speechless. Hear then this only 
 From me, Aligi. I have done you no evil; 
 And none shall I do you. Healed and re- 
 stored now 
 
 105
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACTIL 
 
 Are my feet. And I know well the path- 
 ways. 
 
 Now arrived is the hour of departure 
 For the daughter of Jorio. Now then so be it! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 I know not, you know not what hour may be 
 
 coming. 
 
 Replenish the oil in our lamp of the Virgin, 
 Take the oil from the skin. Some yet is within 
 And wait for me here. I .seek the cross-bearer, 
 Right well what to say unto him know I. 
 
 MELA 
 
 Aligi, brother of mine! Give me your hand, 
 now! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mila, the road is but there, not far away. 
 
 MILA 
 
 Give me that hand of yours, so I may kiss it. 
 'T is the drop that I yield to my thirst. 
 
 106
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 ALIGI [coming closer] 
 
 With the ember I wanted to burn it, Mila, 
 This sinful hand that sought to offend you. 
 
 MELA 
 
 All that I forget. I am only the woman 
 
 You found on the rock there seated, 
 
 By who knows what roads coming hither! 
 
 ALIGI [coming again close] 
 
 Upon your face your tears are not drying, 
 Dear woman. A tear is now staying 
 On the eyelashes, while you speak trembles, 
 and falls not. 
 
 MILA 
 
 Over us hovers deep stillness. Aligi, just 
 
 listen! 
 Hushed is the singing. With the grasses and 
 
 snow-peaks 
 We are alone, brother mine, we are alone. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mila, now you are unto me as you first 
 were 
 
 107
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrn. 
 
 Out there on the rock, when you were all 
 smiling, 
 
 With your eyes all shining, your feet all bleed- 
 ing. 
 
 MELA 
 
 And you, you, are you not now the one 
 
 who was kneeling, 
 Who the flowrets of Santo Giovanni 
 Put down on the ground? Ah! by one were 
 
 they gathered 
 Who bears them yet, wears them yet in her 
 
 scapulary. 
 
 AUGI 
 
 Mila, there is in your voice a vibration 
 That while it consoles me, it saddens. 
 As even October, when, all my flocks with me, 
 I border the bordering stretches of seashore. 
 
 MILA 
 
 To border them with you, the shore and the 
 mountain 
 
 Ah ! I would that that fate were my fate ever- 
 more. 
 
 108
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 AUGI 
 
 O my love, be preparing for such wayfaring! 
 Though the road there be long, for that is 
 Love strong. 
 
 MILA 
 
 Aligi, I 'd pass there through fires ever flam- 
 ing, 
 Onward still wending by roads never ending. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 To cull on the hill-top the blue gentian lonely, 
 On the seashore only the star-fish flower. 
 
 MILA 
 
 There on my knees would I drag myself on, 
 Placing them down on the tracks you were 
 marking. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Think, too, of the places to rest when the night 
 
 should o'ertake us, 
 And the mint and the thyme that would be 
 
 your pillows. 
 
 109
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 MJLA 
 
 I cannot think. No. Yet give leave this one 
 
 night more 
 That I live with you, here, where you are here 
 
 breathing, 
 
 That I hear you asleep and he with you, 
 And over you keep, like your dogs, faithful 
 
 vigil! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 O, you know, O, you know what must await us. 
 How with you must I ever divide the bread, 
 
 salt, and water. 
 
 And so shall I share with you also the pallet, 
 Unto death and eternity. Give me your hands I 
 
 [They grasp each other's hands, gazing 
 into each other's eyes.'] 
 
 MILA 
 
 Ah! we tremble, we tremble. You are frigid, 
 Aligi. You are blanching. O whither 
 Is flowing the blood your face loses? 
 
 [She frees herself and touches his face with 
 both hands.] 
 
 110
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 O Mila, Mila, I hear a great thundering, 
 All the mountain is shaking and sinking, 
 Where are you? Where are you? All is 
 veiled. 
 
 [He stretches out, his hand toward her as 
 one tottering. They kiss each other. They 
 fall down upon their knees,, facing each other.} 
 
 MILA 
 Have mercy upon us, blessed Virgin! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Have mercy upon us, O Christ Jesus! 
 
 [A deep silence follows.'} 
 
 A VOICE [outside} 
 
 Shepherd, ho! You are wanted, and in a 
 
 hurry. 
 A black sheep has broken his shank. 
 
 [ALIGI rises totteringly and goes toward 
 thfi entrance.} 
 
 ill
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACTIL 
 
 You are wanted at once and must hurry, 
 
 And there is a woman I know not. 
 
 On her head is a basket. For you she is asking. 
 
 [AxiGi turns his head and looks toward 
 MILA with an all-embracing glance. She is 
 still on her knees.'] 
 
 ALIGI [in a whisper} 
 
 Mila, replenish the oil in our lamp of the 
 Virgin, 
 
 So it go not out. See, it barely is burning. 
 
 Take the oil from the skin. Some yet is within. 
 
 And await me. I only must go to the sheep- 
 fold. 
 
 Fear nothing, for God is forgiving. 
 
 Because we trembled will Mary forgive us. 
 
 Replenish the oil and pray her for mercy. 
 
 [He, goes out into the fields.] 
 
 MIIA 
 
 O Holy Virgin! Grant me this mercy: 
 That I may stay here with my face to earth 
 bowed, 
 
 112
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Cold here, that I may be found dead here, 
 That I may be removed hence for burial. 
 No trespass there was in thine eyesight. 
 No trespass there was. For Thou unto us 
 
 wert indulgent. 
 
 The lips did no trespass. (To bear witness 
 There wert Thou!) The lips did no trespass. 
 So under Thine eyes I may die here, die here! 
 For strength have I none to leave here, O 
 
 Mother! 
 
 Yet remain with him here Mila cannot ! 
 Mother clement! I was never sinful, 
 But a well-spring tramped on and trodden. 
 Shamed have I been in the eyes of Heaven, 
 But who took away from my memory 
 This shame of mine if not Thou, Mary? 
 Born anew then was I when love was born 
 
 in me. 
 
 Thou it was willed it, O faithful Virgin! 
 All the veins of this new blood spring from 
 
 afar, 
 
 Spring from far off, from the far, far away, 
 From the depths of the earth where she rests, 
 s 113
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT n. 
 
 'She who nourished me once in days long ago, 
 long ago. 
 
 Let it also be she who bears now for me 
 
 i _ witness 
 
 Of innocency! Madonna, Thou also bore 
 witness ! 
 
 The lips did no trespass here now (Thou wert 
 witness), 
 
 No, there was none in the lips, no, in the lips 
 there was none. 
 
 And if I trembled, O let me bear that tres- 
 pass, 
 
 'Bear ever that tremor with me beyond! 
 
 Here I close up within me my eyes with my 
 fingers. 
 
 [With the index and middle finger of each 
 hand she presses her eyes, bowing her head to 
 the earth.] 
 
 Death do I feel. Now do I feel it draw closer. 
 The tremor increaseth. Yet not the heart 
 ceaseth. 
 
 [Rising impetuously. ~\ 
 114
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 Ah, wretch that I am, that which was told me 
 ,To do, I did not, though thrice did he say it: 
 " Replenish the oil." And lo! now 't is dying! 
 
 [She goes toward the oil-skin hanging from 
 a beam, with her eye still watching the dying 
 flame, endeavoring to keep it alive with the 
 murmured prayer:} 
 
 Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. 
 (Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with 
 thee.) 
 
 [Opening the skin, it flattens in her hands. 
 She searches for the flask to draw off the oil, 
 but is able to get but one or two drops.~\ 
 
 'Tis empty! 'Tis empty! But three drops, 
 
 Virgin, 
 
 For my unction extreme prithee be given me, 
 But two for my hands, for my lips the other, 
 And all for my soul, all the three! 
 For how can I live when back he returns here, 
 What can I say, Mother, what can I say? 
 Surely then he will see, or ere he see me, 
 How the lamp has gone out. If my loving 
 
 115
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT II. 
 
 Sufficed not to keep the flame burning, 
 How pale unto him will this love of mine, 
 Mother, appear! 
 
 [Again she tries the skin, looking again for 
 other receptacles., upsetting everything and 
 still murmuring prayers.] 
 
 Cause it to burn, O Mother intrepid! 
 
 But a little while longer, as much longer only 
 
 As an Ave Maria, a Salve 
 
 Regina, O Mother of Mercy, of Pity ! 
 
 [In the frenzy of her search she goes to 
 the entrance and hears a step and catches sight 
 of a shadow. She calls aloud.~\ 
 
 O woman, good woman, Christian sister, 
 Come you hither ! and may the Lord bless you ! 
 Come you hither ! For mayhap the Lord sends 
 
 you. 
 
 What bear you in your basket? If a little 
 Oil, oh, then of your charity, give me a little! 
 Pray enter and take of all these your free 
 
 choice, 
 
 These ladles, spindles, mortars, distaffs, any I 
 
 116
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 For need that there is here for Our Lady, 
 To replenish the oil in her lamp there hanging 
 And not to quench it; if through me it be 
 
 quenched, 
 
 I shall lose sight of the way to Heaven. 
 Christian woman, grasp you my meaning? 
 Will you to me do this loving kindness? 
 
 [The woman appears at the entrance, her 
 head and face covered with a black mantle. 
 She takes down the basket from her head with- 
 out a word and placing it on the ground re- 
 moves the cloth, takes out the phial of oil and 
 offers it to MELA.] 
 
 MILA 
 
 Ah! be thou blessed, be thou blessed! Lord 
 
 God 
 
 Reward thee on earth, and in Heaven also! 
 You have some! You have some! In mourn- 
 ing are you; 
 
 But the Madonna will grant it to you 
 To see again the face of your lost one, 
 All for this deed of your charity done me. 
 
 117
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 [She takes the phial and turns anxiously 
 to go to the dying lamp.} 
 
 Ah! perdition upon me! 'Tis quenched. 
 
 [The phial falh from her hand and breaks. 
 For a few seconds she remains motionless, 
 stunned with the terrible omen. The woman 
 leaning down to the spilled oil touches it with 
 her fingers and crosses herself. MILA regards 
 the woman with utter sadness and the resigna- 
 tion of despair makes her voice hollow and 
 
 slow.'} 
 
 MELA 
 
 Pardon me, pardon, Christian pilgrim, 
 
 This your charity turned to nothing. 
 
 The oil wasted, broken in pieces the phial, 
 
 Misfortune upon me befallen. 
 
 Tell me what choose you ? All these things here 
 
 Were fashioned out thus by the shepherd. 
 
 A new distaff and with it a spindle 
 
 Wish you? Or wish you a mortar and pestle? 
 
 Tell me, I pray. For nothing know I any 
 
 more. 
 
 I am one of the lost in the earth beneath. 
 
