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Title: The Vampire Cat
       A Play in one act from the Japanese legend of Nabeshima cat

Author: Gerard Van Etten

Release Date: July 1, 2012 [EBook #40120]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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The Vampire Cat

By

GERARD VAN ETTEN

 

SERGEL'S
ACTING
DRAMA

No. 641

ART WORKERS LEAGUE

 

PUBLISHED BY
The Dramatic Publishing Company
CHARLES H SERGEL, PRESIDENT

Practical Instructions for
Private Theatricals

By W. D. EMERSON

Author of "A Country Romance," "The Unknown Rival," "Humble Pie," etc.

Price, 25 cents

Here is a practical hand-book, describing in detail all the accessories, properties, scenes and apparatus necessary for an amateur production. In addition to the descriptions in words, everything is clearly shown in the numerous pictures, more than one hundred being inserted in the book. No such useful book has ever been offered to the amateur players of any country.

CONTENTS

Chapter I. Introductory Remarks.

Chapter II. Stage, How to Make, etc. In drawing-rooms or parlors, with sliding or hinged doors. In a single large room. The Curtain; how to attach it, and raise it, etc.

Chapter III. Arrangement of Scenery. How to hang it. Drapery, tormentors, wings, borders, drops.

Chapter IV. Box Scenes. Center door pieces, plain wings, door wings, return pieces, etc.

Chapter V. How to Light the Stage. Oil, gas and electric light. Footlights, Sidelights, Reflectors. How to darken the stage, etc.

Chapter VI. Stage Effects. Wind, Rain, Thunder, Breaking Glass, Falling Buildings, Snow, Water, Waves, Cascades, Passing Trains, Lightning, Chimes, Sound of Horses' Hoofs, Shots.

Chapter VII. Scene Painting.

Chapter VIII. A Word to the Property Man.

Chapter IX. To the Stage Manager.

Chapter X. The Business Manager.

Address Orders to
THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

[1]

THE VAMPIRE CAT

A PLAY IN ONE ACT FROM
THE JAPANESE LEGEND
OF
THE NABESHIMA CAT

 

BY
GERARD VAN ETTEN

 

COPYRIGHT, 1918
BY
THE DRAMATIC
PUBLISHING COMPANY

 

CHICAGO
THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY

[2]

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Prince Hizen, Lord of Nabeshima
Buzen, his chief councillor
Ruiten, a priest
Ito Soda, a common soldier
Kashiku, a maid
O Toyo, wife of the prince
    TIME: Medieval Japan.
    SCENE: The room of O Toyo in the palace.
    TIME OF ACTION: Between 10 and 12 p.m.
    Note.—According to the old Japanese legend, the soul
of a cat can enter a human being.

[3]

THE VAMPIRE CAT

Scene. At R. is a dressing table, upon it a steel mirror, toilet articles, and two lighted candles with ornate shades. R. U. a section of shoji leads to another room, this section is now closed. At R. C. a large section of shoji is open, giving a view of the garden. To the R. of this entrance is a small shrine and Buddha. At L. of the room is a sleeping mat and head rest. By the head rest a lantern, now unlighted. Down L. is an open section of shoji leading to the Prince's apartments. Just above it stands a screen. As the curtain rises the Prince is standing R. C. looking out into the garden. Ruiten is down R. and Buzen slightly above him. Buzen crosses L.

