MASQUERADE
ACT I
Scene 1
An old man and a young flaxen-haired boy are sitting at the edge of a river in silence.
BOY:
Father, why do we live in such poverty? You have always told me I was the son of a king.
FATHER:
Not so much a king as a coward. But even cowards have stories. Long ones.
Scene/Flashback 2
Aspasia and Sappho are sitting on a rock above the river in Petritis. Elpis, youngest of the three, is standing halfway in the river, singing an old tune. Hesperios, son of Theocritus, one of the high priests in Petritis, appears behind the rock. Elpis spots him.
ELPIS:
(singing)
Hesperios! Son of our uncle, hide no more, you are seen!
HESPERIOS:
(singing back)
Elpis! Daughter of my uncle, no need to tell me I am seen!
Elpis laughs and Hesperios smiles.
HESPERIOS:
But alas! Elpis, if only you could keep a secret, I might have been able to play my prank! To frighten your sisters is a great reward.
ASPASIA:
Hesperios! What games you play with us, my brother! Child of Hermes, child of mischief!
Hesperios climbs up onto the rock between Sappho and Aspasia.
SAPPHO:
What brings you here, cousin-of-sorts, to the lair of your humble citizens; to brag, as you must, of your conquests in our city?
HESPERIOS:
Hardly, sister, cousin-of-sorts; I would not call you either humble or a citizen for then you should not be special! and as the daughter of a high priest, you will always be special; I should call you proud and rich, affectionately, for your place in this city of my conquests.
SAPPHO:
And yet this is still the city of your conquests!
HESPERIOS:
Forgive me for speaking, sister, if I should not be able to speak of my triumphs!
SAPPHO:
Your insolence!
HESPERIOS:
My victories!
ASPASIA:
Hush, you two; anger not the gods, anger not our fathers. It would do you both good to agree on something or the other - harsh words never helped a soul.
SAPPHO:
Of course! Our sister comes to the aid of her lover, encourages him as he revels in his ignorance! Oh Zeus, Lord of Heaven, save me from the oversweet words of these two; save me from their strange affection for each other; save me from standing between the two greatest insu-
ASPASIA:
Of all things! My own sister turned against me; and I could say the same-
ELPIS:
Both of you, silence! For shame, Sappho, to say such things to your sister as well as a prince; and for shame, Aspasia, to talk back after you should tell Sappho to speak no more! Both of you deserve not this river, this kingdom, if you should bicker so; what actions, of a princess!
SAPPHO:
(snarling)
No princess am I, madame! For one would have to be respectable to be a princess, and I am far from that!
SCENE/FLASHBACK 3
Aspasia is sitting in her bedroom at night. A book lays open at her side. She is looking out of her window, evidently distracted. Hesperios enters. She jumps to her feet.
ASPASIA:
Hesperios!
HESPERIOS:
Aspasia!
ASPASIA:
Prince!
HESPERIOS:
Love!
ASPASIA:
Such words; and what would make a prince so kind?
HESPERIOS:
You ask what compels me to speak. A strange thing; my conscience.
ASPASIA:
And anything else?
HESPERIOS:
My heart.
A thump sounds outside their door. Hesperios crouches down behind her dresser. Aspasia sits on her bed and pretends to read her book. The door is kicked open. Sappho enters.
SAPPHO:
What noise heard I right now?
ASPASIA:
None but the sound of the wind, my sister.
SAPPHO:
And the wind howls "My love, my heart?"
ASPASIA:
I suppose it does; who else is in this room?
Sappho looks around and spots Hesperios, but says nothing.
ASPASIA:
None other.
Sappho takes a seat on the window sill and surveys her sister with cold eyes.
SAPPHO:
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man which hides one thing in his heart and says aloud another.
ASPASIA:
I am no man.
SAPPHO
(doing an impression of Elpis)
Hesperios! Son of Cerberus, hide no longer, you are found!
From her seat on the sill, she kicks him viciously, and he flies onto the floor. Aspasia rises to stand in front of him.
ASPASIA:
Foolish sister! What noise you make with your witch's pot of vengeance; and what business have you with him and I?
SAPPHO:
O foolish sister! Have you no idea what lies ahead? This may only end in trouble!
ASPASIA:
And why?
SAPPHO:
(mocking)
O all-knowing sister, intelligence of this town, would you not know the trouble Theocritus brings? I should die of shock had you not heard the gossip, sister; and gossip spread by our father alone!
ASPASIA:
Our father, a priest!
SAPPHO:
A priest on this ungodly coast! Indeed, a priest, our father, and with gossip spilling out of his twenty different mouths, of twenty different faces! Had you not been distracted by the filth at your feet-
HESPERIOS:
Her side!