 118
 
 SCENEI.1 OF JORIO 
 
 THE CLOAKED ONE 
 
 Daughter of Jorio ! I have come unto you, 
 To you, bringing here, thus, this basket, 
 So I a boon may beseech of you. 
 
 MTTA 
 
 Ah! heavenly voice that I ever 
 
 In the deeps of my soul have been hearing! 
 
 THE CLOAKED ONE 
 
 To you come I from Acquanova. 
 
 MTT.A 
 Ornella, Ornella art thou! 
 
 [ORNELLA uncovers her face.'] 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 The sister am I of Aligi; 
 The daughter am I of Lazaro. 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 I kiss your two feet with humility, 
 That have carried you here to me 
 
 119
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrn. 
 
 So that again your dear face I behold 
 This hour, this last hour of my mortal suf- 
 fering. 
 
 To give me pity you were the first one, 
 You are now, too, the last one, Ornellal 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 If I was the first, penitence 
 Great I have suffered. I am telling 
 The truth to you, Mila di Codra. 
 And still is my suffering bitter. 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 Oh! your voice in its sweetness is quivering. 
 In the wound doth the knife that hurts quiver. 
 And much more, ah! more doth it quiver 
 And you do not yet know that, Ornella! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 If only you knew this my sorrow! 
 If only you knew how much sadness 
 The small kindness I did for you caused me! 
 From my home that is left desolated 
 I come, where we weep and are perishing. 
 
 120
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 MILA 
 
 Why thus are you vested in mourning? 
 Who is dead then? You do not answer. 
 Mayhap mayhap the newly come sister? 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Ah! She is the one you wish perished! 
 
 MILA 
 
 No, no. God is my witness. I feared it, 
 And the fear of it seized me within me. 
 Tell me, tell me. Who is it? Answer, 
 For God's sake and for your own soul's sake! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Not one of us yet has been taken; 
 But all of us there are still mourning 
 The dear one who leaves us abandoned 
 And gives himself up to his ruin. 
 If you could behold the forsaken one, 
 If our mother you could but behold, 
 You would quiver indeed. Unto us 
 Come is the Summer of blackness, come is 
 
 121
 
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACID. 
 
 The Autumn bitter, oppressive, 
 And never a circling twelvemonth's season 
 Could be unto us so saddening. Surely, 
 When I shut to the door to help you and save 
 
 you 
 
 And gave myself up to my ruin, 
 You did not then seem to me so unfeeling, 
 You who implored for compassion's sake, 
 You who sought my name of me 
 That you might in your blessings whisper it! 
 But since then my name is shadowed in shame. 
 Every night, every day in our household, 
 I am railed upon, shunned, cast away. 
 They single me out. They, pointing, cry out: 
 "Lo! that is the one, behold her, 
 Who put up the bars of the entrance 
 So that evil within might stay safely 
 And hide at its ease by the hearthstone." 
 I cannot stay longer. Thus say I : " Far rather 
 Hew at me, all, with your knife-blades 
 And carve me to shreds and cut me!" This 
 
 now 
 
 Is your blessing, Mila di Codra! 
 
 122
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 MTTA 
 
 It is just, it is just that you 
 Strike me thus! Just is it that you 
 Make my lips drink thus deep of this bitter- 
 ness! 
 
 With such sorrow be accompanied 
 All these my sins to the world that 's beyond! 
 Mayhap, mayhap, then, the stones and the 
 
 heather 
 
 And the stubble, the woodblock dumb, un- 
 feeling, 
 
 Shall speak for me, the angel here silent, 
 That your brother is calling to life in the block 
 
 there, 
 
 And the Virgin bereft of her lamplight. 
 These shall all speak for me : but I I 
 shall speak not! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Dear woman, indeed how around you 
 Your soul is your body's vestment, 
 And how I may touch it, outstretching 
 Towards you thus my hand with all faith. 
 
 123
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT IL 
 
 How then did you do so much evil 
 
 To harm us so much us God's people? 
 
 If you could behold our Vienda, 
 
 Quiver, indeed, would you. For shortly the 
 
 skin will 
 
 Over the bones part in twain for its dryness, 
 And the lips of her mouth are grown whiter 
 Than within her white mouth her white teeth 
 
 are; 
 
 So that when the first rain came falling, 
 Saturday, Mamma, seeing her, said of her, 
 Weeping: " Lo, now! Lo, now! she will be 
 
 leaving, 
 
 She will break with the moisture and vanish." 
 Yet my father laments not; his bitterness 
 He chews upon hard without weeping. 
 Envenomed within him the iron, 
 The wound in his flesh is like poison 
 (San Cresidio and San Rocca guard us!) 
 The swelling leaves only the mouth free 
 To bark at us daily and nightly. 
 In his frenzy his curses were fearful, 
 The roof of the house with them shaking, 
 
 124
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 And with them our hearts quaking. Dear 
 
 woman, 
 Your teeth are chattering. Have you the 
 
 fever, 
 That you shiver thus and you tremble? 
 
 MILA 
 
 Always at twilight and sunset, 
 
 A tremor of cold overtakes me 
 
 Not strong am I in the nights on the mountain, 
 
 We light fires at this time in the valley, 
 
 But speak on and heed not my suffering. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Yesterday, by chance, I discovered 
 He had it in mind to climb up here, 
 This mountain to climb, to the sheepstead. 
 I failed through the evening to see him, 
 And my blood turned cold within me. 
 So then I made ready this basket, 
 And in this my sisters aided me, 
 We are three who are born of one mother, 
 All three of us born marked with sorrow; 
 
 125
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrn. 
 
 And this morning I left Acquanova, 
 
 I crossed by the ferry the river, 
 
 And the path to the mountain ascended. 
 
 Ah! you dear, dear creature of Jesus! 
 
 With what illness now are you taken? 
 
 How can I bear all this sorrow? 
 
 What can I be doing for you? 
 
 You far more violently tremble 
 
 Than when you sought our fireplace 
 
 And the pack of the reapers were hunting you. 
 
 MILA 
 
 And since Oh! since have you seen him? 
 
 Know you 
 
 If yet he has come to the sheepstead? 
 Be certain, Ornella, be certain! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Not again have I seen him. Nor yet 
 Do I know if he came up the mountain, 
 Since much did he have for the doing 
 At Gionco. Perhaps he came not. 
 So do not be frightened! But hear me, 
 
 126
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 And heed me. For your soul's sake, 
 
 To save it, now, Mila di Codra, 
 
 Repent ye and take ye, I prithee, 
 
 Away from us this evil doing! 
 
 Restore us Aligi, and may God go with you, 
 
 And may He have mercy upon you! 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 Dear sister of Aligi! Content am I, 
 Yea, always to hear and to heed you. 
 Just is it that you strike me, 
 Me, the sinful woman, me, the sorcerer's 
 Daughter, the witch who is shameless, 
 Who for charity supplicated 
 The journeying pilgrim of Jesus 
 But a little oil to give her 
 To feed her sacred lamp-flame! 
 Perhaps behind me the Angel is weeping 
 Again as before; and the stones perhaps 
 Will speak for me, but I shall speak not 
 Shall speak not. But this say I only 
 In the name of sister, and if I say not 
 In truth, may my mother arise 
 
 127
 
 THE DAUGHTER Ucrii. 
 
 From her grave, my hair grasping, 
 
 And cast me upon the black earth, bearing 
 
 Witness against her own daughter. 
 
 Only say I : I am sinless before your brother, 
 
 Before the pallet of your brother clean am 1 1 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Omnipotent God! A miracle dost Thou I 
 
 MILA 
 
 But this is the loving of Mila. 
 
 This is but my love, Ornella. 
 
 And more than this I shall speak not. 
 
 Contented am I to obey you. 
 
 All paths knows the daughter of Jorio, 
 
 Already her soul ere your coming 
 
 Had started, ere now, O Innocent One! 
 
 Do not distrust me, O sister 
 
 Of Aligi, for no cause is there. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Firm as the rock my faith is in you. 
 Brow unto brow have I seen in you 
 
 128
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 Truth. And the rest lies in darkness, 
 That I, poor one, may not fathom. 
 But I kiss your feet here humbly, 
 The feet that know well the pathways. 
 And my silent love and pity 
 Will companion you on your journey. 
 I will pray that the steps of your pathway 
 Be lessened, the pain of them softened. 
 And the pain that I feel and I suffer 
 On your head I shall lay it no longer. 
 No more shall I judge your misfortunes, 
 No more shall I judge of your loving, 
 Since before my dear brother sinless 
 Are you, in my heart I shall call you 
 My sister, my sister in exile. At dawning 
 My dreams shall meet you and often shall 
 greet you. 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 Ah, in my grave were I resting, 
 With the black earth close to me nestling, 
 And in my ears, in that grave lonely, 
 These words were the last words sounding, 
 Their promise of peace my life rounding! 
 o 129
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACTIL 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 For your life I have spoken, I witness. 
 And food and drink to restore you, 
 That at least for the first of your journey, 
 You may not lack something of comfort, 
 For you I prepared in this basket; 
 Bread placing in it and wine (the oil is now 
 Gone!) but I did not place there a flower. 
 Forgive me for that, since then I knew not 
 
 MILA 
 
 A blue flower, a flower of the blue aconite 
 You did not place that in your basket for me! 
 And you did not place there the white sheet 
 
 severed 
 
 From the cloth in your loom at home woven 
 That I saw 'twixt the doorway and fireplace! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Mila! for that hour wait on the Saviour. 
 But what still keeps my brother? Vainly 
 I sought him at the sheepfold. Oh! where 
 is he? 
 
 130
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 MILA 
 
 He will be back again ere nightfall surely. 
 Needs be that I hasten! O, needs be! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Do you mean not to see him speak again 
 
 to him? 
 
 Where then will you go for this night? Re- 
 main here. 
 
 I, too, will remain. Thus doing shall we 
 Be together, and strong against sorrow, 
 We three Till you go at daybreak 
 On your path, and we go upon our path. 
 
 MILA 
 
 But already too long are the nights. Needs be 
 That I hasten, hasten! You know not. 
 I will tell you. Also from him I received 
 The parting that 's not to be given 
 A second time. Addio! Go, seek him, 
 And meet him, now, in the sheepfold, surely. 
 Detain him there longer, and tell him 
 All the grief that they suffer down there, 
 
 131
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT IL 
 
 And let him not follow me! On my path- 
 way 
 
 Unknown, I shall soon be. Rest you blessed! 
 Forever rest blessed! O, be you as sweet 
 Unto his as you were to my sorrow! 
 Addio! Ornella, Ornella, Ornella! 
 
 [While speaking thus, she retires toward 
 the darkness of the cavern and ORNELLA, 
 softened to tears, passes out. The old herb- 
 woman then appears at the opening of the 
 cavern. The singing of the pilgrims may still 
 be heard, but from a greater distance. ANNA 
 ONNA enters, leaning on her crutch with her 
 bag hanging by her side.] 
 
