Der König in Gelb

[Guest Manji]

Ja ich wei? bestimmt schon tausendmal hier durchgekaut wurden, aber ich lese das Buch eben gerade und wollte wissen ob es dieses Buch Der König in Gelb, ist ja glaub ich ein Theaterstück oder so, wirklich gibt.

 

Hat Herr Chambers, das vielleicht wirklich mal geschrieben und eben noch Geschichten drum herum gesponnen?

[Tom]

Suchfunktion nutzen.

Das Theaterstück gibt es nicht, hat Chambers nur erfunden.

 

(Dämmerung bricht über die Stadt herein, und in dem wolkenverhangenem Himmel verbreitet der grüne Mond nur ungewisses Zwielicht. Die Stolzen, verzweigten Türme jener Stadt färben sich schwarz gegen den Himmel und wirken nunmehr wie ein Bedrohliches Kristallwerk. Einzig die unbewegte Oberfläche des gro?en Sees glitzert silbern hell im Hintergrund, so, als würde er erleuchtet. Doch die glatte Oberfläche indessen erlaubt keinen Blick in die Tiefe. Gedämpfter Lärm eines gro?en, lauten Festes ist zu vernehmen, der hinter den Türen eines gro?en, mehrtürmigen Komplexes hervorquillt. Plötzlich wird die Tür aufgesto?en und eine Cassilda kommt heftig atmend und erröteten Gesichts heraus. Sie geht zur Brüstung und blickt auf die Stadt hinunter. Hinter ihr folgt der Maskierte auf dem Balkon.)

 

CASSILDA: (sich umwendend)

Reicht es nicht, da? Sie mich brüskiert und beleidigt haben, König ohne Land ? Müssen Sie mir nun hierhin folgen und mich weiterhin bedrängen, Philosoph ohne Gesicht ?

MASKIERTER: (Tritt neben sie, ohne sie zu berühren)

Ich bin fasziniert. Sie sind eine schöne Frau. Sie leben. Zweifellos, Sie leben. Und sie Stecken voller Gefühle, voller Aufruhr, voller Feuer. Und nicht zuletzt, voller Illusionen. Wirklich und wahrhaftig. Sie sind, von dem Männer träumen.

CASSILDA: (heftig ein Stück abrückend)

Aber Sie sind hä?lich. Mir wird Angst zumute, in Ihrer Nähe.

MASKIERTER: (amüsiert)

Wirklich? Sind Sie so ? Beurteilen Sie die Menschen nur nach dem Ansehen und wie sie zu sein scheinen?

CASSILDA:

Nein. Nach der Seele. Wenn einem schönen Körper ein nicht ebenso schöner Geiste gehören mu?, so beeinflu?t ein schöner Charakter doch immer auch den Körper. Bei Ihnen sehe ich aber nichts als Fäulnis, Fäulnis und Verderben.

MASKIERTER: (wieder amüsiert)

Und Sie sind es, die den schönen Körpern die Larven vom Gesichte rei?t und dahinter schauen kann ?

CASSILDA: (entschlossen)

So ist es. Ich spüre es, wenn es in den anderen Lodert wie in Vulkanen, wenn ihre Gedanken glasklar glühen, wenn ihre Augen offen sein können, für die Welt. Ich spüre es, und ich liebe sie dafür. Und nur sie sind es, die sich mir jemals nähern werden.

MASKIERTER: (lacht)

Eine so schöne Frau. Und so voller Illusionen. (packt sie) Soll ich Ihnen sagen, worauf es ankommt ? Soll ich ihnen beweisen, da? Ihre glorreiche Liebe nichts anderes ist als die Illusion und Ihre Gefühle bestimmt werden von weiblichen und männlichen Säften?

Soll ich Ihnen zeigen, wie lächerlich Ihr Geschwätz ist? Wie besinnungslos Sie mir verfallen werden, wenn ich nur will?

CASSILDA:

Mein Herr, sie vergessen sich! Treten sie nur einen Schritt näher, so rufe ich die Wachen herbei!

MASKIERTER: (hebt abwehrend die Hände)

Nichts lag mir ferner, als dies zu tun. Ich will Ihnen nur helfen, ein wenig den Schleier zu zerrei?en. Zu zerrei?en und zu verstehen.

CASSILDA:

Sie reden Irre!

MASKIERTER: (weist auf den See)

Was sehen Sie dort? Sagen Sie mir, was Sie dort erblicken!

CASSILDA:

Nichts ist dort als die Fläche des Sees, silbern und glatt.

MASKIERTER:

Wirklich?

CASSILDA:

Ja, glatt und silbern wie ein Spiegel.

MASKIERTER:

Doch sehen Sie nun, was ich sehe!

CASSILDA: (schreit herzzerrei?end)

Mein Gott!

MASKIERTER:

Ja, sehen Sie hin sehen Sie die Gesichter die Sie kennen. Blicken Sie hinter die Larven. (packt sie erneut schmerzhaft an der Schulter, schüttelt sie) Nun, sehen Sie die Stadt dort unter dem Grünen Mond? Sehen sie das froschartige Getümmel, die Visagen von Bokrugs Volk?