SAPPHO:
You might have known the trouble he brings!
HESPERIOS:
The fortune I give!
SAPPHO:
The curses you cast!
ASPASIA:
Both of you, quiet! Else Father may-
Elpis bursts into the room, with Cosmas, their father, right behind.
COSMAS:
What is this devilry?
ASPASIA & SAPPHO:
Father!
COSMAS:
A dog in our place! in our house! in your room!
ASPASIA:
This is not what it looks-
COSMAS:
An innocent scheme!
SAPPHO:
I suppose it is so!
COSMAS:
I will not have it!
ASPASIA:
You must let it be!
COSMAS:
This dog! This monster, in my house! Let it be, as if I would!
A nuisance, a rat, a bloodthirsty snake! As if I would; and let him feed his hungry eyes on all this house holds? On all that lies inside?
ASPASIA:
Yes! Dear father-
COSMAS:
As if I would! Out, rat - I will see no more of you!
ASPASIA:
Father!
COSMAS:
Daughter!
HESPERIOS:
Sir!
COSMAS:
Out! CALLIOPE!
Calliope enters, a serving maid of Cosmas' house.
CALLIOPE:
Yes sir?
COSMAS:
(furious)
Escort this bottom-feeder out of the house - throw him into the streets - run him over with a horse! In fact, throw him into the streets - fetch me Arion - I will trample him myself!
Two guards enter and assist Calliope in dragging Hesperios out of the room. Aspasia clings to her father's robes as he sweeps out of the room. Elpis and Sappho are left in the room.
SCENE/FLASHBACK 3
Calliope is washing clothes in the river and singing.
CALLIOPE:
How strange,
This feeling that my life's begun at last,
This change,
Can people really fall in love so fast?
She pauses, then sloshes out of the river, blonde ringlets bouncing on her shoulders.
CALLIOPE:
What's the matter with you, Calliope?
Have you been too much on your own?
So many things unclear..
So many things, unknown.
Hesperios is watching from behind a tree and wondering who she speaks of. Calliope is a near-stranger to Petritis and works in Cosmas' house to make a living, though she is around Hesperios' age.
CALLIOPE:
In my life,
He has burst like the music of angels,
The light of the sun.
And my life seems to stop...
As if something is over, and something has barely begun!
Hesperios accidentally brushes against the ferns growing out of the tree's roots. Calliope's voice trails off. She grows alarmed, stepping back into the river, but Hesperios remains silent. Her voice is the most beautiful he has ever heard and he is quite literally entranced.
CALLIOPE:
Who goes there?
Hesperios steps halfway out and starts singing. He knows the rest of the song - an old love ballad.
HESPERIOS:
A heart full of love,
A heart - full of song,
Oh Zeus, for shame!
I don't even know your name...
Won't you say?
Won't you tell?
A bird chatters in the forest, something that sounds like a cry of fear. Hesperios and Calliope both know they will be punished - Hesperios for adultery and two-timing and Calliope for socializing with a higher class, not to mention an enemy of the master of the house she works for. They crouch down and grab each other's hands. Hesperios doesn't know Calliope is quarter-harpy, making her voice so beautiful, and neither does Calliope. She only knows she can use it to her benefit.
HESPERIOS:
(whispering)
We must not be found!
CALLIOPE:
(whisper/hissing)
Of course not! What idiot do you take me for, stranger?
HESPERIOS:
A beautiful one.
Calliope smacks him lightly.
SCENE/FLASHBACK 4
Hesperios is sitting by the statue of Iyetis in the town square, half-asleep on the sunny plaza. He is quickly joined by his friends and half-brothers Kallias - a boy with wildly curly dark brown hair and bright blue-green eyes - and Phaedrus, his features a strange combination of light blonde hair and warm honey-brown eyes. They come up bare-back riding their two horses, Balios and Aeton.
KALLIAS:
Hesperios!
Hesperios looks up lazily.
PHAEDRUS:
(showing off on Balios)
Cat got your tongue?
HESPERIOS:
(stumbling to his feet and straightening up)
Priest more like it.
KALLIAS:
(sighing)
I keep telling you she's not worth it.
HESPERIOS:
And Sappho is?
KALLIAS:
(smirking)
Worthy of my beauty.
HESPERIOS:
And where is my steed, the best of them all - Bucephalus?
Kallias and Phaedrus look extremely confused. Kallias looks behind him and curses as he realizes someone has stolen Bucephalus. Just then, Elpis rockets around the corner wearing a short toga and bare feet, which are clutching the sides of a large bay Arabian.
