Chantecler eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 143 pages of information about Chantecler.

Chantecler eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 143 pages of information about Chantecler.

THE PHEASANT-HEN
Come, come away to the woods,—­I love you!

CHANTECLER [Looking around him.] Oh, to see a real being appear!  Someone simple, someone—­

THE MAGPIE
[Announcing.] Two Pigeons!

CHANTECLER [Drawing a breath of relief.] At last,—­pigeons! [He runs eagerly to the entrance.]

THE PIGEONS
[Entering with a series of somersaults.] Hop!

CHANTECLER
[Falling back in amazement.] What is this?

THE PIGEONS
[Introducing themselves between two springs.] The Tumblers!  English
Clowns!

CHANTECLER
Where am I?

THE GUINEA-HEN [Running after the TUMBLERS who disappear among the throng of guests.] Hop!  Hop!

CHANTECLER
Pigeons turning acrobats!—­Oh, the joy of seeing something true,
something unblemished—­

THE MAGPIE
[Announcing.] The Swan!

CHANTECLER [Coming forward delighted.] Good!  A Swan! [Shrinking away.] He is black!

THE BLACK SWAN [With swaggering satisfaction.] I have discarded the whiteness while preserving the outline!

CHANTECLER The real Swan’s shadow does no less! [Thrusting the SWAN aside to hop up on a bench whence, through a gap in the hedge, he can see the distant meadows.] Let me climb up on this bench.  I need to make sure that Nature still exists—­though so far away!  Ah, yes!  The grass is green, a cow is grazing, a calf sucking—­And Heaven be praised, the calf has a single head! [Coming down again beside the PHEASANT-HEN.]

THE PHEASANT-HEN Oh, come away to the innocent woods, sincere and dewy, where we will love each other!

THE BLACKBIRD [Pointing at CHANTECLER and the PHEASANT-HEN, who are standing close and talking low.] We are getting on!

THE GUINEA-HEN [Intensely interested.] Do you think so? [She spreads her wings to screen them.] Oh, I am so fond of helping along a clandestine love affair!

THE BLACKBIRD [Sticking his bill under the GUINEA-HEN’S wing so as to keep the pair in sight.] I believe she has thoughts of annexing his comb.

THE PHEASANT-HEN
[To CHANTECLER.] Come, dearest, come away!

CHANTECLER [Resisting.] No, I must sing where Destiny placed me.  I am useful here, I am beloved—­

THE PHEASANT-HEN [Remembering what she overheard the night before in the farmyard.] Are you so sure?—­Come away to the woods, where we shall hear real pigeons cooing tenderly to each other!

THE TURKEY
[At the back.] Ladies, the great Peacock—­

THE PEACOCK
[Modestly.] The Super-peacock—­who supervenes, and supersedes—­

THE GUINEA-HEN
Will spread his tail for us!  He has expressed his amiable willingness so
far to favour us.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Chantecler from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.