The Blue Bird. Maurice Maeterlinck

Fairy. … (Like an orator making a speech) I call upon all of you to bear witness that this silver cage, which was entrusted to my care by. …

      THE FAIRY (interrupting him) Enough! … No speeches! … We will go out this way and the children that. …

      TYLTYL (rather anxiously) Are we to go all alone? …

      MYTYL I feel hungry! …

      TYLTYL I, too! …

      THE FAIRY (to BREAD) Open your Turkish robe and give them a slice of your good stomach. …

      (BREAD opens his robe, draws his scimitar and cuts two slices out of his stomach and hands them to the CHILDREN.)

      SUGAR (approaching the CHILDREN) Allow me at the same time to offer you a few sugar-sticks. … (He breaks off the five fingers of his left hand, one by one, and presents them to the CHILDREN.)

      MYTYL What is he doing? … He is breaking all his fingers! …

      SUGAR (engagingly) Taste them, they are capital … They're made of real barley-sugar. …

      MYTYL (tasting one of the fingers) Oh, how good they are! … Have you many of them? …

      SUGAR (modestly) Yes; as many as I want. …

      MYTYL Does that hurt you much, when you break them off? …

      SUGAR Not at all. … On the contrary, it's a great advantage; they grow again at once and so I always have new, clean fingers. …

      THE FAIRY Come, children, don't eat too much sugar. … Don't forget that you are to have supper presently with your grandpapa and grandmamma. …

      TYLTYL Are they here? …

      THE FAIRY You shall see them at once. …

      TYLTYL How can we see them, when they are dead? …

      THE FAIRY How can they be dead, when they live in your memory? … Men do not know this secret, because they know so little; whereas you, thanks to the diamond, are about to see that the dead who are remembered live as happily as though they were not dead. …

      TYLTYL Is Light coming with us?

      THE FAIRY No, it is more proper that this visit should be confined to the family. … I will wait near here, so as not to appear indiscreet. … They did not invite me. …

      TYLTYL Which way are we to go? …

      THE FAIRY Over there. … You are on the threshold of the Land of Memory. … As soon as you have turned the diamond, you will see a big tree with a board on it, which will show you that you are there. … But don't forget that you are to be back, both of you, by a quarter to nine. … It is extremely important. … Now mind and be punctual, for all would be lost if you were late. … Good-bye for the present! … (Calling the CAT, the DOG, LIGHT, etc.) This way. … And the little ones that way. …

      (She goes out to the right, with LIGHT, the ANIMALS, etc., while the CHILDREN go out to the left.)

CURTAIN

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