CASSILDA:

Aber ich verstehe nicht. Was macht Carrillo dort unten? Dort zwischen diesen Monstrositäten?

MASKIERTER:

Carrillo hei?t er also, Ihr Liebhaber? Hat er in Ihren Armen gelegen, hat er über Ihre Brüste gestreichelt, dieser Frosch? Und ich schwöre, Ihm ist es gleich, welcher Gestalt die Frau aus der wachen Welt ist, mit der er sich paart.

CASSILDA: (pre?t die Hände auf die Ohren)

Mein Gott! Hören Sie auf!

MASKIERTER: (lächelt, verbeugt sich und tritt zurück in die Dunkelheit, mit der er verschwimmt)

 

(Die Tür platzt auf und eine Heitere Gruppe Menschen drängt sich auf den Balkon)

 

MENDEVON:

Cassilda? Was tust Du hier so alleine auf dem Balkon?

 

(Cassilda hält sich immer noch die Ohren gepre?t und hat die Augen fest geschlossen. Zu einer unhörbaren Melodie wiegt sie sich sanft hin und her)

 

[Tom]

The King in Yellow

 

I.i

(A balcony of the palace in Hastur, overlooking the Lake of Hali, which stretches to the horizon, blank, motionless and covered with a thin have. The two suns sink toward the rippleless surface.

(The fittings of the balcony are opulent; but dingy with time. Several stones have fallen from the masonry, and lie unheeded.

(CASSILDA, a Queen, lies on a couch overlooking the Lake, turning in her lap a golden diadem set with jewels. A servant enters and offers her a tray, but it is nearly empty: some bread, a jug. She looks at it hopelessly and waves it away. The servant goes out.

(Enter Prince UOHT.)

 

UOHT: O, this unending and most dreary siege! --

Madame my mother, is it you? Good-day.

CASSILDA: Good-day to you, boy; and good-bye to day.

UOHT (to himself): She is distracted; I will talk with her

What, all alone here on your balcony? Looking on Carcosa again, I fear.

CASSILDA: No one can gaze on Carcosa, my boy,

Before the rising of the Hyades

Will chase away the shadows of the day.

Nay, I but gazed across the cloudy waves

Of dim Hali that drowns so many days...

UOHT: And we shall see it drown full many more!

This night-mist breathes contagion vile; it crawls

In every nook and cranny like a spy,

Or some foul, sly assassin: come inside.

CASSILDA: Ah, no; ah, no; not now, Uoht. I fear

Me not thy crawling mist, contagions vile,

Nor craven spy, nor skulking murtherer;

Nor least of all am I afraid of time,

Assassin of assassins! I have seen a lot of Halis mist, and much of time.

UOHT: O, Hali, this interminable siege!

Would that thy Lake would drink tall Alar down

For once, instead of endless days.

CASSILDA: Hali

Cannot do that, since Alars throned on Dehme,

And Dehme is quite another lake indeed.

UOHT: One lake is very like another lake,

O mother mine! Black water and grey fog,

With white bones under, where drowned sailors sleep

In beds of oozy slime; their cold numb flesh

Nibbled by fish, they lie on heaps of pearls--

Aye, fog and water; water, fog. Alar

And Hastur could change sites between two dawns,

No one would notice. O, they are the two

Worst situated cities in the world--

CASSILDA (ironically): They are the only cities in the world,

Thus the worst situate.

UOHT: Save Carcosa.

CASSILDA: ... What? Did you speak, Uoht?

I weary of the wordy games,

Nor am I any longer sure at all

That Carcosa is really in the world:

Mayhap it slipped its mooring, bent adrift

Deep into Nightmares deathly, dark domain--

At all events, my pretty prince, it boots

Us little, all this idle talk

(CAMILLA enters)

CAMILLA: O, I--

CASSILDA: Come in, Camilla; come, Camilla, hark!

We have not any secrets anymore,

For schemes and plots and plans and all device

Have now worn old and thin, till time hath stopped.

(THALE enters)

THALE: More of your nonsense, mother mine?

CASSILDA: If so,

It likes you well to call it thus, O Thale.

While as for poor Cassilda, as for me,

Why, I am but a Queen, a pale, sad, Queen,

And can be mocked to make your pleasure--

THALE: No!

I swear me that I never meant to mock

My font and origin of being; no!

UOHT: Well: mockery or no, Prince Thale has struck

The true word truer spoke. Nonsense, I say!

Time does not wear away, till, old and thin,

It stops. For Time is adamant; at least,

Its endless, weary hours weigh like lead.

How can time stop? Tis time that measures change,

And change will change forever; labile time!

To stop would time but contradict itself,

And how might times self contradict--

CASSILDA (wearily): Time stops.

There is an interval of weary pause,

When all the world grinds to a groaning rest,

And catches breath; time stops, O Uoht, stops

When one has heard every banality

Said over every banal time again.

And when has anything new happened here

In banal, boring, dusty, gray Hastur?

New words, new thoughts, new faces, forms,

Or aught we have not heard and seen and touched

Ten thousand, thousand times ere now? The Siege,

As yourself so repeatedly observes,

Is utterly interminable. Thats that.

