From Pélléas and Mélisande; Alladine and Palomides; Home by Maurice Maeterlinck

It is better not to be alone. A sorrow that one does not bring alone is not so unmixed nor so heavy.... I was thinking of that as we were coming here.... If I go in alone, I shall have to be speaking from the first minute; in a few words they will know everything, and I shall have nothing more to say; and I am afraid of the silence following the last words that announce a woe.... It is then the heart is rent.... If we go in together, I shall tell them, for example, after going a long way about, "She was found so.... She was floating in the river, and her hands were clasped."... (THE STRANGER: Her hands were not clasped; her arms were hanging down along her body.) You see, one speaks in spite of oneself.... And the sorrow is lost in the details;... but otherwise, if I go in alone, at the first words, knowing them as I do, it would be dreadful, and God knows what might happen.... But if we speak in turn, they will listen to us and not think to look the ill news in the face.... Do not forget the mother will be there, and that her life hangs by a thread.... It is good that the first wave break on some unnecessary words.... There should be a little talking around the unhappy, and they should have people about them.... The most indifferent bear unwittingly a part of the grief.... So, without noise or effort, it divides, like air or light.... (THE STRANGER: Your clothes are wet through; they are dripping on the flagstones.) It is only the bottom of my cloak that dipped in the water.--You seem to be cold. Your chest is covered with earth.... I did not notice it on the road on account of the darkness....

The Old Man Monologue from Pélléas and Mélisande; Alladine and Palomides; Home

Rehearse The Old Man's monologue