A bride from England

(Scottish ballad)

(Level I)

CHARACTERS: May Margaret, an English lady, beautiful, smart and brave.

Lord William, a Scottish knight, madly in love with her.

Page, faithful and trustworthy.

Father.

Mother.

Sisters.

Witch-wife, an old wicked woman.

Scottish lords.

SCENE I

Scotland. A room in Lord William’s castle.

Lord William (to his page): I want you to carry a love-letter to my true-love from me. She lives in her father’s castle in England.

Page: How can I carry your letter to the lady, my lord, if I’ve never seen her and don’t know what she looks like?

Lord William: She is the fairest girl that has ever been seen:

Oh, so lovely are her eyes,

And cherry are her cheeks,

Her hair is soft, her mouth is sweet,

And like two petals - lips.

Page (bows): I’ll do my best to deliver your letter, my lord. (Goes off.)

SCENE II

England. May Margaret’s castle. The lord of the castle is sharpening his sword, the lady is sewing, their daughters are playing the lutes and singing.

Page (enters the hall and looks around, trying to decide which of the girls is the most beautiful; notices May Margaret): I’ve got a message for you, my lady.

May Margaret: Yes, my bonny boy.

Page: My master prays you to tell him where he can see you, or he cannot live at all.

May Margaret (opens the letter and reads it): Please, tell my lord William that:

I send him the rings from my fingers,

The garlands off my hair.

I’ll give him my heart in Scotland

And ask him to meet me there.

I thank you for your pains, my boy.

(The page goes out. May Margaret comes up to her father and sits down beside him. She sighs.)

Father: Why are you so sad, my dear daughter?

Why are you so sad, my pretty child?

May Margaret: I’m in love, my tender father,

I’m in love with a Scottish knight.

Father (angrily): Forget him, May Margaret. You’ll never see the man.

(May Margaret goes to the place where her mother’s sitting.)

Mother: Why are you so sad, my dear daughter?

Why are you so sad, my pretty child?

May Margaret: I’ve given my heart to a Scottish lord

But I’ll never become his wife! (Drinks a sleeping mixture from a small bottle which she keeps in a silk purse, hanging from her belt.)

Sisters (come up to her): Why are you so sad, our dear sister?

Why are you so sad, the youngest of us?

May Margaret (puts herself on their hands): I’m very sick, my dear sisters,

And now it’s to die that I must.

(Everybody gathers around her.)

I pray you, my tender father dear,

I pray you, my good mother dear,

I pray you, my sweet sisters dear,

An asking, an asking you grant me:

That if I die in fair England

In Scotland bury me.

Father: Your asking is so small,

Well granted it shall be.

(May Margaret closes her eyes and becomes very quite. Everybody is weeping.)

Witch-wife (appears suddenly): You drop the hot wax on her cheeks,

And drop it on her chin,

And drop it on her rose-red lips,

And she will speak again.

Sisters (do as she says): We dropped the hot wax on her cheeks,

So did we on her chin,

We dropped it on her rose-red lips,

But she didn’t breathe again.

(They put May Margaret into a coffin and carry it away.)

SCENE III

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04