Neither Hastur nor Alar shall prevail;

It shall be stalemate till the dull world sinks

And drowns in dust; well both wear down to dust--

Or boredom, which may drown us first in yawns.

Im sorry for you, Uoht; Im afraid

That all that now you do remind me of,

Is theres no future being human, now.

Een as a babe you were a little dull.

Yes, just a little dull.

UOHT: Well, you may say

What eer you please of me, for queenliness

Hath all its ancient privileges still.

Yet all the same not all times in the past,

Nor all days done. Theres still a future world,

Cassilda, still tomorrow comes, the day

Will dawn, and hours march toward night. O, Queen,

Tis in your power to change our world so much,

Were you not weary of us all, and most

Of all things weary of yourself

CASSILDA: Oh, my

Are we to speak of the Succession now?

As if the siege werent boring us enough--

Nothings more dull than dynasties.

THALE: Madame,

Must the Dynasty die only because

The Queen is bored? Only one word from you

And the Black Stars would rise aloft again.

Whatever your soothsaying, Mother mine,

Before their light Alar would fade and fall,

And that you know full well. Twould be -- twould be

An act of mercy towards the populace.

CASSILDA: Toward the what? The people? Who are they?

You care as less for them as does Uoht;

Yes, Thale, I read your heart as twere a printed page.

I know your heart and I know his as well.

UOHT: Well, then, you know our hearts. What ist you know?

CASSILDA: The diadem means just this to you both,

It means your sister; aye, and nothing else.

Theres no reward left else but her, no prize

In being King in dull Hastur! As for

Your Black Stars, well, enough of them for aye!

They shine forth nothing but the night, no more.

THALE: I hold Camillas heart.

UOHT: You lie!

CASSILDA: Doth He?

UOHT: Well, ask her if you dare.

THALE: And who would dare?

Without the diadem? Act not more bold,

Mine brother Uoht, than you care to be.

Or have you found the Yellow Sign, O brave?

UOHT: Silence you fool!

CASSILDA: And drop this bickering,

You barking dogs ...and I will ask it her.

THALE: She is not ready to be asked, Madame.

CASSILDA: Not ready, say you, Thale? I say she is.

Camilla, child, come to me; now brush back

Thy pale hair from thy paler face; know

That you could have the diadem, be Queen,

And take your choice of either brother here

To be your Consort. And thus would we reach

The end of all our problems in Camilla.

O, how I tempt you, how I tempt you all!

Thus would the Dynasty continued be,

At least another lifetime added to

The sum of all the lifetimes gone before,

In gray and hoary old Hastur the drear.

And wed be free of this conniving, too:

Why, it could be the very siege might end--

Well, come Camilla, Speak!

CAMILLA: O, no, no, Please!

Give not the dreaded diadem to me.

I will not bear its burthen on my brows,

Nor hold it heavy in my helpless hands.

CASSILDA: I understand you not: pray tell me why?

CAMILLA: O, ear, O clod gray weight of Fear upon

My faltring heart. Then I should be...

I should be sent the Yellow Sign.

CASSILDA: Perchance.

And perchance not. Perchance tis but a dream,

Lie, myth, illusion dire. Shall we believe

The idle runes that whisper of the thing,

Or mock them back into the realm of dreams?

And if twas sent to you, this Yellow Sign,

What then, O wan and frightened child, what then?

And would it be so very terrible,

This strange, uncanny doom of which you dream,

In dreams of dim and stealthy death that is

Not death at all, but something stranglier...

O speak, Camilla: say what, after all

Happens when one receives the Yellow Sign?

CAMILLA (whispers): I ... It is come for some time in the night;

Come for by whjat, mother, I shall not say

But come for surely, surely.

CASSILDA: This have I heard

But never seen it happen. Monstrous strange!

To start at shadows with no substance there.

And yet suppose that something-- someone-- comes

To take it back. What comes, or who, and why?

Who comes?

CAMILLA: The Phantom of Truth, so tis called ...

CASSILDA: And what, pale child, is that?

CAMILLA: I ... I do not know.

CASSILDA: No more do I, or Thale, Uoht, or anyone!

Let us pretend, Camilla, that tis real;

This Phantom, thine, whatever it might be,

It truly is. Now, does that frighten thee?

But what have the Camillas of this world

To fear from Truth?

CAMILLA: Perhaps Ive naught to fear,

Yet I still fear; fear never yields, you know,

to reason

CASSILDA: Well, so be it, child; and thus

Ill yield the diadem to one of them,

And end this bother in another way.

One remedys as good as any else.

But come and choose between them, brothers both,

But as unlike as night could be from day,

Or light from darkness, or most foul from fair.

Twould pleasure me to see you wed in state

With the regalia and full circumstance;

For at least, twould be a novelty

Midst all this dreary sameness, day by day.

UOHT: A wise suggestion. Come, Camilla, choose!

 

[Tom]

THALE: Yes, choose, Camilla! Though tis not the least

Momentum of decision--

CAMILLA (ignoring their importunement):

O, Mother, there is truly something new

And novel in the weary streets today;

We need no nuptial to alleviate

The tedium of life in dull Hastur--

Tis what I came to tell you, moments ere

The same old squabble started up again.

