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    The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts
    The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts
    The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts
    Ebook124 pages1 hour

    The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts

    By Edna St. Vincent Millay

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Lamp and the Bell: A Drama In Five Acts
    Author

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in 1892 in Rockland, Maine, the eldest of three daughters, and was encouraged by her mother to develop her talents for music and poetry. Her long poem "Renascence" won critical attention in an anthology contest in 1912 and secured for her a patron who enabled her to go to Vassar College. After graduating in 1917 she lived in Greenwich Village in New York for a few years, acting, writing satirical pieces for journals (usually under a pseudonym), and continuing to work at her poetry. She traveled in Europe throughout 1921-22 as a "foreign correspondent" for Vanity Fair. Her collection A Few Figs from Thistles (1920) gained her a reputation for hedonistic wit and cynicism, but her other collections (including the earlier Renascence and Other Poems [1917]) are without exception more seriously passionate or reflective. In 1923 she married Eugene Boissevain and -- after further travel -- embarked on a series of reading tours which helped to consolidate her nationwide renown. From 1925 onwards she lived at Steepletop, a farmstead in Austerlitz, New York, where her husband protected her from all responsibilities except her creative work. Often involved in feminist or political causes (including the Sacco-Vanzetti case of 1927), she turned to writing anti-fascist propaganda poetry in 1940 and further damaged a reputation already in decline. In her last years of her life she became more withdrawn and isolated, and her health, which had never been robust, became increasingly poor. She died in 1950.

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      Book preview

      The Lamp and the Bell - Edna St. Vincent Millay

      Project Gutenberg's The Lamp and the Bell, by Edna St. Vincent Millay

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

      Title: The Lamp and the Bell

      Author: Edna St. Vincent Millay

      Release Date: January 7, 2010 [EBook #3768]

      Last Updated: February 6, 2013

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAMP AND THE BELL ***

      Produced by David Starner, David Widger and the Distributed Proofreaders Team

      THE LAMP AND THE BELL

      A Drama In Five Acts

      By Edna St. Vincent Millay

      Written on the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the

      Founding of the Vassar College Alumnae Association

      Dedicated to '1917'