 ANNA [breathless] 
 
 'Has freed him, freed him, woman of the valley, 
 'Has freed him! Ay! from inside him 
 Chased away all the demons did he 
 Cosma that possessed him. A saint, surely. 
 He gave out a great cry like a bull's roar, 
 Did the youth, and at one blow fell down 
 As if he had burst his chest open. 
 
 132
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 You didn't don't say you couldn't hear 
 him? 
 
 And now on the grass he is sleeping. 
 
 Deeply, deeply is he sleeping; and the shep- 
 herds 
 
 Stand around and keep watch o'er him. 
 
 But where are you? I do not see you. 
 
 MTTA 
 
 Anna Onna, put me to sleep! 
 
 O Granny dear, I '11 give you this basket 
 
 That is brimful of eating and drinking. 
 
 ANNA 
 
 Who was she that went away hurrying? 
 Had she broken your heart that you cried so? 
 That after her, so, you were calling? 
 
 MTTA 
 
 Granny, oh, listen ! This basket I '11 give you, 
 That one on the ground, to take with you, 
 If you '11 put me to sleep, make me go, 
 
 133
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrn. 
 
 To sleep, with the little black seeds you 
 
 know 
 Of the hyoscyamus. Go off then! be eating 
 
 and drinking 1 
 
 ANNA 
 
 I have none. I have none left in my bag here! 
 
 MILA 
 
 The skin I will give you, too, the sheepskin 
 You were sleeping on here to-day. 
 If you give me some of those red seed-pods, 
 The red pods you know twigs of the nasso. 
 Go off, then, go off, and fill up and guzzle! 
 
 ANNA 
 
 I have none, I have none in my bag here. 
 Go slower a bit, woman of the valley, 
 Take time, go slowly, go slowly, 
 Think it over a day, or a month, or a year. 
 
 MILA 
 
 O Granny dear, more will I give you! 
 A kerchief with pictures in color, 
 
 134
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 And of woollen cloth, three arms' lengths, 
 If you give me some of the herb-roots 
 The same that you sell to the shepherds 
 That kill off the wolves so swiftly 
 The root of the wolf -grass, the wolf -bane 
 Go off then. Go off and mend up your bones 1 
 
 ANNA . 
 
 I have none, I have none left in my bag 
 
 here. 
 
 Go slower a bit, woman of the valley, 
 Take time, go slowly, go slowly, 
 With time there always comes wisdom, 
 Think it over a day, or a month, or a year, 
 With the herbs of the good Mother Mountain 
 We can heal all our ailments and sorrows. 
 
 MILA 
 
 You will not? Very well then, I snatch thus 
 
 from you 
 That black bag of yours. Therein I '11 be 
 
 finding 
 What will serve for me well, well indeed!
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrii. 
 
 [She tries to tear the bag away from the 
 tottering old woman.] 
 
 ANNA 
 
 No, no. You are robbing me, your poor old 
 
 granny, 
 You force me! The shepherd he'd tear 
 
 me 
 Gouge out my eyes from their sockets. 
 
 [A step is heard and a man's form appears 
 in the shadows. ] 
 
 Behold what this woman is doing. 
 
 MILA 
 
 Ah! it is you, it is you, Aligi! 
 
 [MiLA lets fall the bag which she had taken 
 from the old woman and sees the man looming 
 tall in the dim light of the mountain , but recog- 
 nizing him she takes refuge in the depths of the 
 cavern. LAZARO DI Roio then enters, silent, 
 with a rope around his arm like an ox drover 
 about to tie up his beast. The sound of ANNA 
 ONNA'S crutches striking against the stones is 
 heard as she departs in safety. ~\ 
 
 136
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Woman, O, you need not be frightened. 
 
 Lazaro di Roio has come here, 
 
 But he does not carry his sickle: 
 
 It is scarcely a case of an eye for an eye, 
 
 And he does not wish to enforce it. 
 
 There was more than an ounce of blood taken 
 
 From him on the wheat-field of Mispa, 
 
 And you know cause and end of that bloodshed. 
 
 Ounce for ounce, then, he will not take from 
 
 you, 
 
 Nor wish it, for all the wound's smarting 
 The cicatrice, here in the forehead. 
 Raven feather, olive-twig crook, 
 Rancid oil, soot from the chimney shook, 
 Morn unto eve, eve unto morn, 
 The cursed wound must healing scorn! 
 
 [He gives a short, malignant laugh.~\ 
 
 And where I was lying, I heard ever 
 The weeping and wailing, the women, 
 Oh, not for me, but this shepherd, 
 Spell-bound, bewitched by the witch shrew 
 
 137
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT II. 
 
 Way off in the far-away mountain. 
 Surely, woman, poor was your picking. 
 But my grit and my blood are back again, 
 And many words I shall not be talking, 
 My tongue is dry now for doing it, 
 And all for this same sad occasion. 
 Now then, say I, you shall come on with me, 
 And no talk about it, daughter of Jorio! 
 Waiting below is the donkey and saddle, 
 And also here a good rope hempen, 
 And others to spare, God be praised! if need 
 be! 
 
 [MiLA remains motionless, backed up 
 against the rock, without replying.] 
 
 Did you hear me, Mila di Codra? 
 Or are you deaf and dumb now? 
 This I am saying in quiet: 
 I know all about how it happened, 
 That time with the reapers of Norca. 
 If you are thinking to thwart me 
 With the same old tricks, undeceive you! 
 There 's no fireplace here, nor any 
 
 138
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Relations, nor San Giovanni 
 Ringing the bells of salvation. ( ' 
 I take three steps and I seize you, 
 With two good stout fellows to help me. 
 So now, then, and I say it in quiet, 
 You 'd better agree to what needs be. 
 You may just as well do as I want you, 
 For if you don't do so, you '11 have to ! 
 
 MILA 
 
 What do you want from me? Where already 
 Death was, you came. Death is here, even 
 
 now. 
 
 He stepped one side to let you enter. 
 Withdrawing awhile, still here he is waiting. 
 Oh, pick up that bag there; inside it 
 Are deadly roots enough to kill ten wolves. 
 If you bind it on to my jaws here 
 I would make of it all a good mouthful; 
 I would eat therein, you would see me, 
 As the good hungry mare that crunches 
 Her oats. So then, when I should be 
 Cold, you could take me up there and toss me 
 
 139
 
 THE DAUGHTER Ucrn. 
 
 And pack me upon your donkey, 
 And tie with your rope like a bundle, 
 And shout out: " Behold the witch, shameless, 
 The sorceress! " Let them burn up my body, 
 Let the women come round and behold me, 
 And rejoice in deliverance. Mayhap 
 One would thrust in her hand, in the fire, 
 Without being burned in the flame, 
 And draw from the core of the heat my heart. 
 
 ^ at her first bidding, takes up the 
 bag and examines the simples. He then throws 
 it behind him } with suspicion and distrust. ~\ 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Ah, ah! You want to spread some snare. 
 What crouch are you watching to spring on 
 
 me! 
 
 In your voice I can hear all your slyness, 
 OBut I shall trap you in my lariat. 
 
 [At this he makes his rope into a lariat.'} 
 
 Not dead, neither cold do I want you. 
 Lazaro di Roio, by all the gods ! 
 
 140
 
 SCENBl.] OF JORIO 
 
 Mila di Codra, will harvest you, 
 Will go with you this very October, 
 And for this all things are ready. 
 He will press the grapes with your body, 
 Lazaro will sink in the must with you. 
 
 [With a sinister laugh he advances toward 
 MILA, who is on the alert to elude him, the man 
 following closely, she darting here and there, 
 unable to escape him.~] 
 
 MILA 
 
 Do not touch me! Be ashamed of yourself! 
 For your own son is standing behind you. 
 
 [ALIGI appears at the end of the cave. 
 Seeing his father, he turns pale. LAZARO, halt- 
 ing in his chase, turns toward him. Father and 
 son regard each other intently and ominously.] 
 
 LAZARO 
 Hola there, Aligi! What is it? 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, how did you come hither? 
 
 141
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT n. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Has your blood been all sucked up that it 's 
 
 made you 
 
 So pale? As white you stand there in the light 
 As the whey when they squeeze out the cheeses. 
 Shepherd, say, why are you frightened? 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, what is it you wish to do here? 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 What I wish to do here? You are asking 
 A question of me, a right you have not. 
 I will tell you, however. This will I: 
 The yearling ewe catch in my lariat, 
 Ajid lead her wherever it please me. 
 That done, I shall sentence the shepherd. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, this thing you shall surely not do. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 How dare you then lift so boldly 
 Your white face up into mine? Be careful 
 
 142
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Or I shall make it blush of a sudden. 
 
 Go! turn back to your sheepfold and stay 
 
 there, 
 
 With your flock inside the enclosure, 
 Until I come there to seek you. 
 On your life, I say, obey me! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, I pray the Saviour to keep me 
 From doing you aught but obedience. 
 And you are able to judge and to sentence 
 This son of your own; but this one 
 This woman, see that you leave her alone! 
 Leave her to weep here alone. 
 Do no offence unto her. It is sinful. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Ah! The Lord has made you crazy! 
 Of what saint were you just speaking? 
 See you not (may your eyes be blind forever!) 
 See you not how under her eyelashes, 
 Around her neck lie hidden 
 The seven sins, the mortal sins? 
 
 143
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACTBL 
 
 Surely, if there should see her only 
 Your buck now, 't would butt her, and you here 
 Are frightened lest I should offend her! 
 I tell you the stones of the highroad 
 By man and by beast are less trodden 
 Than she is by sin and shame trampled. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 If it were not a sin unto God in me, 
 If by all men it were not deemed evil, 
 Father, I should say unto you that in this 
 
 thing, 
 In this thing you lie in your gullet! 
 
 [He takes a few steps and places himself 
 between his father and the woman, covering 
 her with his body.] 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 What 's that you say? Your tongue in you 
 
 wither ! 
 
 Down on your knees there, to beg me 
 Forgiveness, your face on the ground there! 
 And never dare you to lift up your body 
 
 144
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 Before me! Thus, on your marrow-bones, 
 Off with you! Herd with your dogs! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 The Saviour will judge of me, father: 
 But this woman I shall not abandon, 
 Nor unto your wrath shall I leave her, 
 While living. The Saviour will judge me. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 I am the judge of you. Who 
 Am I then to you, blood and body? 
 
 j 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 You are my own father, dear unto me. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 I am unto you your own father, and to you 
 I may do as to me it seem pleasing 
 Because unto me you are but the ox 
 In my stable; you are but my shovel 
 And hoe. And if I should over you 
 Pass with my harrow and tear you 
 10 145
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrii. 
 
 And break you in pieces, this is well done! 
 
 And if I have need of a handle 
 
 For my knife, and one I shall make myself 
 
 Out of one of your bones, this is well done! 
 