Prince.   [Comes down between Ruiten and Buzen.]
 Settle for me tonight
 My sicknesses and my fears—
 [To Buzen.]   Settle them for me,
 Sir Buzen, councillor crafty.
 [To Ruiten.]   Settle them for me,
 Priest Ruiten, the prayerful.
Ruiten.   So are we trying in all ways
 Thy pain to relieve
 Yet nought seems availing.
Prince.   Wracked is my body
 With tortures unending
 Born of the dreams
 That are surging forever
 Backward and forward
 Thru my brain, weary.
Buzen.   [Indicating door L.]   Around thy bed each night
 Have I placed thy samurai
 In number one hundred
 To guard thy sleep—
Ruiten.   Zealously have I prayed[4]
 In the temple called "Miyo In,"
 And during the night hours
 Have knelt at thy house shrine
 Praying to Buddha, the lord of the world.
Prince.   Yet have I not slept
 Entirely untortured.
 Slow are thy prayers
 In fruit bearing.
Ruiten.   Slow because contending with evil—
 [Approaches Prince.]
 With evil in form strange and subtle.
 Over this house hangs a spirit
 Ne'er resting and ready always for dire deeds.
Prince.   Such a spirit there must be—but what?
Ruiten.   Evil takes many forms but the form of a cat
 Is favored by many devils.
Prince.   [Startled, the others watch him closely.]   A cat—aye, truly
 And if a cat stalked here
 That evil thing must we kill.
Ruiten.   Yet such is their power malignant
 That they take other forms than the forms of cats—
 Even human forms.
Prince.   Ha!—And the spirit that visits me?
 Mayhap that—
 Only twice hath it failed of its visit.
Buzen.   And those lost visits, when?
Prince.   The last two nights.
Buzen.   [Swelling with pride.]   Then, oh Prince, the cure may be found.
 Better than prayers is the cure   [Eyeing Ruiten.]
 For prayers have not ears—have not eyes—
 Have not weapons—better than prayers is it.
Prince.   Tell me this cure. It is grudged, Sir Priest?
Ruiten.   [Bowing.]   A cure for my lord could not be grudged.
Prince.   Well spoken. Say on, Sir Buzen.
Buzen.   First I must beg clemency
 For thy hundred samurai
 For faithful they are to the bone, yet—
 [5]
Prince.   Yet? Why clemency? For what?
Buzen.   On guard, they slept.
Prince.   Slept?
Buzen.   Aye. Soundly as though deep in saki.
Prince.   And none roused?
Buzen.   They were as dead
 From shortly after the hour of ten
 Until dawning.
 Awakening they knew they had slept
 Yet knew not when the poppy was thrown in their eyes.
 Even as one man none knew
 And were deep amazed and full of shame.
 Each night it was the same.
Prince.   [Angrily.]   So, they slept.
 While I, on my couch,
 Through the hours writhed—
 Writhed and twisted—
 Weakening ever—
 Not sleep, yet dreaming—
 Oh, horrible dreams.
Ruiten.   Of what were these horrible dreams?
 What was their substance?
Prince.   [Mystified at the memory.]   There would come a soft stealing—
 As of draperies hushed and lifted
 For silence in walking;
 Like soft, silken draperies
 Wrapped about stealthy limbs.
 Then a shape clothed for sleep
 As women are clothed—
 Sinuous and vague in movement,
 Then taking form slowly—
 The form—a lie!—a lie!   [Covers his face and goes upstage.]
Ruiten.   The form?
Prince.   [Turns.]   O Toyo!
Ruiten.  
 Buzen.   [Rubbing their hands.]   Ah!
Prince.   [Comes down R., Ruiten and Buzen are together a little L.]
 [6]Came she to me—
 Leaned o'er me—
 Caressed me
 Yet soothed not.
 Her lips to mine—
 Her lips but not sweet.
 Then here on my throat
 Would she place them
 And all my life seemed to smother—
 Out of me flowed the life-blood
 In a deep stream
 Like a tide
 Forced by the gods,
 Against its will,
 To flow far away and yet farther.
Buzen.   So does a vampire
 Sucking her victim
 Draw from him
 His blood and his marrow.
Prince.   Guard thy words!—
 As my strength ebbed
 She drew back
 Red-lipped and smiling,
 Smiling and laughing
 Though her laughter was silent.
 Then with a final shimmer
 Of silent silks she vanished—
 So was it done.
Ruiten.   So always the dream?
 If dream it were.
Prince.   The dream—I think yet it was a dream—
 So was it always.
Buzen.   But the last two nights?
Prince.   Came she as usual
 Flowing over the floor
 Like a spectre enrobed
 And beautified.
 But as she bent o'er me
 She paused as if startled
 And, slowly gazing about,[7]
 Turned and was gone.
 Last night she paused
 As if speaking to someone
 Though I could see no one.
Buzen.   But the cause of her turning?