KALLIAS, HESPERIOS, AND PHAEDRUS:
ELPIS!
Elpis and Bucephalus skid to a stop near the trio and make their way over with Elpis nudging Bucephalus into a shortened, showy prance none have seen before.
KALLIAS:
(in awe)
What is that?
HESPERIOS:
(offended, lunging for his horse)
Get off!
PHAEDRUS:
(intensely curious)
How would you do that?
ELPIS:
(pleased and smug)
Like this-
She demonstrates a complicated series of pulls and twists at Bucephalus' mane, which Phaedrus repeats perfectly on his horse. Balios replicates the movements, if somewhat jerkily. Elpis claps, then pulls Bucephalus away from Hesperios' grabbing hands.
HESPERIOS:
(humiliated, shouting)
Get off!
He grabs Elpis' leg and pulls her off of Bucephalus. She hits the ground hard and lays shell-shocked as Hesperios stands protectively at Bucephalus' side. Phaedrus jumps off Balios and helps Elpis up while Kallias looks at his half-brother in complete shock.
KALLIAS:
Tell me, Zeus, Lord of the Heavens, I witnessed not such a vulgar act as so I think I saw, carried out by my own brother!
PHAEDRUS:
(helping Elpis up)
Brother, you must not be serious. To throw a girl to the ground - to throw anyone to the ground - a girl such as this? Your own cousin!
HESPERIOS:
Cousin-of-sorts, and without being related! Priesthood, brotherhood, are not the same thing.
KALLIAS:
(furious)
And to talk as if that changes anything! Such idiocy as carried out by my own brother! A barbarian, you are - and a disgrace - as if I would care, anymore, to be related to you beast!
HESPERIOS:
This not what it looks!
ELPIS:
(harboring a suspicion that his entrance into her sister's room was not what it looked in the same way)
And in the same way your entrance into the chambers of my sisters was not as it looked!
KALLIAS:
(whirling)
And more than one sister!
HESPERIOS:
(panicking)
No!
ELPIS:
Not as it looked, I would suppose!
HESPERIOS:
(snarling)
Stay out it of this, daughter-dog!
ELPIS:
(growling)
The insolence to talk to me as if I were a child!
HESPERIOS:
More of a murderer!
Elpis snarls at him.
ELPIS:
More an adulterer!
HESPERIOS:
But I did not plot to murder a love!
ELPIS:
A love between three - the mess of a two-timer!
KALLIAS:
Brother - what have you done?
HESPERIOS:
I did nothing!
ELPIS:
Nothing you have gotten caught for!
PHAEDRUS:
What in Hades are you two talking about?
ELPIS:
(whirling)
His love affair with Aspasia and Calliope!
Hesperios slaps Elpis across the face, furious. She has only seen the two meeting each other and singing the love song, but they have done much more since she does not know about. Elpis stumbles back into Phaedrus and Kallias instantly pins Hesperios.
KALLIAS:
(hissing)
You know much trouble you're going to be in.
HESPERIOS:
(hissing back)
Only if you tell.
KALLIAS:
(rearing back in surprise)
You think that I wouldn't? that I, son of a holy priest, son of Iyetis, the martyr of this state, our god, would not tell the truth to the people I hold dear?
HESPERIOS:
(angry, spitting)
You hold them dear, my brother, close to your heart for the benefit of your selfish soul.
Kallias punches him.
ELPIS:
(shouting)
TRAITOR! ADULTERER!
Hesperios struggles to get out of Kallias' grip, kicking and growling. A crowd has gathered, including Aspasia, Sappho, and Calliope. Aspasia has tears streaming down her face and Sappho is clutching her sister's arm. Aspasia catches sight of Calliope and stalks up to her.
ASPASIA:
(spitting)
Wench! Are you the demon feeding on my happiness? stealing my love? Daughter of a disgrace, feel the wrath of the mother Iyetis, feel such hands locked around your throat - I will make you suffer!
Cosmas enters.
COSMAS:
(striding up to Hesperios)
You - filth! You have been playing with my daughter's heart, using your rich mouthful of dirt, spewing lies - filthy demon, I will not allow you to rise! Face the wrath of the mother Iyetis, feel these hands locked around your throat - you will know no happiness while I am alive!
He picks Hesperios up by the toga and throws him down again. Aspasia, seeing this, runs over and attempts to drag her father off Hesperios, who is taking punches to the face from numerous people. Aspasia is screaming, holding onto her father, making excuses for Hesperios. Sappho attempts to drag her off and Elpis, traumatized by the entire event and regretting having said anything, sits stunned by the fountain.