 Because I am the father and you are the son! 
 
 Do you heed? And to me over you is given 
 
 All power, since time beyond time, 
 
 And a law that is over all laws. 
 
 And as even I was to my father, 
 
 So even are you unto me, under earth. 
 
 Do you heed? And if from your memory 
 
 This thing has fallen, then thus I recall 
 
 It unto your memory. Kneel down on your 
 
 knees and kiss ye 
 The earth on your marrow-bones 
 And go off without looking behind you! 
 
 ALJGI 
 
 Pass over me then with the harrow; 
 But touch not the woman. 
 
 [LAZARO goes up to him, unable to restrain 
 Ms rage, and lifting the rope, strikes him on the 
 shoulder.] 
 
 146
 
 SCENEL] OF JORIO 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Down, down, you dog, down, to the ground 
 with you I 
 
 ALTGI [ falling on his knees} 
 
 So then, my father, I kneel down before you: 
 The ground in front of you do I kiss, 
 And in the name of the true God and living 
 By my first tear and my infant wailing 
 From the time when you took me unswaddled 
 And in your hand held me aloft 
 Before the sacred face of Lord Christ, 
 By all this, I beseech you, I pray you, my 
 
 father, 
 
 That you tread not thus and trample 
 On the heart of your son sorrow-laden. 
 Do not thus disgrace him! I pray you: 
 Do not make his senses forsake him, 
 Nor deliver him into the hands of the False 
 
 One- 
 
 The Enemy who wheels now about us! 
 I pray you by the angel there silent, 
 Who sees and who hears in that wood block! 
 
 147
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrii. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Begone! Off with you! Off with you! 
 
 I shall shortly now judge of you. 
 
 Off with you, I bid you. Be off with you! 
 
 [He strikes him cruelly with the rope. 
 ALIGI rises all quivering.'] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Let the Saviour be judge. Let him judge then 
 Between you and me, and let him give unto me 
 Light; but yet I will against you 
 Not lift up this my hand. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Be you damned! With this rope I will hang 
 you. 
 
 [He throws the lariat to take him but 
 ALIGI, seizing the rope with a sudden jerk, 
 takes it out of his father's hands. ~\ 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Christ my Saviour, help Thou me! 
 That I may not uplift my hand against him, 
 That I may not do this to my father! 
 
 148
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 LAZAIIO [furious, goes to the door and calls} 
 
 Ho, Jenne! and ho, Femo! Come here! 
 
 Come here, and see this fellow, 
 
 What he is doing (may a viper sting him!) 
 
 Fetch the ropes. Possessed is he 
 
 Most surely. His own father he threatens! 
 
 [Running appear two men, big and mus- 
 cular,, bearing ropes. ~\ 
 
 He is rebellious, this fellow! 
 
 From the womb is he damned, 
 
 And for all his days and beyond them. 
 
 The evil spirit has entered into him. 
 
 See! See! Behold how bloodless 
 
 The face is. O Jenne! You take him and 
 
 hold him. 
 O Femo, you have the rope, take it and bind 
 
 him, 
 
 For to stain myself I am not wishing. 
 Then go ye and seek out some one 
 To perform the exconjuration. 
 
 [The two men throw themselves upon ALIGI 
 and overpower him.'] 
 
 149
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acm. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Brothers in God! O, do not do this to me! 
 
 Do not imperil your soul, Jenne. 
 
 I who know you so well, who remember, 
 
 Remember you well from a baby, 
 
 Since you came as a boy to pick up the olives 
 
 In your fields. O Jenne dell Eta! 
 
 I remember you. Do not thus debase me. 
 
 Do not thus disgrace me! 
 
 [They hold him tightly, trying to bind him, 
 and pushing him on toward the entrance. ,] 
 
 Ah ! dog ! The pest take you ! 
 No, no, no! Mila, Mila! Hasten! 
 Give me the iron there. Mila! Mila! 
 
 [His voice, desperate and hoarse, is heard 
 in the distance, while LAZARO bars MILA'S 
 egress.'} 
 
 MILA 
 
 Aligi, Aligi! Heaven help you! 
 May God avenge you! Never despair! 
 No power have I, no power have you, 
 
 150
 
 SCENBI.] OF JORIO 
 
 But while I have breath in my mouth, 
 I am all yours! I am all for you! 
 Have faith! Have faith! Help shall come! 
 Be of good heart, Aligi! May God help you! 
 
 [MiLA gazes intently along the path where 
 ALIGI was borne and listens intently for voices. 
 In this brief interval LAZAEO scrutinizes the 
 cavern insidiously. From the distance comes 
 the singing of another company of pilgrims 
 crossing the valley.] 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Woman, now then you have been seeing 
 How I am the man here. I give out the law. 
 You are left here alone with me. 
 Night is approaching, and inside here 
 It is now almost night. O don't 
 Be afraid of me, Mila di Codra, 
 Nor yet of this red scar of mine 
 If you see it light up, for now even 
 I feel in it the beat of the fever. 
 Come nearer me. Quite worn out you seem 
 to be 
 
 151
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 For sure you Ve not met with fat living 
 On this hard shepherd's pallet. 
 While with me you shall have, if you want it, 
 All of that in the valley; for Lazaro 
 Di Roio is one of the thrifty. 
 But what do you spy at? Whom do you wait 
 for? 
 
 MELA 
 
 No one I wait for. No one is coming! 
 
 [She is still motionless, hoping to see 
 OENELLA come and save her. Dissimulating 
 to gain time, she tries to defeat LAZARO'S 
 intentions.] 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 You are alone with me. You need not 
 Be frightened. Are you persuaded? 
 
 MILA [hesitatingly] 
 
 I 'm thinking, Lazaro di Roio. 
 I 'm thinking of what you have promised. 
 I 'm thinking. But what 's to secure me? 
 
 152
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Do not draw back. My word I keep. 
 
 All that I promise, I tell you. 
 
 Be assured, God be witness. Come to me! 
 
 MTT.A 
 And Candia della Leonessa? 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Let the bitterness of her mouth moisten 
 Her thread, and with that be her weaving! 
 
 M3LA 
 
 The three daughters you have in your house- 
 hold? 
 And now the new one ! I dare not trust to it. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 Come here! Don't draw back! Here! Feel it! 
 Where I tucked it. Twenty ducats, 
 Sewed in this coat. Do you want them? 
 
 [He feels for them through his goatskin 
 coat, then takes it off and throws it on the 
 ground at her feet.~\ 
 
 153
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 Take them I Don't you hear them clinking? 
 There are twenty silver ducats. 
 
 MILA 
 
 But first I must see them and count them, 
 First before Lazaro di Roio. 
 , Now will I take these shears and rip it. 
 
 LAZARO 
 
 But why spy about so? You witch! surely 
 You 're getting some little trick ready. 
 You 're hoping yet you '11 deceive me. 
 
 [ H e makes a rush at her to seize her. She 
 eludes him and seeks refuge near the walnut 
 
 block. ] 
 
 MELA 
 
 No, no, no! Let me alone! Let me alone! 
 Don't you touch me! See! See! She comes! 
 See! See! she comes 
 
 Your own daughter Ornella is coming. 
 
 [She grasps the angel to resist LAZARO'S 
 violence.] 
 
 No, no! Ornella, Ornella, O help me! 
 
 154
 
 Seem I.] OF JORIO 
 
 [Suddenly ALIGI appears, free and un- 
 bound, at the mouth of the cave. He sees in 
 the dim light the two figures. He throws him- 
 self upon his father. Catching sight of the axe 
 driven into the wood, he seizes it, blind with fury 
 and horror.] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Let her go! For your life! 
 
 [He strikes his father to death. ORNELLA, 
 just appearing, bends down and recognizes the 
 dead body in the shadow of the, angel. She 
 utters a great cry.~\ 
 
 OKNELLA 
 
 Ah! I untied him! I untied him! 
 
 155
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acriii. 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 A LARGE country yard; in the farther 
 end an oak, venerable with age,, be- 
 yond the fields, bounded by moun- 
 tains, furrowed by torrents; on the left the 
 house of LAZARO, the door open, the porch 
 littered with agricultural implements; on the 
 right the haystack, the mill, and the straw 
 stack. 
 
 The body of LAZARO is lying on the floor 
 within the house, the head resting, according 
 to custom for one murdered, on a bundle of 
 grape-vine twigs; the wailers, kneeling, sur- 
 round the body, one of them intoning the lam- 
 entation, the others answering. At times they 
 bow toward one another, bending till they 
 bring their foreheads together. On the porch, 
 between the plough and large earthen vessel, 
 are the kindred and SPLENDOKE and FAVETTA. 
 Farther from them is VIENDA DI GIAVE, sitting 
 
 156
 
 SCENE L] OF JORIO 
 
 on a hewn stone, looking pale and desolate, 
 with the look of one dying, her mother and god- 
 mother consoling her. ORNELLA is under the 
 tree, alone, her head turned toward the path. 
 All are in mourning. 
 
 CHORUS OF WAILERS 
 
 Jesu, Saviour, Jesu, Saviour! 
 'T is your will. 'T is your bidding, 
 That a tragic death accursed 
 Lazaro fell by and perished. 
 From peak unto peak ran the shudder, 
 All of the mountain was shaken. 
 Veiled was the sun in heaven, 
 Hidden his face was and covered. 
 Woe! Woe! Lazaro, Lazaro, Lazaro! 
 Alas! What tears for thee tear us! 
 Requiem ceternam dona ei, Domine. 
 (O Lord! give him rest eternal.) 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Now, now! Coming! 'Tis coming! Far off! 
 The black standard! The dust rising! 
 
 157
 
 THE DAUGHTER 
 
 O sisters, my sisters, think, oh! think 
 Of the mother, how to prepare her!- 
 That her heart may not break. But a little 
 And he will be here. Lo! at the near turn, 
 At the near turn the standard appearing! 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Mother of the passion of the Son crucified, 
 You and you only can tell the mother, 
 Go to the mother, to her heart whisper! 
 
 [Some of the women go out to see.~\ 
 
 ANNA DI BOVE 
 
 It is the cypress of the field of Fiamorbo. 
 
 FELAVIA SESARA 
 
 It is the shadow of clouds passing over. 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 It is neither the cypress nor shadow 
 Of storm-cloud, dear women, I see it ad- 
 vancing, 
 
 158
 
 sacra L] OF JORIO 
 
 Neither cypress nor storm-cloud, woe 's me ! 
 But the Standard and Sign of Wrong-Doing 
 That is borne along with him. He 's coming 
 The condemned one's farewells to receive here, 
 To take from the hands of the mother 
 The cup of forgetting, ere to God he commend 
 
 him. 
 
 Ah! wherefore are we not all of us dying, 
 Dying with him? My sisters, my sisters! 
 
 [Tlie sisters all look out the gate toward the 
 path.'] 
 
