A PHYSICIAN
_Servants, Beggars, etc._




ACT I

The opening scene is in a forest, in an unknown land. It is autumn.
Golaud, gray-bearded, stern, a giant in stature ("I am made of iron and
blood," he says of himself), has been hunting a wild boar, and has been
led astray. His dogs have left him to follow a false scent. He is about
to retrace his steps, when he comes upon a young girl weeping by a
spring. She is very beautiful, and very timid. She would flee, but
Golaud reassures her. Her dress is that of a princess, though her
garments have been torn by the briars. Golaud questions her. Her name,
she says, is Mélisande; she was born "far away;" she has fled, and is
lost; but she will not tell her age, or whence she came, or what injury
has been done her, or who it is that has harmed or threatened
her--"Every one! every one!" she says. Her golden crown has fallen into
the water--"It is the crown he gave me," she cries; "it fell as I was
weeping." Golaud would recover it for her, but she will have no more of
it.... "I had rather die at once!" she protests. Golaud prevails upon
her to go with him--the night is coming on, and she cannot remain alone
in the forest. She refuses, at first, in terror, then reluctantly
consents. "Where are you going?" she asks. "I do not know.... I, too, am
lost," replies Golaud. They leave together.

The scene changes to a hall in the castle--the silent and forbidding
castle near the sea, surrounded by deep forests, where Golaud, with his