Ruiten.   Turned she startled—
 Turned she slowly—
 Turned she wonderingly?
Prince.   Slowly, as if she felt
 A strange presence.
Ruiten.   Feared she?
Prince.   She left me.
Buzen.   But trembling or calm?
Prince.   Calmly, as from a thing hated
 And more powerful than she
 Whom she would not rouse to action.
Buzen.   [Rubbing his hands.]   Good.
Prince.   What is good?
Buzen.   That which thou speakest of.
Prince.   How so?
Buzen.   [Comes forward towards the Prince.]   It proves that I have humbly succeeded—
 [Grudgingly.]   Through the help of another, 'tis true—
 But yet succeeded in bringing my lord honorable help.
Ruiten.   Indeed it is so.
Prince.   Say on, very wise councillor.
Buzen.   [Puffing up.]   Without more words than are fit
 This then is the way of the cure.
 When long had thine illness ravaged and worn thee
 And many nights had you tossed by weird visions enthralled,
 No cures affecting, no prayers availing thee   [Glances at Ruiten.]
 Then councilled I with thy wise ones—
 And, too, with Priest Ruiten—
Ruiten.   I, you should name first,
 For without my prayers your wisdom was nought.
Buzen.   To continue briefly.
 All our heads together brought no solution—
Prince.   True, true.
 [8]
Buzen.   [Bowing.]   Humbly I acknowledge my head
 Empty and brainless.
 Yet even from idiots lips
 Wisdom oft falls unexpected
 And therefore more wonderful.
 Now it is told in old tales
 Of how Iyaiyasu met—
Ruiten.   Short, abrupt is thy tale.
Prince.   The cure, Sir Buzen,
 The hour passes.
Buzen.   [Bowing.]   I crave honorable leniency.
 To be brief—
Prince.   Aye, brief.
Buzen.   Discouraged and sick at heart
 At the sufferings of my great lord,
 I was retiring to my room
 By way of the garden
 And the hour was the Hour of the Fox.
 I heard a splashing in the pool
 And drawing near
 Saw a young soldier washing.
 I spoke to him asking,
 "Who art thou?"
 "Retainer to my Lord Nabeshima,
 Prince of Hizen," he answered.
 Then talked I with him. Of thy sickness
 We talked. And he was ashamed of thy samurai's sleeping.
 He begged to be allowed to guard thy sleep
 Also for, being a common soldier, it was not permitted.
 So earnestly talked he that I promised to consult
 With the other councillors and see what could be done.
 "So tell me your name, young sir," I said.
 "Ito Soda is my name, honorable sir,
 And for your kind words I thank you."
 So I consulted and the result was
 We granted his request.
Prince.   And he, too, has watched the two nights past?
Ruiten.   Aye, and he slept not
 Though the samurai were heavy with sleep-fumes.
 [9]
Buzen.   I will tell.
Ruiten.   [Elbows Buzen out of the way and comes forward.]   You are honorably hoarse.
 He slept not, as I say—
Prince.   How kept he awake?
 Since many slept spell-bound
 How broke he the spell?
Ruiten.   With him he brought
 Oiled paper and laid it
 Down on the matting
 Sitting upon it.
 When o'er his eyes sleep stole
 And wearily weighted them
 He drew out his sharp dirk
 And in his thigh thrust it
 By pain driving the poppy fumes off.
 Ever and again he twisted
 The dirk in the raw wound
 And the thick blood-drops
 Soiled not the matting
 Because of the oiled paper.
Prince.   Indeed this is no common soldier,
 This Ito Soda.
Buzen.   Indeed not—
Ruiten.   To continue—[Retires upstage, disgruntled.]
Buzen.   [Pushing forward.]   As I was saying, oh Prince,
 His eyes never closed.
 During the Reign of the Rat
 He heard, in this room, O Toyo
 Tossing and moaning
 As if in great fear of something
 She could not escape from.
 Even at the same moment
 As the beginnings of her moanings
 Came a cat-call from the garden—
 Then nearer—then ghostly paddings
 As of padded claws on matting,
 And an evil presence seemed hovering
 And lurking near in the darkness.[10]
 O Toyo gave a low scream—than all was silence.
 Soon she came stealthily
 Through the shoji—cat-like her step—
 Glassy her eyes—
 Claw-like her hands—
 Bent she over you with curled lips—
 Then she turned, even as you have said,
 And, seeing a waking watcher,
 Left as she came.
Ruiten.   [Comes down.]   The second night of Ito Soda's watching
 She threatened him in low words
 But he made as to stab her
 And she melted before him
 Laughing a little.
 And he heard the rustle of her garments
 As she regained this room
 Though he saw not her passage hither.
Prince.   Thicker with each word the horror about me.