 THE CHORUS OF WAILERS 
 
 Jesu, Jesu, it were better 
 
 That this roof should on us crumble. 
 
 Ah! Too much is this great sorrow, 
 
 Candia della Leonessa. 
 
 On the bare ground your husband lying, 
 
 Not even permitted a pillow, 
 
 But only a bundle of vine-twigs, 
 
 Under his head where he 's lying. 
 
 Woe! woe! Lazaro, Lazaro, Lazaro! 
 
 Alas! What pain for thee pains us! 
 
 Requiem ceternam dona ei f Domine. 
 
 159
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrin. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Favetta, go you; go speak to her. 
 
 Go you, touch her on the shoulder. 
 
 So she may feel and turn. She is seated 
 
 Like unto a stone on the hearthstone, 
 
 Stays fixed there without moving an eyelash, 
 
 And she seems to see nothing, hear nothing; 
 
 She seems to be one with the hearthstone. 
 
 Dear Virgin of mercy and pity! 
 
 Her senses O do not take from her! Un- 
 happy one! 
 
 Cause her to heed us, and in our eyes 
 looking 
 
 To come to herself, dear unhappy one. 
 
 Yet I have no heart even to touch her, 
 
 And who then will say the word to her? 
 
 O sister! Go tell her: Lo! he is coming! 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Nor have I the heart. She affrights me. 
 How she looked before I seem to forget, 
 And how her voice sounded before, 
 Ere in the deep of this sorrow 
 
 160
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 We plunged. Her head has whitened 
 
 And it grows every hour whiter. 
 
 Oh! she is scarcely ours any more, 
 
 She seems from us so far away, 
 
 As if on that stone she were seated 
 
 For years a hundred times one hundred 
 
 From one hundred years to another 
 
 And had lost, quite lost remembrance 
 
 Of us. O just see now, just see now, 
 
 Her mouth, how shut her mouth is! 
 
 More shut than the mouth that 's made 
 
 silent, 
 
 Mute on the ground there forever. 
 How then can she speak to us ever? 
 I will not touch her nor can I tell her 
 "Lo! he/is coming!" If she awaken 
 She '11 fall, she '11 crumble. She affrights me! 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 O wherefore were we born, my sisters? 
 And wherefore brought forth by our mother? 
 Let us all in one sheaf be gathered, 
 And let Death bear us all thus away! 
 11 161
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 THE CHORUS OF WAILERS 
 
 Ah! mercy, mercy on you, Woman! 
 
 Ah! mercy be upon you, Women! 
 
 Up and take heart again! The Lord God 
 Will uplift whom he uprooted. 
 
 If God willed it that sad be the vintage 
 Mayhap He wills, too, that the olives 
 Be sure. Put your trust in the Lord. 
 
 And sadder than you is another, 
 She who sat in her home well contented, 
 In plenty, mid bread and clean flour, 
 Entering here, fell asleep, to awaken 
 Amid foul misfortune and never 
 Again to smile. She is dying: Vienda. 
 Of the world beyond is she already. 
 
 She is there without wailing or weeping! 
 Ah! on all human flesh have thou pity! 
 
 On all that are living have mercy! 
 And all who are born to suffer, 
 To suffer and know not wherefore! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Oh, there Femo di Nerfa is coming, 
 The ox driver, hurriedly coming. 
 
 162
 
 ScENEi.1 OF JORIO 
 
 And there is the standard stopping 
 
 Beside the White Tabernacle. 
 
 My sisters, shall I myself go to her 
 
 And bear her the word? 
 
 Woe! oh, woe! If she does not remember 
 
 What is required of her. Lord God 
 
 Forbid that she be not ready 
 
 And all unprepared he come on her and call 
 
 her, 
 
 For if his voice strike her ear on a sudden 
 Then surely her heart will be broken, broken! 
 
 ANNA DI BOVE 
 
 Then surely her heart will be broken, 
 Ornella, if you should go touch her, 
 For you bring bad fortune with you. 
 'T was you who barred up the doorway, 
 'T was you who unfettered Aligi. 
 
 THE CHORUS OF WALLERS 
 
 To whom are you leaving your ploughshare, 
 O Lazaro! to whom do you leave it? 
 Who now your fields will be tilling? 
 
 163
 
 THE DAUGHTER [ACT in. 
 
 Who now your flocks will be leading? 
 Both father and son the Enemy 
 Has snared in his toils and taken. 
 Death of infamy! Death of infamy! 
 The rope, and the sack, and the blade of iron! 
 Woe! woe! Lazaro, Lazaro, Lazaro! 
 Alas! What torments for thee torment us! 
 Requiem czternam dona el, Domine. 
 
 [The ox driver appears, panting.'} 
 
 FEMO DI NERFA 
 
 Where is Candia? O ye daughters of the 
 
 dead one! 
 
 Judgment is pronounced. Now kiss ye 
 The dust ! Now grasp in your hands the ashes ! 
 For now the Judge of Wrong-Doing 
 Has given the final sentence. 
 And all the People is the Executor 
 Of the Parricide, and in its hands it has him. 
 Now the People are bringing here your brother 
 That he may receive forgiveness 
 From his own mother, from his mother 
 Receive the cup of forgetfulness, 
 
 164
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 Before his right hand they shall sever, 
 Before in the leathern sack they sew him 
 With the savage mastiff and throw him 
 Where the deep restless waters o'erflow him! 
 All ye daughters of the dead one, kiss ye 
 The dust now; grasp in your hands now the 
 
 ashes! 
 
 And may our Saviour, the Lord Jesus 
 Upon innocent blood have pity! 
 
 [The three sisters rush up to each other, 
 and then advancing slowly, remain with their 
 heads touching each other. From the distance 
 is heard the sound of the muffled drum.'] 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 O Femo, how could you ever say it? 
 
 FEMO DI NERFA 
 
 Where is Candia? Why does she not appear 
 here? 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 On the hearthstone, the stone by the fireplace 
 She sits and gives no sign of living. 
 
 165
 
 THE DAUGHTER UcriH. 
 
 ANNA DI BOVA 
 
 And there 's no one so hardy to touch her. 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 And affrighted for her are her daughters. 
 
 FELAVIA SESARA 
 
 And you, Femo, did you bear witness? 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 And Aligi, did you have him near you? 
 And before the judge what did he utter? 
 
 MONICA DELIA COGNA 
 
 What said he? What did he? Aloud 
 Did he cry? Did he rave, the poor unfortu- 
 nate one? 
 
 FEMO DI NERFA 
 
 He fell on his knees and remained so, 
 And upon his own hand stayed gazing, 
 And at times he would say " M ea culpa" 
 And would kiss the earth before him, 
 
 166
 
 SCEKEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 And his face looked sweet and humble, 
 As the face of one who was innocent. 
 And the angel carved out of the walnut block 
 Was near him there with the blood-stain. 
 And many about him were weeping, 
 And some of them said, " He is innocent." 
 
 ANNA DI BOVA 
 
 And that woman of darkness, Mila 
 Di Codra, has anyone seen her? 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 Where is the daughter of Jorio? 
 
 Was she not to be seen? What know you? 
 
 FEMO DI NERFA 
 
 They have searched all the sheepfolds and 
 
 stables 
 
 Without any trace of her finding. 
 The shepherds have nowhere seen her, 
 Only Cosma, the saint of the mountain, 
 Seems to have seen her, and he says 
 
 167
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrin. 
 
 That in some mountain gorge she 's gone to 
 cast her bones away. 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 May the crows find her yet living 
 
 And pick out her eyes. May the wolf-pack 
 
 Scent her yet living and tear her! 
 
 FELAVIA SESARA 
 
 And ever reborn to that torture 
 
 Be the damnable flesh of that woman! 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 03e still, be still, Felavia, silence, I say! 
 Be silent now! For Candia has arisen, 
 She is walking, coming to the threshold. 
 Now she goes out. O daughters, ye daughters, 
 She has arisen, support her! 
 
 [The sisters separate and go toward the 
 door.~\ 
 
 THE CHORUS OF WAILERS 
 
 Candia della Leonessa, 
 Whither go you? Who has called you? 
 
 168
 
 SCENE I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Sealed up are your lips and silent, 
 
 And your feet are like feet fettered. 
 
 Death you are leaving behind you, 
 
 And sin you find coming to meet you. 
 
 Wheresoever going, wheresoever turning, 
 
 Thorny everywhere the pathway. 
 
 Oh! woe! woe! ashes, ashes, widow! 
 
 Oh! woe! mother, Jesu! Jesu! mercy! 
 
 De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine. 
 
 (Out of the deep, O Lord, I cry unto Thee!) 
 
 [The mother appears at the threshold. 
 The daughters timidly go to support her. Sh& 
 gazes at them in great bewilderment.] 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Mother, dearest, you have risen, maybe 
 You need something refreshment 
 A mouthful of muscadel, a cordial? 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Parched are your lips, you dear one, 
 
 And bleeding are they? Shall we not bathe 
 
 them? 
 
 169
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT IIL 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Mommy, have courage, we are with you. 
 Unto this great trial God has called you. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 And from one warp came so much linen, 
 And from one spring so many rivers, 
 And from one oak so many branches, 
 And from one mother many daughters! 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Mother dear, your forehead is fevered. For 
 
 the weather 
 
 To-day is stifling, and your dress is heavy, 
 And your dear face is all wet with moisture. 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 Jesu, Jesu, may she not lose her senses 1 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 Help her regain her mind, Madonna! 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 It is so long since I did any singing, 
 I fear I cannot hold the melody. 
 
 170
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 But to-day is Friday, there is no singing, 
 Our Saviour went to the mountain this day. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 O mother dear, where does your mind wander? 
 Look at us! Know us! What idle fancy 
 Teases you? Wretched are we! What is her 
 meaning? 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Here, too, is the stole, and here, too, is the 
 
 cup sacramental, 
 
 And this is the belfry of San Biagio. 
 And this is the river, and this my own cabin. 
 But who, who is this one who stands in my 
 
 doorway? 
 
 [Sudden terror seizes the young girls. 
 They draw back, watching their mother, moan- 
 ing and weeping.] 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 O my sisters, we have lost her! 
 Lost her, also, our dear mother! 
 Oh! too far away do her senses stray! 
 
 171
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrni. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Unhappy we! Whom God's malediction left 
 Alone in the land, orphans bereft I 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 By the other, a new grave make ready near 
 And bury us living all unready here! 
 
 FELAVIA SESARA 
 
 No no, dear girls, be not so despairing, 
 For the shock is but pushing her senses 
 Far back to some time long ago. 
 Let them wander! thence soon to be turning! 
 
 [CANDIA takes several steps. ~\ 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Mother, you hear me? Where are you going? 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 I have lost the heart of my dear gentle boy, 
 Thirty-three days ago now, nor yet do I 
 find it; 
 
 172
 
 SCENEI.] OF JORIO 
 
 Have you seen him anywhere? Have you 
 
 met him afar? 
 