CASSILDA: And what is this thats new and novel, child?

CAMILLA: There is a stranger strolling in our streets.

CASSILDA: Say you in sooth? Now, by the living gods,

But hear you that, my princes? ... Would twere true;

But, no, Camilla, Halis creeping mists

Confuse your eye or fuddle your poor wits:

Each face in dreary Hastur do I know

And not one face among them that is new.

How many myriad faces do you think

There are in all this weary world, my child?

A myriad myriad, and I know them all....

CAMILLA: Yes, mother, but this face is new: or new

At least to me; new in Hastur, tis True.

CASSILDA: No one these days goes down our dismal streets

But the hearse-driver; folks with any sense

Now hide their faces even from themselves,

And turn their looking glasses gainst the wall

For fear of what they see--

CAMILLA: But that is it:

No one can see the strangers foreign face

For he goes masked adown our dreary streets.

CASSILDA: What, hidden with a hood? Or veiled from view?

CAMILLA: Neither, mother. He wears another face.

A pale mask, paler than the mists, as white

As fear; a face with no expression, and

The eyes are staring, blank.

CASSILDA: Aye, this is strange;

Aye, strange and stranglier ...how doth the man

Explain his Pallid Mask?

CAMILLA: He speaks to none

And none so bold that they would speak to Him.

CASSILDA: Well, I shall see him; he will speak to me,

Or I will have him stretched out on the rack

Ere this dull worlds an hour older. Then,

If only then, the stranger shall unmask.

UOHT (impatiently): Now, mother, this is merely a conceit--

THALE: Tis of no import, just a trifling leaf

Upon the tree of time. Now to return:

If fair Camilla will but make her choice--

UOHT: Resuscitating the Succession thus--

Reviving the Imperial Dynasty--

CASSILDA (takes diadem from lap, places frimly on brows):

There will be other hours and times to come

And days unborn when we shall think on that.

Till then you have my rule and Hastur has a Queen,

And needs not any King. Camilla does

Not care to choose between her brothers twain,

Nor do I wish her so to choose. Not yet.

Send to me Naotalba now, and send

The stranger in the Pallid Mask.

UOHT: But see!

The sandy granules trickle down the glass!

Tis time itself thats running out at length

For all of us. There has not been a King

In gloomy Hastur since the last Aldones--

CASSILDA: Do not recite again that tired tale.

Ill list not to that sorry story yet again.

O, the Last King! Tell not his tale once more.

I am so weary of the lot of you:

I warn you all, goad me no more with words.

Hastur will have no other King again

Until the King in Yellow comes to reign!

(there is a long shocked silence. Exit Camilla, pursued by Uoht and Thale. Cassilda rises and goes to the Balcony.)

 

 

 

 

[Tom]

I.ii

 

CASSILDA (sings):

Along the shore the cloud waves breaks,

The twin suns sink behind the lake,

The shadows lengthen

In Carcosa.

Strange is the night where black stars rise,

And strange moons circle through the skies,

But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.

Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

Where flap the tatters of the King,

Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.

Song of my soul, my voice is dead,

Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.

 

(Enter a CHILD{wearing many jeweled rings and crowned with a smaller duplicate of the diadem}).

CHILD: Grandmother, grandmother, tell me a tale!

CASSILDA: I do not feel like telling stories now,

For tales arent true and lies are lies. I have

No heart for falsehoods now. Tis time for turths.

CHILD (menacingly): Grandmother?

CASSILDA: [if it must be then ....]

CHILD: Thats better.

CASSILDA: [upon a day in dim-remembered days

Appeared amidst Gondwonalands expanse

Twin lakes, both namd by no mans voice:

One great Dehme, the other by the prophets

Name was called. Or would be, days to come.

For age on age their surface went unscanned

By fish eye or the unborn eye of man,

Though blind fish swirld and dipped beneath its glass.

Worlds passed, and one day was left a city,

Dropped as if by a gods forgetful hand,

On Halis shores, abandoned on the strand]

(the twin suns have been slowly sinking. The Hyades come out. Their image blurred by the mists)

CHILD: Thats not a story, but a history.

CASSILDA: It is the only tale I have to tell.

Tis time for turths. If you will silent be,

Ill tell all the rest thats in the runes.

CHILD: Im not supposed to know whats in the runes.

CASSILDA: That doesnt matter now. But to go on:

Upon four pillars of uniqueness was

This city built. Of these four was the first

Its birth all in one dawn. Second was this

Queer circumstance: one might not tell of it

Whether it rode upon the waves or on

The farther shore it sat, could one have seen.

The third among the wonders of the city

Was merely this: its towers seemed to pierce

The risen moon like fruits upon a spear.

Wouldst have more, or do I petrify you?

CHILD: But I already know the tale you tell.

CASSILDA: Misfortunate Prince! By now you know too

Well how came that city to be named.

For its fourth singularity was this:

In the moment that it filled ones eye, its

True and only name rushed all unbidden

To the mind. Naught else might it ever bear.

