Read 159474808X for Free Online Page B

sullied, evil, vile?
These words sound like unto the Sep’ratists.
Thou’d not join their ranks, thou sans fault or guile—
So wherefore ask’st thou whether good exists?
    PADMÉ
This war is led by those who will not hear.
Thou art unto to the chancellor quite close—
Wilt thou not break with him thou holdest dear,
Ask him to use his power grandiose
To stop the fighting ere more systems burn,
And let our strong diplomacy resume?
    ANAKIN
Pray, ask this not of me. Instead, return
Unto the Senate, let your ardor fume
Within their ranks, and seek thine answer there.
Belike a better answer you shall get
’Mongst all thy friends within the Senate fair.
Indeed, methinks thou fall’st into their net.
    PADMÉ
What have I said that hath disturb’d thee so?
    ANAKIN
’Tis not within thy power to make well.
    PADMÉ
Nay, this I would avoid, it works me woe:
Turn not away from me, my love repel.
Instead, I prithee, let me give thee aid
And take thy burthens like as they were mine.
Sweet Anakin, come hold thy tender maid,
As I give love to thee, so give me thine.
’Twill be as by the shores of my Naboo,
When naught was real except our sighs of love.
No politics, no war, no plotting too.
    ANAKIN
Embrace me and all troubles fly above,
Into the air, and out beyond the sky,
Where soon they vanish past the galaxy.
    PADMÉ
Farewell, mine anakin. My fond goodbye
Take thou until again thy face I see.
    ANAKIN
Perdition catch my soul, but I do love thee,
No higher heaven doth exist above thee.
[Exeunt.

SCENE 4.
    On the planet Coruscant.
    Enter C HANCELLOR P ALPATINE .
    PALPATINE
The boy is nearly now within my grasp,
And I shall make him mine with this next move.
I shall devise a play to pull him in,
Some tale that pricks his heart with grief and woe.
Come players, to the list, ye are engag’d!
    Enter PLAYER 1, PLAYER 2, and PLAYER 3.
Fair morrow, gentlemen, you’re welcome here.
I prithee, sit and talk with me awhile.
Good sirrah, canst thou give a speech of woe?
    PLAYER 1
I can, for ’tis my trade. What speech, my lord?
    PALPATINE
I heard thee speak me a speech once, but ’twas
Ne’er acted; or, if ’twas, not above once:
The tale of Tusken Raider, he of bleak
And brutal Tatooine, who joinèd with
His mother in a bond unnatural,
And suffer’d for the trespass. So proceed thee.
[Player 1 assumes the role of an ancient Tusken Raider.
    PLAYER 1
What have I done: mine own dear mother wed?
O, gods above, be merciful to me—
I knew not how I did transgress in this,
For all was like a blindness unto me:
I could not see the likeness in her face,
When I look’d in her eyes, I saw a love,
Ne’er knowing ’twas but folly of the senses,
That in her I did but adore myself.
My vision sore impair’d by greed and lust,
Now have I led us both to tragedy.
What waste of life—she, hang’d on bantha’s horn,
Already is beyond the galaxy,
Above, beyond the stars, I see her rise:
The newest constellation in the sky.
I do remain, yet death would simple be,
And far too tame for what my sin deserves.
By sightlessness I made this bed of woe,
By blindness have I author’d my fate’s course:
Ergo, let lack of sight become my days,
These wretched eyes that on my mother look’d—
That nam’d her friend and lover—let them pay,
Let darkness be mine expiation e’er!
[Player 1 mimes tearing out his eyes and weeps.
O, agony most rare! O, hint of truth—
The world for me is shadow evermore,
And through my blindness comes a keener sight.
I look on what I’ve done, whom I have hurt,
I see quite clearly mine iniquity,
I spy the error of mine actions vain,
I gaze, e’en sans mine eyes, upon my sin.
O, Fate, into your hands my spirit flies,
Let me a’wander o’er the shadowlands,
And howl upon the dunes that all may say:
“There goes a Tusken Raider who did tempt
The gods to anger through forbidden love:
Now by his blindness doth he truly see.”
    PALPATINE
’Tis well, a masterful performance, sirrah.
We’ll hear a play anon, my worthy friends.
Go