 Upon Calvary Mountain I left him, 
 I left him afar on the distant mountain, 
 I left him afar in tears and bleeding. 
 
 I. 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 Ah! she is telling her stations. 
 
 FELAVIA SESARA 
 
 Let her mind wander, let her say them! 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 Let her all her heart unburden! 
 
 MONICA DELLA COGNA 
 
 O Madonna of Holy Friday, 
 
 Have pity on her! And pray for us! 
 
 [The two women kneel and pray.] 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 Lo! now the mother sets out on her travels, 
 To visit her son well beloved she travels. 
 
 173
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 O Mother, Mother, wherefore your com- 
 ing? 
 
 Among these Judeans there is no safety. 
 
 An armful of linen cloth I am bringing 
 To swathe the sore wounds of your body. 
 
 All! me! had you brought but a swallow 
 
 of water! 
 
 My son ! No pathway I know nor well- 
 
 spring; 
 
 But if you will bend your dear head a little 
 A throatful of milk from my breast I will 
 
 give you, 
 Ajid if then you find there no milk, oh so 
 
 closely 
 To heart I will press you, my life will go to 
 
 you! 
 
 O Mother, Mother, speak softly, softly 
 
 [She stops for a moment, then dragging 
 her words, cries out suddenly with a despairing 
 en/.] 
 
 Mother, I have been sleeping for years seven 
 
 . -. -. 
 
 174 
 
 hundred,
 
 SCBNBL] OF JORIO 
 
 Years seven hundred, I come from afar off. 
 I no longer remember the days of my cradle. 
 
 [Struck by her own voice, she stops and 
 looks about bewildered, as if suddenly awak- 
 ened from a dream. Her daughters hasten 
 to support her. The women all rise. The 
 beating of the drum sounds less muffled, as 
 if approaching.] 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Ah! how she 's trembling, how she 's all trem- 
 bling! 
 
 Now she swoons. Her heart is almost broken. 
 
 For two days she has tasted nothing. Gone 
 is she! 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Mamma, who is it speaks within you? What 
 
 do you feel, 
 Speaking inside you, in the breast of you? 
 
 FAVETTA 
 
 Oh! unto us hearken; heed us, mother, 
 Oh! look upon us! We are here with you! 
 
 175
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 FEMO DI NERFA [from the end of the yard] 
 
 O women, women, he 's near, the crowd with 
 
 him. 
 
 The standard is passing the cistern now. 
 They are bringing also the angel covered. 
 
 [The women gather under the oak to 
 watch.'] 
 
 ORNELLA [in a loud voice] 
 
 Mother, Aligi is coming now; Aligi is 
 
 coming, 
 
 To take from your heart the token of pardon, 
 And drink from your hand the cup of forget- 
 
 fulness. 
 
 Awaken, awaken, be brave, dear mother; 
 Accursed he is not. With deep repentance 
 The sacred blood he has spilled redeeming. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 'T is true ; oh, 't is true. With the leaves he 
 
 was bruising 
 
 They stanched the blood that was gushing. 
 " Son Aligi," he said then, " Son Aligi, 
 
 176
 
 SCENE L] OF JORIO 
 
 Let go the sickle and take up the sheep- 
 crook, 
 
 Be you the shepherd and go to the mountain." 
 This his commandment was kept in obedience. 
 
 SPLENDORE 
 
 Do you well understand? Aligi is coming. 
 
 CANDIA 
 
 And unto the mountain he must be returning. 
 What shall I do? All his new clothing 
 I have not yet made ready, Ornella! 
 
 ORNELIA 
 
 Mother, let us take this step. Turn now unto 
 
 us ; here, 
 
 In front of the house we must await him 
 And give our farewell to him who is leaving, 
 Then all in peace we shall lie down together, 
 Side by side in the deep bed below. 
 
 [The daughters lead their mother out on 
 the porch.] 
 
 12 177
 
 THE DAUGHTER UcriiL 
 
 CANDIA [murmuring to herself] 
 
 I lay down and meseemed of Jesus I dreamed, 
 He came to me saying, "Be not fearful!" 
 San Giovanni said to me, " Rest in safety." 
 
 THE CHORUS OF KINDRED 
 
 Oh what crowds of people follow the stand- 
 ard, 
 
 The whole village is coming after. 
 
 loria di Midia is carrying the standard. 
 
 Oh how still it is, like a processional ! 
 
 Oh what sadness! On his head the veil of 
 sable, 
 
 On his hands the wooden fetters, 
 Large and heavy, big as an ox-yoke! 
 Head to foot the gray cloth wraps him, he is 
 
 barefoot. 
 
 Ah! Who can look longer! My face I 
 bury, 
 
 I close up my eyes from longer seeing. 
 
 The leathern sack Leonardo is bearing, 
 Biagio Gudo leads the savage mastiff. 
 
 Mix in with the wine the roots of solatro 
 
 178
 
 SCENEL] OF JORIO 
 
 That he may lose his consciousness. 
 
 Brew with the wine the herb novella 
 That he may lose feeling, miss suffering. 
 Go, Maria Cora, you who know the secrets, 
 Help Ornella to mix the potion. 
 
 Dire was the deed, dire is the suffering. 
 Oh what sadness ! See the people ! 
 
 Silently comes all the village. 
 
 Abandoned now are all the vineyards. 
 
 To-day, to-day no grapes are gathered. 
 
 Yes, to-day even the land is mourning. 
 
 Who is not weeping? Who is not wail- 
 
 ing? 
 
 See Vienda ! Almost in death's agony. 
 Better for her that she lost her senses. 
 
 Better for her that she see not, hear not. 
 
 O woe for her bitter fate, three months 
 only 
 
 Since we came and brought our hampers! 
 
 And sorrow yet to come who may measure? 
 
 No tears shall be left in us for weeping. 
 
 179
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrin. 
 
 FEMO DI NERFA 
 
 Silence, O kindred, for here comes lona. 
 
 {The women turn toward the porch. There 
 is a deep silence. The voice of IONA] 
 
 IONA 
 
 O widow of Lazaro di Roio, 
 O people of this unhappy home, 
 Behold now! Behold now! The penitent is 
 coming. 
 
 [The tall figure of IONA appears bearing 
 the standard. Behind him comes the parri- 
 cide, robed in gray, the head covered with a 
 black veil, both hands manacled in heavy 
 wooden fetters. A man on one side is holding 
 the shepherd's carved crook; others carry the 
 angel covered with a white cloth, which they 
 lower to the ground. The crowd pushes be- 
 tween the straw stack and ancient oak. The 
 waiters, still on their knees, crawl to the door 
 and lift up their voices in cries and wailing 
 towards the condemned one.~\ 
 
 180
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 THE CHORUS OF WAILERS 
 
 Son, O son Aligi! Son, O son Aligi! 
 What have you done? What have you done? 
 Whose body is this body bleeding? 
 And who upon the stone has placed it? 
 Now hath come your hour upon you I 
 Black is the wine of the evil-doer! 
 Severed hand and death of infamy; 
 Severed hand and sack of leather I 
 Oh! woe! woe! O son of Lazaro. Lazaro 
 Is dead. Woe! Woe! And you slew Lazaro ! 
 Libera, Domine, animam servi tui. 
 (Spare, O Lord, the soul of this thy servant.) 
 
 IONA DI MTOIA 
 
 Grief is yours, Candia della Leonessa, 
 
 O Vienda di Giave, grief is yours, 
 
 Grief is yours, daughters of the dead one! 
 
 Kindred, 
 May the Lord Saviour have pity on all of 
 
 you, women, 
 
 For into the hands of the People, judging, 
 The Judge has now given Aligi di Lazaro. 
 
 181
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT m. 
 
 That upon the deed infamous we may take 
 
 vengeance, 
 A deed upon all of us fallen, and having no 
 
 equal, 
 
 Nor among our ancestors known to memory, 
 And may it forever be lost from memory, 
 By the grace of the Lord, from son to son, 
 
 henceforth. 
 Now, therefore, the penitent one we lead 
 
 hither, 
 That he may receive the cup of forget- 
 
 fulness 
 
 From you here, Candia della Leonessa, 
 Since he out of your flesh and your blood was 
 
 the issue, 
 To you 't is conceded to lift the veil of sable, 
 
 ^*S~* 
 
 'T is yielded you lift to his mouth the cup of 
 
 forgetting, 
 Since his death unto him shall be exceeding 
 
 bitter. 
 
 Salvum fac populum tuum, Domine! 
 (Save, O Lord, these thy people) 
 Kyrie eleisont 
 
 182
 
 SCENBL] OF JORIO 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Christy eleison, Kyrie eleisonl 
 
 [IONA places his hand on ALIGI'S shoulder. 
 The penitent then takes a step toward his 
 mother, and falls, as if broken down, upon 
 his knees.~\ 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Praises to Jesus and to Mary! 
 I can call you no longer my mother, 
 'T is given to me to bless you no longer. 
 This is the mouth of hell this mouth! 
 To curses only these lips are given, 
 That sucked from you the milk of life, 
 That from your lips learned orisons holy 
 In the fear of the Lord God Almighty, 
 And of all of his law and commandments. 
 Why have I brought upon you this evil? 
 You of all women born to nourish the child, 
 To sing him to sleep on the lap, in the 
 
 cradle! 
 
 This would I say of my will within me, 
 But locked must my lips remain. 
 
 183
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT m. 
 
 Oh, no! Lift not up my veil of darkness 
 Lest thus in its fold you behold 
 
 The face of my terrible sinning. 
 
 Do not lift up my veil of darkness, 
 
 No, nor give me the cup of forgetting. 
 
 Then but little shall be my suffering, 
 
 But little the suffering decreed me. 
 
 Rather chase me with stones away, 
 
 Ay, with stones and with staves drive and 
 
 chase me, 
 
 As you would chase off the mastiff even 
 Soon to be of my anguish companion, 
 And to tear at my throat and mumble it, 
 While my desperate spirit within me 
 Shall cry aloud, " Mamma ! Mamma ! " 
 When the stump of my arm is reeking 
 In the cursed sack of infamy. 
 
 THE CROWD [with hushed voices] 
 
 Ah! the mother, poor dear soul! See her! 
 See how in two nights she has whitened! 
 She does not weep. She can weep no longer. 
 
 Bereft is she of her senses. 
 
 184
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 Not moving at all. Like the statue 
 Of our Mater Dolorosa. O have pity! 
 
 O good Lord, have mercy on her! 
 Blessed Virgin, pity, help her! 
 
 Jesus Christ have pity on her! 
 
 AIIGI 
 
 And you also, my dear ones, no longer 
 
 'T is given me to call you sisters, 
 
 'T is given me no longer to name you 
 
 By your names in your baptisms christened. 
 
