Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The French Drama - Edmond Rostand - Chantecler
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
Chantecler 145
may not wake the sun, for his lady love is jealous.
The only time he can crow is when her eyes are
closed in sleep.
But leave it to the pheasant hen to ferret out a
secret. Overhearing Chantecler s conversation
with the woodpecker, she is furious.
"
I will
not let the sun defraud me of my love," she
cries. But Chantecler replies,
"
There is no great
love outside of the shadow of the ideal." She
makes use of her beauty and charm to win him
from the sun. She embraces him and pleads,
"
Come to my soft bosom. Why need you bother
about the sun?
"
Chantecler hears the nightingale and, like all
great artists, he recognizes her wonderful voice,
her inspiring powers compared with which his own
must seem hard and crude. Suddenly a shot is
heard, and the little bird falls dead to the ground.
Chantecler is heart-broken. And as he mourns
the sweet singer, the dawn begins to break. The
pheasant hen covers him with her wing, to keep
him from seeing the sun rise, and then mocks him
because the sun has risen without his crowing.
The shock is terrible to poor Chantecler, yet in
his desperation he gives one tremendous cock-a-
doodle-do.
Why are you crowing?
"
the hen asks.
"
As a warning to myself, for thrice have I
denied the thing I love."
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