 [Turns away to R.]   Doubts to beliefs—beliefs to actions—
 Love unto hate.   [Turns to them almost pleadingly.]
 Tell me it is not O Toyo.
Buzen.   I questioned her maid, Kashiku,
 And found that O Toyo's couch
 Was empty even at the time
 Of the weird visit to thee.
Prince.   [Overwhelmed.]   So, it was O Toyo!
 In the soul of a flower, a demon—
 On the sweet lips, poison.
Buzen.   There is only one course—
Ruiten.   The one road—
Prince.   And I take it!
Buzen.   [Moves toward door L.]   The samurai are gathered.
Prince.   Summon Ito Soda.   [Buzen exits L.]
Ruiten.   Hard is the fate of man
 Here on this dark earth.
 Many the shapes and the shadows[11]
 Stalking abroad.
 Yet ever the gentle Buddha
 From the Lotus Fields watches
 And guards every life that lives.
Prince.   [Puts one hand on Ruiten's shoulder.]   Priest, have not many
 Vampires bleeding them
 And dream it is another thing?
Ruiten.   The soul is often a vampire to the body.
Prince.   And that evil thing must we kill.
Ito Soda.   [Enters L., kneels before the Prince. Ruiten takes up R. a little and Buzen re-entering after Ito Soda goes up C.]
 Honorable Prince, humbly I answer thy summons.
Prince.   Rise, Ito Soda.
 Faithful beyond words art thou,
 This know I as all hath been told me.
 No longer call thyself a common soldier
 But a samurai of the Prince of Hizen.
 And the two swords will I give thee on the morrow.
Ito Soda.   On my knees I humbly thank thee.   [Rises.]
Prince.   Now time presses.
 O Toyo will be coming
 In from the garden.
 As usual shall the hundred sleepy samurai
 Guard my couch. Let Ito Soda
 Remain here hidden and watchful.
 When O Toyo rises to enter my chamber—
 Your dirk is sharp, Ito Soda?
Ito Soda.   [Draws dirk.]   As a moonbeam on a cold night.
Prince.   And you know how to use it.
Ito Soda.   I will place this screen, thus.   [Goes to screen L. and opens it so as to form a hiding place between the sleeping mat and the door L.]
 So will I wait the moment.
Prince. So be it. It is a good plan
 And on the one road. Let us about it.   [Exits L. followed by Buzen and Ruiten. Ito Soda goes[12] behind the screen. O Toyo is heard singing in the garden.]
O Toyo.   [Outside.]   Moonlit convulvus
 Through the night hours
 Wan are their faces
 Ghostly sweet.
Richer by daylight
 Drinking of sunshine
 As thirsty souls drink
 At a shrine.
Fair are the faces
 Glassed in the quiet pools
 Maidens low-bending
 Vain ones.
[The singing stops abruptly.]   Kashiku, is not that a cat
 Stealing stealthily there?
 She snarls—quick—[O Toyo enters B. C. quickly and very frightened, turns and looks back, hurries Kashiku in. Kashiku follows much less disturbed at any fear of a cat than over her mistress' fright.]
Kashiku.   [Shuts the shoji R. C. and comes to O Toyo.]   You are all atremble.
O Toyo.   Quick, let me be safe in slumber.   [Crosses to dressing table.]
Kashiku.   [Follows her and attends to her hair while O Toyo kneels before the glass.]   Several nights lately have I heard my lady moaning
 As though even in sleep were she troubled.
 The worry over your honorable lord hath disturbed thee.
O Toyo.   Your ears are over keen.
 I am happy when I sleep.
 How can I moan, being happy?
 You are dull.
 [13]
Kashiku.   Perhaps it was the wind or the echo of my lord's moaning.
O Toyo.   Moaning or was it singing?
 I would it were singing
 For singing is sweeter
 On the lips of those dying.
Kashiku.   Dying?
O Toyo.   When those whom we love are passing—
 Even under our hands are passing—
 And our love weans them from life
 And our kisses suck out the blood-life,
 Then would we touch them no more,
 Then would we kiss them no more,
 But a power greater than we
 And a power that we fear
 Forces us on in our love-killing.
Kashiku.   There is in your voice a vibration, as even the winds in the pine-tops
 When, in the autumn, they echo the summer's death-song;
 There is in your eyes a strange light as if the soul of another
 Looked out from your curtaining lashes and dimmed the sweet light there abiding.
 Oh, mistress, surely you are different than what you once were.
O Toyo.   [Crosses C. slowly.]   Even now comes the hour and the struggle
 And I do the bidding of that which is in me.
 How I hate the feel of his flesh
 Quivering under my lips
 And the loathsome taste of the blood-drops
 Thick on my lips that would soothe him and cannot.
Kashiku.   Can anything soothe more than thy lips,