 Like leaves of mint your names unto me, 
 
 In my mouth like leaves that are fragrant, 
 
 That brought unto me in the pastures 
 
 Unto my heart joy and freshness. 
 
 And now on my lips do I feel them, 
 
 And aloud am I fain to say them. 
 
 I crave no other consolation 
 
 Than that for my spirit's passing. 
 
 But no longer to name them 'tis given me. 
 
 And now the sweet names must faint and 
 
 wither, 
 
 For who shall be lovers to sing them 
 
 185
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrin. 
 
 At eve beneath your casement windows? 
 For who shall be lovers unto the sisters 
 Of Aligi? And now is the honey 
 Turned into bitterness; O then, chase me, 
 And, like a hound, hound me away. 
 With staves and with stones strike me. 
 But ere you thus chase me, O suffer 
 That I leave unto you, disconsolate, 
 But these two things of my sole possession, 
 The things that these kindly people 
 Carry for me: the sheep-crook of bloodwood, 
 Whereon I carved the three virgin sisters, 
 In your likeness did I carve them, 
 To wander the mountain pastures with me, 
 The sheep-crook, and the silent angel, 
 That with my soul I have been caning. 
 Woe is me for the stain that stains it! 
 But the stain that stains it shall fade away 
 Some day, and the angel now silent 
 Shall speak some day, and you shall hearken, 
 And you shall heed. Surfer me suffer 
 For all I have done! With my woe profound 
 In comparison little I suffer! 
 
 186
 
 SCENEI.1 OF JORIO 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Oh! the children, poor dear souls! See them! 
 See how pale and how worn are their faces! 
 
 They too are no longer weeping 
 
 They have no tears left for weeping. 
 Dry their eyes are, inward burning. 
 
 Death has mown them with his sickle, 
 To the ground laid them low ere their dying. 
 Down they are mown but not gathered. 
 
 Have mercy upon them, O merciful one I 
 Upon these thy creatures so innocent. 
 
 Pity, Lord Jesus, pity! Pity! 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 And you who are maiden and widow, 
 Who have found in the chests of your bridal 
 Only the vestment of mourning, 
 The combs of ebon, of thorns the necklace, 
 Your fine linen woven of tribulation, 
 Full of weeping your days ever more, 
 In heaven shall you have your nuptials, 
 And may you be spouse unto Jesus! 
 And Mary console you forever! 
 
 187
 
 THE DAUGHTER, [A CT UI. 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 O poor dear one! Until vespers 
 Hardly lasting, and now drawing 
 Her last breath. Lost her face is 
 In her hair of gold all faded, 
 Even all her golden tresses. 
 
 Now like flax upon the distaff, 
 
 Or shade-grown grass for Holy Thursday. 
 
 Yes, Vienda, maiden- widow, 
 Paradise is waiting for you. 
 
 If she is not, then who is Heaven's? 
 
 May Our Lady take you with her! 
 
 Put her with the white pure angels! 
 
 Put her with the golden martyrs! 
 
 IONA DI MTOIA 
 
 Aligi, your farewells are spoken, 
 Rise now and depart. It grows late. 
 Ere long will the sun be setting. 
 To the Ave Maria you shall not hearken. 
 The evening star you shall not see glimmer. 
 O Candia della Leonessa, 
 If you, poor soul, on him have pity, 
 
 188
 
 SCENEl.] OF JORIO 
 
 Give, if you will, the cup, not delaying, 
 For the mother art thou, and may console him. 
 
 ( 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Candia, lift up the veil, Candia! 
 
 Press his lips to the cup, Candia, 
 
 Give him the potion, give him 
 
 Heart to bear his suffering. Rise, Candia! 
 
 Upon your own son take pity. 
 
 You only can help him ; to you, 't is granted. 
 
 Have mercy upon him! Mercy, O mercy! 
 
 [ORNELLA hands the mother the cup con- 
 taining the potion. FAVETTA and SPLENDORE 
 encourage the poor mother. ALIGI, kneeling, 
 creeps to the door of the house and addresses 
 the dead bodyJ] 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Father, father, my father Lazaro, 
 Hear me. You have crossed over the river, 
 In your bier, though it was heavier 
 Than the ox-cart, your bier was, 
 And the rock was dropped in the river. 
 Where the current was swiftest, you crossed it; 
 
 189
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 Father, father, my father Lazaro, 
 Hear me. Now I also would cross over 
 The river, but I I cannot. I am going 
 To seek out that rock at the bottom. 
 And then I shall go to find you: 
 And over me you will pass the harrow, 
 Through all eternity to tear me, 
 Through all eternity to lacerate me. 
 Father of mine, full soon I '11 be with you! 
 
 [The mother goes toward him in deep hor- 
 ror. Bending down she lifts the veil, presses 
 his head upon her breast with her left hand, 
 takes the cup ORNELLA offers and puts it to 
 AJLIGI'S lips. A confusion of muffled voices 
 rises from the people in the yard and down the 
 path.~\ 
 
 IONA DI MIDIA 
 
 Suscipe, Domine, servum tuum. 
 (Accept, O Lord, this thy servant.) 
 
 Kyrie eleison. 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison, 
 Miserere, Deus, miserere. 
 
 190
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 Do you see, do you see his face? 
 This do we see upon earth, Jesus! 
 
 Oh! Oh! Passion of the Saviour! 
 
 But who is calling aloud? And where- 
 
 fore? 
 
 Be silent now! Hush, hush! Who is call- 
 ing? 
 
 The daughter of Jorio! The daughter of 
 Jorio, Mila di Codra! 
 
 Great God, but this is a miracle ! 
 
 It is the daughter of Jorio coming. 
 
 Good God! She is raised from the dead! 
 
 Make room! Make room! Let her pass 
 by! 
 
 Accursed dog, are you yet living? 
 -Ah! Witch of Hell, is it you? 
 
 She-dog! Harlot! Carrion! 
 
 Back! Back! Make room! Let her pass! 
 
 Come, she-thing, come! Make way! 
 
 Let her pass through! Let her alone! In 
 the Lord's name! 
 
 [AxiGi rises to his feet, his face uncovered. 
 He looks toward the clamoring crowd, the 
 
 191
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 mother and sisters still near him. Impetu- 
 ously opening her way through the crowd, 
 MILA appears. 
 
 MELA DI CODRA 
 Mother of Aligi, sisters 
 Of Aligi, Bride and Kindred, 
 Standard-bearer of Wrong-Doing, and you, 
 All ye just people! Judge of God! 
 I am Mila di Codra. 
 I come to confess. Give me hearing. 
 The saint of the mountain has sent me. 
 I have come down from the mountain, 
 I am here to confess in public 
 Before all. Give me hearing. 
 
 IONA DI MEDIA 
 
 Silence! Be silent! Let her have leave 
 To speak, in the name of God, let her. 
 Confess yourself, Mila di Codra. 
 All the just people shall judge you. 
 
 MELA 
 
 Aligi, the beloved son of Lazaro, 
 Is innocent. He did not commit 
 
 192
 
 Sam I.] OF JORIO 
 
 Parricide. But by me indeed was his father 
 Slain, by me was he killed with the axe. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mila, God be witness that thou liest! 
 
 IONA 
 
 He has confessed it. He is guilty. 
 But you too are guilty, guilty with him. 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 To the fire with her! To the fire with her! 
 
 Now, lona, 
 Give her to us, let us destroy her. 
 
 To the brush heap with the sorceress, 
 Let them perish in the same hour together! 
 
 No, no ! I said it was so. He is innocent. 
 
 He confessed it! He confessed it! The 
 woman 
 
 Spurred him to do it. But he struck the blow. 
 - Both of them guilty! To the fire! To the 
 fire! 
 is 193
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrin. 
 
 MILA 
 
 People of God! Give me hearing 
 
 And afterward punish me. 
 
 I am ready. For this did I come here. 
 
 IONA 
 
 Silence! All! Let her speak! 
 
 MILA 
 
 Aligi, dear son of Lazaro, 
 
 Is innocent. But he knows it not. 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Mila, God be witness that thou liest. 
 Ornella (oh! forgive me that I dare to 
 Name you!) bear thou witness 
 That she is deceiving the good people. 
 
 MILA 
 
 He does not know. Aught of that hour 
 Is gone from his memory. He is bewitched. 
 I have upset his reason, 
 I have confused his memory. 
 
 194
 
 SCENE!.] OF JORIO 
 
 I am the Sorcerer's daughter. There is no 
 
 Sorcery that I do not know well, 
 
 None that I cannot weave. Is there one 
 
 Of the kindred among you, that one 
 
 Who accused me in this very place, 
 
 The evening of Santo Giovanni, 
 
 When I entered here by that door before us? 
 
 Let her come forth and accuse me again I 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 I am that one. I am here. 
 
 MTTA 
 
 Do you bear witness and tell for me 
 Of those whom I have caused to be ill, 
 Of those whom I have brought unto death, 
 Of those whom I have in suffering held. 
 
 LA CATALANA 
 
 Giovanna Cametra, I know. 
 And the poor soul of the Marane, 
 And Alfonso and Tillura, I know. 
 And that you do harm to every one. 
 
 195
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acriii. 
 
 MTT.A 
 
 Now have you heard this thing, all you good 
 people, 
 
 What this servant of God hath well said and 
 truly? 
 
 Here I confess. The good saint of the 
 mountain 
 
 Has touched to the quick my sorrowing con- 
 science, 
 
 Here I confess and repent. O permit not 
 
 The innocent blood to perish. 
 
 Punishment do I crave. O punish me greatly! 
 
 To bring down ruin and to sunder 
 
 Dear ties and bring joys to destruction, 
 
 To take human lives on the day of the wedding 
 
 Did I come here to cross this threshold, 
 
 Of the fireplace there I made myself 
 
 The mistress, the hearth I bewitched, 
 / The wine of hospitality I conjured, 
 \ Drink it I did not, but spilled itWith sorceries. 
 
 The love of the son, the love of the father, 
 
 I turned into mutual hatred; 
 
 In the Heart of the bride all joy strangled, 
 
 196
 
 ] OF JORIO 
 
 And by this my cunning, the tears 
 Of these young and innocent sisters 
 I bent to the aid of my wishes. 
 Tell me then, ye friends and kindred, 
 Tell me then, in the name of the Highest, 
 How great, how great is this my iniquity! 
 
 CHORUS OF THE KINDRED 
 
 It is true! It is true! All this has she done. 
 
 Thus glided she in, the wandering she-dog! 
 
 While yet Cinerella was pouring 
 
 Her handful of wheat on Vienda. 
 
 Very swiftly she did all her trickery, 
 
 By her evil wishes overthrowing 
 
 Very swiftly the young bridegroom. 
 
 And we all cried out against it. 
 
 But in vain was our crying. She had the trick 
 
 of it. 
 
 It is true. Now only does she speak truly. 
 Praises to Him who this light giveth! 
 