This none doubted; no other name was broached.

CHILD: Carcosa.

CASSILDA: Yes, even as it is today.

And after unknown lengths of years went past,

Men journeyed from the gods know not whereof

To cast up huts rude and impertinent

Against the shadowd waves of Halis Lake.

Among these came forth one who would assume

A kingly crown amid his peers and win

Their dull respect, and yawns as they bow and

Genuflect. His famous name you know.

CHILD: Was that my grandsire?

CASSILDA: It was one of them.

CHILD: Tis great Aldones?

CASSILDA: Yes, him, some ages back.

He judged the place should bear the name Hastur,

Its kings henceforth his name to make their own.

He promised this: should all the sovreigns on

His throne uphold the royal line intact,

Then poor and rude Hastur one day might match

The greatness of Empyrean Carcosa.

CHILD: Thank you, grandmother. I have heard enough...

CASSILDA: No you have not: and on that very night

Someone, it seems, had heard his careless words--

Child, you asked a tale and now must hear it out--

CHILD: I have to leave now--

CASSILDA (eyes closed): And that very night

Your ancestor, he found the Yellow Sign--

(Child runs out. Enter NOATALBA)

NOATALBA: My Queen.

CASSILDA: Good Priest.

NOATALBA: But you forgot to tell

The little prince of singularities

The fifth and final one.

CASSILDA: And you, I learn,

Are an eavesdropper, quite incurable;

Well, I am not surprised. Priests are supposed

To know all sorts of secrets, and how else

To learn such save with your ear to keyholes?

NOATALBA: And of the final singularity?

CASSILDA: Fear not, O priest! No one were fool enough

To tell the Mystry of the Hyades

To a mere child.

NOATALBA: No, but you thought of it,

My lady Queen.

CASSILDA: Why everyone imputes

Philosophy to poor Cassilda-- thats

Another mystery! My thoughts are few

And shallow, sir; they do not run so deep.

Tis only that the shadows of our thoughts

Commonly lengthen in the afternoon.

And dusk is-- dusk

NOATALBA: Long thoughts long shadows cast,

At morn as well as mid of day, O Queen.

CASSILDA: And lack of news is news enough: well, priest,

Bury me under your banalities,

And join your voice to those of all my sons

Who have been doing nothing else this hour.

Next, youll be prating of the Diadem,

Or of the Dynasty.

NOATALBA: To tell the truth,

Nothing was further from my mind, O Queen.

CASSILDA: And a good place for nothing, that!

NOATALBA: Tis good

To hear you jest, madame; but nonetheless

I do have other news of some import--

CASSILDA: About a stranger in a Pallid Mask?

NOATALBA: You have already heard of him; tis well,

Then I may be as brief as brief may be.

I think you should not see this man-- if man

Is all he is....

CASSILDA (laughs): Naught will prevent me, priest!

O, Noatalba, think you Id refuse

To face the first fresh novelty in years

And years, and dusty years. In truth were he

Some sly assassin with a thirsty knife,

Id let him in to look upon his face.

A face Ive never seen... would it were so!

I fear, cold priest, you little know your Queen.

NOATALBA: I know you better than you know yourself.

CASSILDA: And naughts more certain, then, than death and ...gods!

Banalities! I drown in a sea of them;

And why should I not see this man-- for man

Is all he is.

(An interval of silence)

...a poor spy, then, Id say,

To strut a mask; tis too conspicuous.

And if it came to that, what thing is there

Alar does not already know of us,

As we know all there is to know of them?

Thats why we are at this impasse in our war.

Neither has aught that could the other take

By advantage of surprise. Ah me!

Each of the other knows all that there is

To know. Aye, were one single stone to fall

From Alars wall, and I not know its fall,

This weary war wouldst end in sheer surprise.

And poor Aldones no better off than me.

The man knows me as I know him, each hair

And pinch of skin, each wrinkle, wart, and wen!

Glutted with this familiarity,

Well die slow-stiffing in our tomb-for-two,

Measuring each others hair and figernails

In hopes of some advantage een in death.

Why should he send a spy? He planted three

Of them in this my womb: my bickering,

Dull, brood of children... Noatalba, how

I wish that I could tell my husband aught

Of simple joy, and then would Alar sink

Into its lake and we erelong in ours!

NOATALBA: You prize more highly novelty than I,

My Queen, Methinks it is a weakness of

Some sort or other ... But as for myself

This creature in the Pallid Mask may be

No spy at all; I did not say for sure,

But only that at best he were a spy.

CASSILDA: Well, then, sir priest, lets hear it all. At worst.

NOATALBA: The Phantom of Truth, at the very worst, madame,

This thing may be, for only ghosts would go

About our tired streets in robes of white.

CASSILDA (slowly): And is the moment come at last? I see.

Then I was wise, and wiselier than wise,

To abort the Dynasty: and that is strange.

I am not often wise, you see. Ah, well,

It well may prove perhaps that any end

At all is a good end ...if end it is.

But Noatalba ...Noatalba.

NOATALBA: Speak.

CASSILDA: I have not found the Yellow Sign, you see.

