LILY MEETS THE YOUTH PRINCE

This scene represents a key time in the story. Is the time right for the Youth Prince to meet the Lily?

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Meanwhile the fair one had been looking, with a satisfied aspect, at the strange onyx Mops. She bent down and touched him and at that instant Mops the dog started up. Gaily he looked around, ran hither and thither and at last, in his kindest manner, hastened to salute his benefactress. She took him in her arms and pressed him to her.

Lily cried out: "Cold as thou art and though but a half-life works in thee, thou art welcome to me; tenderly will I love thee, prettily will I play with thee, softly caress thee and firmly press thee to my bosom."

She then let him go and played so daintily with him, running about innocently with him on the grass, with new rapture and joy, for all to see.

This cheerfulness, these graceful sports were interrupted by the entrance of the woeful Youth. He stepped forward, in his former guise and aspect; save that the heat of the day appeared to have fatigued him still more and in the presence of his mistress he grew paler every moment.

He bore upon his hand a Hawk, which was sitting quiet as a dove, with its body shrunk and its wings drooping.

Lily cried to the Youth: "It is not kind in thee to bring that hateful thing before my eyes, the monster, which today has killed my little singer."

The Youth replied: "Blame not the unhappy bird! - rather blame thyself and thy destiny and leave me to keep beside me the companion of my woe."

Meanwhile Lily continued playing with Mops. The Youth looked on in silence, with increasing anger; but when she took the odious beast, which seemed to him unutterably ugly, on her arm, pressed it to her white bosom and kissed its black snout with her heavenly lips, his patience altogether failed him.

Full of desperation the Youth exclaimed: "Must I, who by a baleful fate exist beside thee, perhaps to the end, in an absent presence; who by thee have lost my all, my very self; must I see before my eyes, that so unnatural a monster can charm thee into gladness, can awaken thy attachment, and enjoy the embrace? Shall I any longer keep wandering to and fro, measuring my dreary course to that side of the River and to this? No, there is still a spark of the old heroic spirit sleeping in my bosom; let it start this instant into its expiring flame! If stones may rest in thy bosom, let me be changed to stone; if thy touch kills, I will die by thy hands."

So saying he made a violent movement; the Hawk flew from his finger but he himself rushed towards the fair one; she held out her hands to keep him off and touched him only the sooner. Consciousness forsook him and she felt with horror the beloved burden lying on her bosom. With a shriek she started back and the gentle Youth sank lifeless from her arms upon the ground.

The misery had happened! The sweet Lily stood motionless gazing on the corpse. Her heart seemed to pause in her bosom and her eyes were without tears. Her silent despair did not look round for help; she knew not of any help.

On the other hand, the Snake bestirred herself the more actively; she seemed to mediate deliverance and in fact her strange movements served at least to keep away, for a little, the immediate consequences of the mischief. With her limber body, she formed a wide circle round the corpse and seizing the end of her tail between her teeth, she lay quite still.

Ere long Lily's three waiting-maids appeared and brought to her an ivory folding stool, a fire-coloured veil which rather decorated than concealed the fair Lily's head and her harp.

The Snake hissed faintly but audibly: "Who gets us the Man with the Lamp, before the Sun set?"

At this moment came the Woman with the Basket, panting and altogether breathless.

The Old Woman cried: "I am lost and maimed for life! See how my hand is almost vanished; neither Ferryman nor Giant would take me over, because I am the River's debtor; in vain did I promise hundreds of cabbages and hundreds of onions; they will take no more than three and no artichoke is now to be found in all this quarter."

The Snake said: "Forget your own care and try to bring help here; perhaps it may come to yourself also. Haste with your utmost speed to seek the Will-o'-wisps; it is too light for you to see them, but perhaps you will hear them laughing and hopping too and fro. If they be speedy, they may cross the Giant's shadow and seek the Man with the Lamp and send him to us."

The Woman hurried off at her quickest pace and the Snake seemed expecting as impatiently as Lily the return of the Flames. Alas! The beam of the sinking Sun was already gliding over the highest summits of the trees in the thicket and long shadows were stretching over lake and meadow; the Snake moved up and down impatiently and Lily dissolved in tears.

In this extreme need the Snake kept looking round on all sides; for she was afraid every moment that the sun would set and corruption penetrate the magic circle and the fair youth immediately moulder away.

At last she noticed sailing high in the air, with purple red feathers, the Prince's Hawk, whose breast was catching the last beams of the Sun. She shook herself with joy at this good omen; nor was she deceived; for shortly afterwards the Man with the Lamp was seen gliding towards them across the Lake, fast and smoothly, as if he had been travelling on skates. 

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There is much happening here. Many Characters are involved. It feels significant. However, precisely what is that significance? What parallels may there be between what is happening here and how it is happening - within our lives and the societies we belong to. 

There is an audio recording of this part of the Tale as Episode 11 on www.tgsatbl.blogspot.co.uk