 [AuGi, with bent head,, his chin resting on 
 his breast, in the shadow of the veil, is intent 
 and in a terrible perturbation and contest of 
 
 197
 
 in 
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrni. 
 
 lj the symptoms at the same time, appearing 
 him of the effect of the potion.'] 
 
 AUGI 
 
 No, no, it is not true; she is deceiving 
 
 You, good people, do not heed her, 
 
 For this woman is deceiving you. 
 
 All of them here were all against her, 
 
 Heaping shame and hatred on her, 
 
 And I saw the silent angel 
 
 Stand behind her. With these eyes I saw him, 
 
 These mortal eyes that shall not witness 
 
 On this day the star of vesper. 
 
 I saw him gazing at me, weeping. 
 
 O lona, it was a miracle, 
 
 A sign to show me her, God's dear one. 
 
 MILA 
 
 O Aligi, you poor shepherd! 
 Ignorant youth, and too believing! 
 That was the Apostate Angel! 
 
 [They all cross themselves, except AUGI, 
 prevented from doing so by his fetters, and 
 
 198
 
 SCENEL] OF JORIO 
 
 OENELLA who, standing alone at one side of 
 the. porch, gazes intently on the voluntary 
 victim.] 
 
 Then appeared the Apostate Angel 
 
 (Pardon of God I must ever lack, 
 
 Nor of you, Aligi, be pardoned!) 
 
 He appeared your own two eyes to deceive. 
 
 It was the false and iniquitous angel. 
 
 MARIA CORA 
 
 I said it was so. At the time I said it. 
 It was a sacrilege then, I cried. 
 
 LA CINERELLA 
 
 And I said it, too, and cried out 
 
 When she dared call it the guardian angel 
 
 To watch over her. I cried out, 
 
 "She is blaspheming, she is blaspheming!" 
 
 MHA 
 
 Aligi, forgiveness from you, I know, 
 Cannot be, even if God forgive me. 
 But I must all my fraud uncover. 
 
 199
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrnx 
 
 Ornella, oh! do not gaze upon me 
 As you gaze. I must stay alone! 
 Aligi, then when I came to the sheepstead, 
 Then, even, when you found me seated, 
 I was planning out your ruin. 
 And then you carved the block of walnut, 
 Ah, poor wretch, with your own chisel, 
 In the fallen angel's image! 
 (There it is, with the white cloth covered, 
 I feel it.) Ah! from dawn until evening 
 With secret art I wove spells upon you! 
 Remember them, do you not now of me? 
 How much love I bestowed upon you! 
 How much humility, in voice and demeanor 
 Before your very face spells weaving? 
 Remember them, do you not now of me? 
 How pure we remained, how pure 
 I lay on your shepherd's pallet? 
 And how then? how (did you not inquire?) 
 Such purity then, timidity, then, 
 In the sinning wayfarer 
 Whom the reapers of Xorca 
 Had shamed as the shameless one 
 
 200 

 
 OF JORIO 
 
 Before your mother? I was cunniag, 
 
 Yea, cunning was I with my magic. 
 
 And did you not see me then gather 
 
 The chips from your angel and shavings, 
 
 And burn them, words muttering? 
 
 For the hour of blood I was making ready. 
 
 For of old against Lazaro 
 
 I nursed an old-time rancor. 
 
 You struck in your axe in the angel, 
 
 now must you heed me, God's people! 
 Then there came a great power upon me 
 To wield over him there now fettered. 
 
 It was close upon night in that ill-fated 
 Lodging. Lust-crazed then his father 
 Had seized me to drag toward the entrance, 
 When Aligi threw himself on us, 
 In order to save and defend me. 
 
 1 brandished the axe then with swiftness. 
 In the darkness I struck him, 
 
 I struck him again. Yea, to death I felled 
 
 him! 
 With the same stroke I cried, "You have 
 
 killed him." 
 
 201
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT IIL 
 
 To the son I cried out, " You have killed 
 him. 
 
 Killed him! " And great in me was my 
 power. 
 
 A parricide with my cry I made him 
 
 In his own soul enslaved unto my soul. 
 
 " I have killed him! " he answered, and swoon- 
 ing, 
 
 He fell in the bloodshed, naught otherwise 
 knowing. 
 
 [CANDIA, with a frantic impulse, seizes with 
 both hands her son, become once more her own. 
 Then, detaching herself from him, with wilder 
 and threatening gestures, advances on her 
 enemy, but the daughters restrain her.~\ 
 
 CHORUS OF KINDRED 
 
 Let her do it, let her, Ornella! 
 
 Let her tear her heart! Let her eat 
 Her heart! Heart for heart! 
 
 Let her seize her and take her 
 And underfoot trample her. 
 
 Let her crush in and shiver 
 
 202
 
 SCENBLJ OF JORIO 
 
 Temple to temple and shell out her teeth. 
 Let her do it, let her, Ornella! 
 Unless she do this she will not win back 
 Her mind and her senses in health again. 
 
 lona, lona, Aligi is innocent. 
 
 Unshackle him! Unshackle him! 
 
 Take off the veil! Give him back to us! 
 
 The day is ours, the people do justice. 
 
 The righteous people give judgment. 
 
 Command that he now be set free. 
 
 [MiLA retreats near the covered angel, 
 looking toward ALIGI, who is already under 
 the influence of the potion.'] 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Praises be to God! Glory be to God! 
 
 Glory to the Father! 
 
 From us is this infamy lifted. 
 
 Not upon us rests this blood-stain. 
 
 From our generation came forth 
 No parricide. To God be the glory! 
 
 Lazaro was killed by the woman, 
 The stranger, di Codra dalle Fame. 
 
 203
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 We have said and pronounced: he is in- 
 
 nocent. 
 Aligi is innocent. Unbind him! 
 
 Let him be free this very moment! 
 
 Let him be given unto his mother! 
 
 lona, lona, untie him ! Untie him ! 
 Unto us this day the Judge of Wrong-Doing 
 Over one head gave us full power. 
 
 Take the head of the sorceress! 
 
 To the fire, to the fire with the witch f 
 
 To the brushheap with the sorceress I 
 -O lona di Midia, heed the people! 
 
 Unbind the innocent! Up, lona! 
 
 To the brush heap with the daughter 
 Of Jorio, the daughter of Jorio! 
 
 MHA 
 
 Yes, yes, ye just people, yes, ye people 
 Of God! Take ye your vengeance on me! 
 And put ye in the fire to burn with me 
 The Apostate Angel, the false one, 
 Let it feed the flames to burn me 
 And let it with me be consumed! 
 
 204
 
 SCENEl.1 OF JORIO 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Oh! voice of promising, voice of deceit, 
 
 Utterly tear away from within me 
 
 All of the beauty that seemed to reign there, 
 
 Beauty so dear unto me! Stifle 
 
 Within my soul the memory of her! 
 
 Will that I have heard her voice never, 
 
 Rejoiced in it never! Smooth out within me 
 
 All of those furrows of loving 
 
 That opened in me, when my bosom 
 
 Was unto her words of deceiving 
 
 As unto the mountain that 's channelled 
 
 With the streams of melting snow! Close up 
 
 within me 
 
 The furrow of all that hope and aspiring 
 Wherein coursed the freshness and gladness 
 Of all of those days of deceiving! 
 Cancel within me all traces of her! 
 Will it that I have heard and believed never! 
 But if this is not to be given me, and I am 
 
 the one 
 
 Who heard and believed and hoped greatly, 
 And if I adored an angel of evil, 
 
 205
 
 THE DAUGHTER [Acrm. 
 
 Oh! then I pray that ye both my hands sever, 
 And hide me away in the sack of leather 
 (Oh I do not remove it, Leonardo), 
 And cast me into the whirling torrent, 
 To slumber there for years seven hundred, 
 To sleep in the depths there under the water; 
 In the pit of the river-bed, years seven hundred, 
 And never remember the day 
 When God lighted the light ia my eyesl 
 
 ORNELLA 
 
 Mila, Mila, 'tis the delirium, 
 
 The craze of the cup of forgetfulness 
 
 To console him he took from the mother. 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Untie him, lona, he is delirious. 
 
 He has taken the wine potion. 
 
 Let his mother lay liim down on the settle. 
 
 Let sleep come ! Let him slumber ! 
 
 Let the good God give him slumber. 
 
 [IONA gives the standard to another and 
 comes to ALIGI to untie him.'] 
 
 206
 
 SCENE I.] 
 
 OF JORIO 
 
 ALIGI 
 
 Yes, for a little while free me, lona, 
 So that I may lift my hand against her 
 (No, no, burn her not, for fire is beautiful!) 
 So that I call all the dead of my birthplace, 
 Those of years far away and forgotten, 
 Far, far away, far, far away, 
 Lying under the sod, fourscore fathom, 
 To curse her forever, to curse her I 
 
 MELA [with a heart-rending cry] 
 
 Aligi, Aligi, not you! 
 
 Oh! you cannot, you must not. 
 
 [Freed from the manacles, the veil with- 
 drawn, ALIGI comes forward but falls back 
 unconscious in the arms of his mother, the older 
 sisters and the kindred gathering around him.~\ 
 
 CHORUS OF KINDRED 
 
 You need not be frightened. 'Tis the wine 
 
 only, 
 
 'T is the vertigo seizes him. 
 Now the stupor falls upon him. 
 
 207
 
 THE DAUGHTER [A CT m. 
 
 Now slumber, deep slumber, o'erpowers 
 him. 
 
 Let him sleep, and may God give him 
 
 peace I 
 
 Let him lie down! Let him slumber! 
 
 Vienda, Vienda, he is yours again. 
 
 From the other world both will return now. 
 Laus Deo! Laus Deo! Gloria Patri! 
 
 puts the manacles upon MILA'S 
 wrists, who offers both arms and covers her 
 head with the black veil., then taking the stand- 
 ard of Wrong-Doing he pushes her toward the 
 crowd.] 
 
 IONA 
 
 I give to you, just people, 
 Into your hands, Mila di Codra, 
 The daughter of Jorio, that one 
 Who does harm to every one. 
 Do you perform justice upon her, 
 And let her ashes be scattered. 
 O Lord, save thy people. 
 Kyrie eleison. 
 
 208
 
 SCENBl.] OF JORIO 
 
 THE CROWD 
 
 Christe 'eleison! Kyrie eleison! 
 To the fire, to the flames with the daughter 
 Of Jorio! The daughter of Jorio! 
 And to the fire with the Apostate Angel! 
 To the brushheap with them! To hell-fire 
 with them 1 
 
 ORNELLA [with full voice in majesty] 
 
 Mila, Mila! My sister in Jesus, 
 I kiss your feet that bear you away! 
 Heaven is for thee! 
 
 MILA \jrom within the crowd} 
 
 The flame is beautiful ! The flame is beautiful ! 
 
 THE END