NOATALBA: Of course you havent, other wise you would

Have told me. But we cannot be sure the

Sign is always sent. For the sender is--

CASSILDA: The sender is the King in Yellow.

NOATALBA: Well ... yes. The King ...warns ...as he warned

The first Aldones. We know nothing of him

But that. And we should not know.

CASSILDA: Why not?

Perhaps he is dead.

(NOATALBA hides his face)

Or too busy in Carcosa, so that he has forgotten

To send the Sign. Why not? We are well taught

That with the King in Yellow, all things are possible.

NOATALBA: I have not heard you.

You did not speak.

 

[Tom]

CASSILDA: I spoke only to your point, my cold priest ...

That this man n the Pallid Mask may indeed

Be the Phantom of Truth, though I

Have not found the Sign, no more than you.

That was what you were saying, was it not?

Be silent if you wish. I shall chance it.

NOATALBA: Blasphemy!

CASSILDA: Is the King a god? I think not.

In the meantime, Noatalba, I would dearly love

To see the face of Truth. It must be curious.

I have laid every other ghost in this world;

Send me this man or phantom!

(Exit NOATALBA)

 

I.iii

(The STRANGER enters. He is wearing a silken robe on which the Yellow Sign is embroidered. CASSILDA turns to look at him, then with a quick and violent motion plucks the torch from the sconce and hurls it into the Lake. Now there is only starlight.)

CASSILDA: I have not seen you! I have not seen you!

STRANGER: You echo your priest, you are all blinded

Obviously by choice.

CASSILDA: I... suppose its

Late to be afraid. Well then; I am not

STRANGER: Well spoken Cassilda. There is in fact

Nothing to be afraid of.

CASSILDA: Please

Phantom, no nonsense. You wear the Sign.

STRANGER: How do you know that? You have never seen

The Yellow Sign.

CASSILDA: Oh, I know it. The Sign

Is in the blood. That is why I ended

The Dynasty. No blood should have to bear

Such knowledge through a human heart;

No childrens teeth so set on edge.

STRANGER: You face facts. That is a good beginning.

Very well; then, in fact this is the Sign.

Nonetheless, Cassilda--

CASSILDA: Your Majesty--

STRANGER: --Cassilda, there is nothing to fear.

You see how I wear it with impunity.

Be reassured; it has no power left.

CASSILDA: Is that ...a truth?

STRANGER: It is the shadow

Cast by a truth. Nothing else is ever

Vouchsafed unto us, Queen Cassilda.

That is why I am white: in order to survive

Such colored shadows. And the Pallid Mask

Protects me -- as it will protect you.

CASSILDA: How?

STRANGER: It deceives. That is the function of masks.

What else would it do?

CASSILDA: You are not very full of straight answers.

STRANGER: There are no straight answers. But I tell you this:

Anyone who wears the Pallid Mask need never fear

The Yellow Sign. You Tremble. All the same,

My Queen, that era is over. Whatever else

Could you need to know? Now your Dynasty

Can start again; again there can be a king

In Hastur; and again Cassilda, the Black Stars

Can mount the sky once more against the Hyades.

The siege can be lifted and humankind

Can have its future back.

CASSILDA: So many dreams!

STRANGER: Only wear the Mask and these are given.

Theres no other thing required of us.

CASSILDA: Who tells me this?

STRANGER: I am called Yhtill.

CASSILDA: That is only Alaran for stranger.

STRANGER: And Aldones is only Hasturic

For Father. What would you be implying?

CASSILDA: Your facts are bitterer than your mystries.

And what will happen to you, O, Yhtill,

You with the Yellow Sign on your bosom,

When the sign is sent for?

STRANGER: Nothing at all.

What has Carcosa ever had to do

With the human world, from the time when men

Dwelt on the shore of Hali in mud huts?

The King in Yellow has other concerns

As is only supernatural.

Once you don the Pallid Mask, he cannot

Even see you. Do you doubt me? You have

Only to look again across the Lake.

Carcosa does not sit upon the Earth

It is, perhaps, not even real; or not so real

As you and I. Certainly the Living God does

not believe in it. Then why should you?

CASSILDA: You are plausible, in your ghost face. You talk

As if you know the Living God. Do you

Also hear the Hyades sing to him

When evening has eshrouded all the world?

STRANGER (shortly): No. That is strictly the Kings business.

It is of no earthly interest to me.

CASSILDA: I daresay. How can I trust these answers?

Do we indeed have to do nothing more

To be saved than don white masks? Seems to me

Like a suspiciously easy answer.

STRANGER: Test it then.

CASSILDA: And die. Thank you very much.

STRANGER: I would not kill you, or myself. Instead

I propose a masque, if you will pardon

The word-play. All will wear exactly what they

Choose, excepting that all will also wear

The Pallid Mask. I myself shall wear the

Yellow Sign just as I do now. When all

You are convinced, the masks are removed;

And then you are able to announce

The Succession, all in perfect safety.

CASSILDA: Oh, indeed.

And then the King descends.

STRANGER: And if the King

Should then descend, we are all lost, and I

Have lost my bet. I have nothing to lose

But my life. You have so very much more.

And if the King does not descend, what then?