 More than the lips that love him?
 I cannot understand the words of your saying.
 You are happy and tearful all in a moment,
 Your soul seems a sky full of sunshine and clouds.
 [Coming to her.]   Even now as my hand touches you, you are trembling.
 [14]Is it the cat that crept upon us
 Whose shape still affrights you?
O Toyo.   Thou hast said it—My soul is as thou sayest.
 My dreams are sweet and again bitter.
 Once came a dream horrible above all dreams.
Kashiku.   What dream, my lady?
O Toyo.   The night when you found me there on the floor.
 Do you remember?
Kashiku.   Well. You were all distraught and the bosom of your gown
 Was torn open and you clutched your throat
 As if you were wounded there. But there was no mark.
 And you let wild words fall from your lips
 And none knew their meaning.
O Toyo.   The Prince and I walked in the garden
 And there at the shoji I left him.
 As I entered
 There entered
 With me a spirit
 And its breath fell upon me—
 Dumb my tongue in my mouth
 And frozen my marrow.
 Suddenly it leapt upon me
 And as I fell downward
 Flashed the spirit into mine eyes—
 A cat, two-tailed and hairy—
 And it's teeth sank in my throat here—
 Can you see a mark?   [Exposes her throat to Kashiku.]
Kashiku.   The skin is as smooth as satin and perfect.
O Toyo.   Then came darkness upon me—and so you found me.
 So strong is the dream within me
 I wonder if it be a dream or no.
Kashiku.   You had walked that evening in the garden.
O Toyo.   I had rather dreamed I walked—say I dreamed it.
Kashiku.   The Prince was with—
 [15]
O Toyo.   Yet it was a dream, question it not.
 I would go to rest peacefully.
 He, too, shall rest peacefully—
 I shall not kiss my lord tonight.   [Crosses L.]
Kashiku.   Not kiss him?
O Toyo.   I think not I shall kiss him.
 I would not pain his slumbers—
 He has paled so and his face is so thin.
 In the night he lies like a strong flower
 And a strange flower, bled of its life—
 Like a strong flower weakened.
 And at its sight my dreams are bitter.
 But as I gaze a change comes over all things
 And I hold in my hands a beautiful flower
 Which I kiss with my lips
 Holding my lips long to it,
 Draining its sweetness.
 And a cloud passes over
 And on my lips are clots of blood!
Kashiku.   Such dreamings are not good.
 I find the silken coverlets tossed in the morning,
 Twisted and thrown about as if you slept ill.
O Toyo.   It is not O Toyo who tosses them—
 It is the dream O Toyo.
Kashiku.   Two nights lately have I imagined you called to me
 But entering you were not here—but there with your lord soothing his sufferings.
O Toyo.   Drinking at strange fountains and unknown springs—
 Drinking of sacred waters sacred to unknown gods.
 And as I drink another life becomes my life
 And he is mine—utterly mine, at last!
Kashiku.   You frighten me—
O Toyo.   Be not frightened—you have no need.
 Now I shall sleep.
 He, too, is sleeping. Perhaps—perhaps he is suffering.
 Shall I touch him with my hands?
 Perhaps he is hungry for my kisses—
 Shall I kiss him?
 [16]
Kashiku.   It were a fitting thing to kiss thy lord.
O Toyo.   You know not what you say, Kashiku.
Kashiku.   My lady—
O Toyo.   You have not heard me say strange things, Kashiku.
Kashiku.   I have heard—
O Toyo.   Nothing.
Kashiku.   Nothing, my lady.
O Toyo.   Put out the lamps.   [Kashiku blows out candles on dressing table.]
 Go now, Kashiku, and do you sleep deeply,
 Breathing poppies.
Kashiku.   My lady—
O Toyo.   Go.   [Kashiku opens shoji R. and goes out shutting it after her. O Toyo crosses, too, and lies on the sleeping mat. The room is almost in total darkness.]
O Toyo.   I shall kiss him—I shall kiss him!   [The lantern at the head of the sleeping mat glows more and more brightly until a cat's head appears on it. At this moment a cat-call comes from the garden. (Note.—If these effects cannot be gotten with no hint of the ludicrous, have the lantern glow with increasing light but use no cat's head or cat call.) With the increase of light, O Toyo has begun to moan and toss and at the moment of the cat-call she rises as in a trance and goes towards the door L. As she passes the screen Ito Soda steps out from behind it and plunges his dirk into her back; she falls with a little, stifled cry. Instantly, in utter darkness, the curtain falls.]

End of the Play.

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