SCENE 5
A pitch black place, with the sound of a river running in the background. You can see nothing, though Hesperios and Calliope are there.
HESPERIOS:
Listen, Calliope, you must be careful, there is nowhere to go if you are caught. Don't let your master know. I am lost until she is found.
CALLIOPE:
I understand. And you will come back for me?
HESPERIOS:
(crossing his fingers)
Of course.
SCENE 6
The back of Cosmas' house. It is near midnight and almost pitch black save for the tiny candle carefully burning in Calliope's palm. She is barefoot and very carefully creeping around the house. She stops under a window, blows out the candle, and throws it into the bushes. Then she begins climbing. She reaches the open window and very carefully slides in. Then - going against the plan - she lights one of Cosmas' candles and brings it over to the man.
CALLIOPE:
(whispering)
Old man; how strange you seem to me. How quiet it must be, with only a god for company.
She laughs very quietly at this, and then a troubled look comes into her eyes. Her fingers begin to twitch, and she carefully leans over and opens to cabinet above Cosmas' bed. She reaches in and comes back out with a knife in her hand and a very sad look.
CALLIOPE:
No pain, no more.
And she cuts the old man's throat. The candle drops, extinguished on the cold wooden floor. Calliope slips back out the window.
SCENE NO IDEA
Aspasia enters Cosmas' room in the morning and screams. Sappho comes running into the room with Elpis behind her and finds her sister unconscious and her father dead. She immediately pushes Elpis out of the room, screams, and faints as well. Hesperios comes in, not knowing that Calliope is right outside the weekend.
HESPERIOS:
(dropping to his knees by Aspasia)
My love, are you alright? How did this happen - your father, of all men, dead! I will avenge him, love -
Sappho wakes up with eyes full of rage.
SAPPHO:
(deadly)
You.
HESPERIOS:
(sarcastic and smug)
Me. The murderer, as only you would expect, wise one.
SAPPHO:
(relaxed, prepared)
What a compliment to receive from such an animal; what gore you have, a wicked son! And why would no one else expect you?
Hesperios lazily flicks his eyes over to Sappho, stroking Aspasia's hair.
HESPERIOS:
You underestimate me, and yet I have never underestimated you. What a way to repay me.
Sappho is up in an instant and throws him against the wall. She pins him there, with her arm across his throat.
SAPPHO:
You sick bottom-feeder, son of a dog, there are no words to describe my disgust for you - you killed him! My own father! And I will kill you!
Indeed, she reaches for the knife Calliope so foolishly left on the bed and then stops. Dried blood crusts the edge of the blade. She spots the candle on the floor, grabs the knife, and turns back to Hesperios.
HESPERIOS:
(unaffected)
How fitting you should kill with a knife.
SAPPHO:
There is a difference. I kill with the knife you killed my father with, but, then again, I shan't kill. I will make you suffer.
Calliope bursts through the window and knocks Sappho the ground. Aspasia has been hearing the conversation - she woke up a while ago. She jumps to her feet, punches Hesperios straight across the face, and kicks Calliope so hard she slams into the wall and makes the room shake. Hesperios attempts to bring her into his arms, but she kicks him between the legs and he crumples.
ASPASIA:
(cooly)
I kill him.
Sappho tosses her the knife and Aspasia turns to her lover, kneeling to his height. Elpis has slipped through the door and steps toward Sappho, making the floor creak unexpectedly. Without a second thought, assuming it is Calliope trying to sneak out, Sappho picks up a chair, whirls around, and with a killing blow hits her sister in the head. Elpis crumples and Sappho goes into shock. She has just murdered her sister. By this time, Aspasia has hauled Hesperios to his feet and is in the middle of thrusting the knife into his chest, but Sappho catches her sister's arm and so the knife sinks into her own chest instead. She falls backward and hits the floor. Calliope picks up the chair Sappho used to kill Elpis and proceeds to kill Aspasia with it. The three sisters end up in a pile on the floor. Hesperios thrusts the knife into his own chest and joins them. Calliope, now going into shock, stumbles back toward the window, tripping on the bedsheets of the old man that have wound around her feet.
CALLIOPE:
(scared, half-screaming)
Alone! At last! And how- and how strange it is-
Elpis is not dead. Her head is bleeding steadily and she will die soon, but she is not dead yet. She hauls herself to her feet and with a set jaw, picks up the chair that will kill her eventually, and murders Calliope with it. The beautiful lass falls out the window and the vibrantly red bedsheet falls too, concealing her body. Elpis collapses, really dead now.
THE END.
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