Think! The Yellow Sign denatured, our life

Suddenly charged with meaning, hope flowring

The Phantom of Truth laid to rest foreer

And the Dynasty freed of all its fears

Of Carcosa and whatever monsters

Do there inhabit, freed of all its fears

Of the King in Yellow and his Tattered

And Smothering and Inhuman raiment!

CASSILDA: Oh Living God! How dare I believe you?

STRANGER: You do not dare not to...

CASSILDA: Why would I not dare?

I who am Cassilda, I who am I?

STRANGER: Because Cassilda, by risking nothing

So you risk it all. Well should you understand

That which is the first law of rulership.

And, too, Cassilda, for in your ancient

Heart, you love your children.

CASSILDA: Oh you demon!

You have found me out.

STRANGER: As I came to do.

Very well. I shall see you tomorrow

After the suns have set. Wear you the Mask,

And all eyes shall be opened, as all

Ears shall be unstoppered. Good night, my Queen.

CASSILDA: If you are human, you shall regret this.

STRANGER: Utterly, and so I wish you good night.

(exit STRANGER, CASSILDA moves to the balcony and looks out. Over the lake the Towers of Carcosa appear, tall and lightless)

(enter NOATALBA)

NOATALBA: So it begins. And so good night, my Queen.

You saw him?

CASSILDA: I ...believe that I did

NOATALBA: And?

CASSILDA: He says that... he says the King in Tatters

Can be blinded.

NOATALBA: And you have heard him out.

Now, surely, we are all indeed quite mad.

(Curtain)

 

II.i

(the CHILD appears before the curtain)

 

CHILD: I am neither Prologue nor Afterword;

Call me the Prototaph. My role is this:

To tell you it is now to late to close

The book or quit the stage. You already

Thought you should have so much earlier,

But you stayed. How harmless it all must seem!

No definite principles involved,

No doctrines seem to be promulgated

Among these pristine pages. Look close, you!

No convictions herein out outraged...

But nevertheless the blow has fallen

And now it is too late. And shall I tell

Where the sin might lie? It is yours alone.

You listened to us; and all the same, you

Stay to see the Sign. Now you are ours, or,

Since the runes are also run backwards, we

Are yours forever.

(Curtain opens on Ballroom with the balcony behind. STRANGER, CHILD, CAMILLA, NOATALBA and CASSILDA and othe Hasturites all are present.)

Stranger (to CAMILLA): There, my Princess, you see that there has been no

Sending, just as there shall not be one.

The Pallid Mask is the perfect disguise.

CAMILLA: How would we know a sending if it came?

STRANGER: The messenger of the King drives a hearse.

CASSILDA: Oho! Half the population does that.

Tis the citys most popular career

Since the siege began. All of that is talk.

STRANGER: I have heard what the Talkers were talking

The talk of the beginning and the end;

But I do not talk of either of these.

CAMILLA: But of the Sending? Let us hear.

STRANGER: Also,

The messenger of the King is a soft

Man; should you greet him by the hand, youd find

One of his fingers would come off in yours.

(NOATALBA joins the group)

NOATALBA: A pretty story. You would seem to know

Everything of everything. I think that,

Given proper recompense, you could tell

Us of the mystery of the Hyades.

STRANGER: He is the King there.

NOATALBA: As everywhere.

STRANGER: He is not the King in Aldebaran.

That is why Carcosa was built for him.

It is but a city in exile. These

Two mighty stars are tangled deep in war

As are Hastur and Alar.

NOATALBA: Oh, indeed?

Who then lives in fabled Carcossa?

STRANGER: Nothing human resides within her walls.

More than that, I cannot tell you.

NOATALBA: Your springs

Of invention run dry quickly, good sir.

CASSILDA: Be silent, O noisy and noisome priest.

Stranger, how did you come by all of this?

STRANGER: My sigil is Aldeberan, I hate the King.

NOATALBA: And his is the Yellow Sign, which you mock

By flaunting before the world. I say:

He is yet a King, he will not be mocked.

He is a King whom Emperors have served;

And that is why he disdains a crown.

All this is as it is written in the runes.

STRANGER: There are great truths written within the runes

Nevertheless, my priest, Aldebaran

Is his dark star. Thence comes the Pallid Mask.

NOATALBA: Belike, belike. But I would rather be

Drowned deep within the depths of Dehme

Than to wear what you wear on your bosom.

When the King throws wide his mantle--

(a gong sounds)

CASSILDA: Have done ...

Now is the time I never thought to see:

I must go, and announce the Succession.

Perhaps... perhaps the world itself, how strange,

Is indeed about to begin again!

(gong continues to sound, as the guests unmask)

CAMILLA: You, sir, should unmask.

STRANGER: Indeed? Should I now?

CAMILLA: Indeed. It is the time of unmasking,

We have all laid aside disguise but you.

STRANGER: I wear no mask.

CAMILLA: No Mask? (to Cassilda) He wears no mask?

STRANGER: I am the Pallid Mask itself! I! I

Am the Phantom of Truth, come from Alar!

My star is encarmind Aldebaran.

Truth is our invention and our weapon.