        Lorenzo, King of Fiori           Julia Lovejoy Cuniberti '11

        Mario, King of Lagoverde         Valerie Knapp '20

        Guido, Duke of Versilia,

        Illegitimate nephew to Lorenzo   Louisa Brook Jones '07

        Giovanni                         Katherine Jones '20

        Luigi                            Muriel Izard '17

        Anselmo                          Lucia Cole Waram '01

        Raffaele                         Eleanor Kissan '20

        Gentlemen at the court of Lorenzo

        Fidelio                          Geneva Harrison '20

        Jester at the court of Lorenzo

        Giuseppe                         Eleanor Fatman Morgenthau '13

        Agent for the Duke's estates

        Cesco                            Gertrude Taylow Watkins '07

        Horatio                          Lucille Stimson Harbey '09

        Townsmen of Fiori

        Beppo                            Marcell Furman Newburg '19

        A little boy, son to Guiliana

        Rigo                             Ruth Delepenha '17

        Louis                            Emily Gallagher '21

        Little boys, sons to Leonora

        Clerk                            Lucy Madeira Wing '96

        Messenger                        Esther Saville Davis '06

        Octavia, Lorenzo's second wife   Montgomery Cooper '09

        Beatrice, Rose-Red,            Clifford Sellers '21

        Daughter to Lorenzo by a former marriage

        Bianca, Snow-White,            Lois Duffie '20

        Daughter to Octavia by a former marriage

        Laura                           Frances Stout Kellman '17

        Carlotta                        Kathleen Millay Young ex-'21

        Francesca                       Dorothy Comstock '19

        Viola                           Lillian White '18

        Lilina                          Caroline Goodrich '16

        Lela                            Sylvia Brockway '20

        Arianna                         Margaret Hughes '18

        Claudia                         Janet Lane '18

        Clara                           Jeanette Baker '18

        Lucia                           Ellen Hasbrouck '15

        Ladies at the Court of Lorenzo

        Grazia                          Eleanor Ray Broeniman '99

        Nurse to Beatrice and Bianca

        Giulietta, servant to Bianca    Virginia Archibold '17

        Little Snow-White             Gretchen Tonks

        Little Rose-Red               Joy Macracken '36

        Leonora                         Catherine Barr '20

        Giuliana                        Mabel Hastings Humpstone '94

        Clara                           Olive Remington '19

        Giovanitta                      Caroline Curtis Johnson '83

        Anna                            Frances Haldeman Sidwell '84

        Eugenia                         Helen Hoy Greeley '99

        Townsmen of Fiori

        Eleanora

        A little girl, daughter to Leonora

        Gilda                           Ruth Benedict '20

        A little girl, sister to Beppo

        Adelina, another little girl    Maiserie MacCracken '31

        Nurse                           Edith Ward

        Pierrot

        Harlequin

        Pant Aloon

        Polichinello

        Colombine

        Strolling players

        Courtiers, Ladies-in-Waiting, Soldiers, Pages, Musicians,

        Towns-people, Children

      PROLOGUE

            [Anselmo and Luigi]

        ANSELMO. What think you,—lies there any truth in the tale

        The King will wed again?

        LUIGI. Why not, Anselmo?

        A king is no less lonely than a collier

        When his wife dies, And his young daughter there,

        For all her being a princess, is no less

        A motherless child, and cries herself to sleep

        Night after night, as noisily as any,

        You may be sure.

        ANSELMO. A motherless child loves not,

        They say, the second mother. Though the King

        May find him comfort in another face,—

        As it is well he should—the child, I fancy,

        Is not so lonely as she is distraught

        With grief for the dead Queen, and will not lightly

        Be parted from her tears.

        LUIGI. If tales be true,

        The woman hath a daughter, near the age

        Of his, will be a playmate for the Princess.

        CURTAIN

      ACT I

        Scene 1

            [Scene: A garden of the palace at Fiori; four years later.]

            [Discovered seated Laura, Francesca and Fidelio, Laura embroidering,

            Fidelio strumming his flute, Francesca lost in thought.]

        LAURA. You,—Fool! If there be two chords to your lute,

        Give us the other for a time!

        FRANCESCA. And yet, Laura,

        I somewhat fancied that soft sound he made.

        'Twas all on the same tone,—but 'twas a sweet tone.

        LAURA. 'Tis like you. As for myself, let music change

        From time to time, or have done altogether.

        Sing us the song, Fidelio, that you made

        Last night,—a song of flowers, and fair skies,

        And nightingales, and love.

        FIDELIO. I know the song.

        It is a song of winter.

        LAURA. How is that?

        FIDELIO. Because it is a song of summer set

        To a sad tune.

        FRANCESCA. [Sadly] Ah, well,—so that it be not

        A song of autumn, I can bear to hear it.

        LAURA. In any case, music. I am in a mood for music.

        I am in a mood where if something be not done

        To startle me, I shall confess my sins.

            [Enter Carlotta.]

        CARLOTTA. Ha! I will have that woman yet by the hair!

        LAURA. What woman, pray, Carlotta?

        CAR. Ho! What woman!

        Who but that scullery-wench, that onion-monger,

        That slatternly, pale bakress, that foul witch,

        The coroneted Fish-Wife of Fiori,

        Her Majesty, the Queen!

        FRA. Hush—hush—Carlotta!

        You could be put to death for less than that!

        CAR. Not I, my duck. When I am put to death

        'Twill be for more! Oh, I will have her yet

        By the hair! [For the first time noticing Fidelio.]

        Fidelio, if you breathe one word

        Of this, I will scratch the Princess into ribbons,

        Whom you love better than your wit.

        FID. I' faith,

        I did but hear you say you are a fish-wife,

        And all the world knows that.

        LAU. Fear not, Carlotta,

        He is as

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