The Little Dream: An Allegory in Six Scenes

The Little Dream: An Allegory in Six Scenes
John Galsworthy

John Galsworthy

The Little Dream: An Allegory in Six Scenes

CHARACTERS

SEELCHEN, a mountain girl

LAMOND, a climber

FELSMAN, a glide

CHARACTERS IN THE DREAM

THE GREAT HORN |

THE COW HORN | mountains

THE WINE HORN |

THE EDELWEISS |

THE ALPENROSE | flowers

THE GENTIAN |

THE MOUNTAIN DANDELION |

VOICES AND FIGURES IN THE DREAM

COWBELLS

MOUNTAIN AIR

FAR VIEW OF ITALY

DISTANT FLUME OF STEAM

THINGS IN BOOKS

MOTH CHILDREN

THREE DANCING YOUTHS

THREE DANCING GIRLS

THE FORMS OF WORKERS

THE FORMS OF WHAT IS MADE BY WORK

DEATH BY SLUMBER

DEATH BY DROWNING

FLOWER CHILDREN

GOATHERD

GOAT BOYS

GOAT GOD

THE FORMS OF SLEEP

SCENE I

It is just after sunset of an August evening. The scene is a room in a mountain hut, furnished only with a table, benches. and a low broad window seat. Through this window three rocky peaks are seen by the light of a moon which is slowly whitening the last hues of sunset. An oil lamp is burning. SEELCHEN, a mountain girl, eighteen years old, is humming a folk-song, and putting away in a cupboard freshly washed soup-bowls and glasses. She is dressed in a tight-fitting black velvet bodice. square-cut at the neck and partly filled in with a gay handkerchief, coloured rose-pink, blue, and golden, like the alpen-rose, the gentian, and the mountain dandelion; alabaster beads, pale as edelweiss, are round her throat; her stiffened. white linen sleeves finish at the elbow; and her full well-worn skirt is of gentian blue. The two thick plaits of her hair are crossed, and turned round her head. As she puts away the last bowl, there is a knock; and LAMOND opens the outer door. He is young, tanned, and good-looking, dressed like a climber, and carries a plaid, a ruck-sack, and an ice-axe.

LAMOND. Good evening!

SEELCHEN. Good evening, gentle Sir!

LAMOND. My name is Lamond. I'm very late I fear.

SEELCHEN. Do you wish to sleep here?

LAMOND. Please.

SEELCHEN. All the beds are full – it is a pity. I will call Mother.

LAMOND. I've come to go up the Great Horn at sunrise.

SEELCHEN. [Awed] The Great Horn! But he is impossible.

LAMOND. I am going to try that.

SEELCHEN. There is the Wine Horn, and the Cow Horn.

LAMOND. I have climbed them.

SEELCHEN. But he is so dangerous – it is perhaps – death.

LAMOND. Oh! that's all right! One must take one's chance.

SEELCHEN. And father has hurt his foot. For guide, there is only Mans Felsman.

LAMOND. The celebrated Felsman?