See! By this Sign, we have conquered. The siege

Of good and evil is ended...

(beyond the balcony, the towers of Carcosa begin to glow)

NOATALBA: Look! Carcosa! Carcosa is on fire!

(The STRANGER laughs and grabs CAMILLA by the wrists.)

CAMILLA (in agony): His Hands! His Hands!

(At her cry the music dies, a tremendous voice rolls from Carcosa)

THE KING: Yhtill!

Yhtill!

Yhtill!

(STRANGER releases CAMILLA, who falls with a wordless cry.)

THE KING: Have you found the Yellow Sign?

Have you found the Yellow Sign?

Have you found the Yellow Sign?

STRANGER (shouting): Behold! I am the Phantom of Truth!

Tremble, O King in Rags and Tatters!

THE KING: The Phantom of Truth shall be laid to rest.

The scalloped tatters of the King must hide

Yhtill forever. As for thee, Hastur--

ALL: No! No, no!

THE KING: And as for thee,

We tell thee this; it is a fearful thing

To fall into the hands of a Living God.

(The STRANGER falls, all else sink slowly to the ground after him)

(The stage darkens until it is lit only over the body of the Stranger)

THE KING: I have enfolded Yhtill, and so the

Phantom of Truth now is laid to rest. As

Henceforth the ancient lies shall rule always.

Now, Cassilda!

(CASSILDA rises to her knees)

Thou wert promised by

Truth a Dynasty, and in truth shalt thou

A Dynasty have.

The Kingdom of Hastur was first in all the world,

And would have ruled the world, except for this;

Carcosa did not want it. Hence, thereafter

Hastur and Alar divided; but those in Alar

Sent you from Aldebaran the Phantom of Truth

And all was lost; together you forgot

The Covenant of the Sign. Now there is much

Which needs to be undone.

NOATALBA: How, King, How?

THE KING: Henceforth shall Hastur and Alar be

Divided forever. Forever shalt thou contend

For mastry and strive in bitter blood

To claim which shall be uppermost;

Flesh or phantom, black or white. In due

Course of Starwheels, this strife will come to issue;

But not now; oh, no, not now.

CASSILDA: And-- until then?

 

[Tom]

THE KING: Until then,

Carcosa will vanish; but my rule, I tell you now,

Is permanent, despite Aldebaran. Be warned.

Also be promised: He who triumphs in this war

Shall be my... can I be honest? ...Inheritor,

And so shall have the Dynasty back. But think:

Already you own the world. The great query is,

Can you rule it? The query is the gift.

The King in Yellow gives it into your hands,

To hold, or let loose. Choose, terrible children.

NOATALBA: You are King, and most gracious.

We thank you.

THE KING: You thank me? I am the Living God!

Bethink thyself, fool priest. There is a price

And I have not as yet stated the half of it.

(pause)

The price is the fixing of the Mask.

(silence)

You do not understand me. I shall explain

Once and then no more. Hastur, you

Acceded to, and wore the Pallid Mask.

That is the price. Henceforth, all in Hastur

Shall wear the Pallid Mask, and by this sign be known.

And war between the masked men and the naked

Shall be perpetual and bloody, until I come

Again... or fail to come.

NOATALBA: Unfair, Unfair!

Twas Alar invented the Pallid Mask!

Aldones--

THE KING: Why should I be fair? I am

The Living God! As for Aldones, he

Is the father of you all. That is the price:

The Fixing of the Mask.

ALL: Oh!

CASSILDA (bitterly): Not upon us, O King; not upon us!

ALL: No! Mercy! Not upon us!

THE KING: Yhtill!

Yhtill!

Yhtill!

CASSILDA (stands and throws her arms wide):

Not upon us! Not upon us!

THE KING: What! Did you think to be human still?

NOATALBA: And if we now cannot return to what

We were, O, King, What shall we be?

What shall we be?

What shall we be?

 

(The CHILD rises and draws the curtain)

(End)

[Guest Gast]

stabilitätswurf!

[oleg1364424405]

Fuer das echte Necronomicon reicht mir dann ein Link.

[Tom]

Original von oleg

Fuer das echte Necronomicon reicht mir dann ein Link.

http://www.cthulhulive.de/Necronomicon2.zip

[Guest Gast]

Ich bin beeindruckt, da hat sich also jemand tatsächlich die Mühe gemacht und sich den König in Gelb ausgedacht.

[Guest Manji]

Das oben ist von mir.

 

@ Tom, wo hast du das denn her?

[Guest Gast]

Ich bin leider kein grosser Freund der Skriptlektuere von Theaterstuecken, meine aber, dass es so in "The King in Yellow" steht.

[oleg1364424405]

Original von Gast

Ich bin leider kein grosser Freund der Skriptlektuere von Theaterstuecken, meine aber, dass es so in "The King in Yellow" steht.

Das ist mir ja noch nie passiert. ;( "Ich" meint in diesem Falle mich.

[Sturmknecht]

Das oben ist von mir.

@ Tom, wo hast du das denn her?

 

Das hab ich auch auf meiner HD... gibts hier zum DL.

 

(http://www.cthulhulive.de/index2.htm)