The Game

LIFE: (Joyously) O I have won again!

DEATH: (Blackly, hurling the dice to the ground) Yes, curse the luck! But some day we'll play for those two again--and then it will be my turn.

YOUTH: (To Death) Why will she persist in lying?

DEATH: (Gallantly) I am a sport and a gentleman and I must admit that Life is as truthful as I am.

GIRL: (Drawing back) Youth, the Poet? You? O I know all your songs by heart. I have kissed every line. Always, when I dance, I try to dance them. (Looking around fearfully) But why are you here?

DEATH: (Grimly) He came to throw himself into the sea!

LIFE: (With a gesture of anxiety) My dear Death, I wish you would grant me a favor.

DEATH: (Grumbling) A favor. A favor. Now isn't that just like a woman? I never saw one yet who was willing to abide by the results of a fair game.

LIFE: I will show you one who understands your songs. She is coming here.

DEATH: (Harshly) To leap into the sea, like you!

GIRL: No, No. Love understands. They didn't. They wanted to buy me in order to destroy me. That is why I stamped on their flowers.

DEATH: (Humorously) Ah, the young. Incurably sentimental.

LIFE: (Earnestly) But I want these two, whether I win or lose. I really must have them. They are geniuses--and you know how badly I am in need of geniuses right now. Ungrateful spoiled children! They always want to commit suicide over their first disappointments.

DEATH: (Impatiently) How many times must I tell you that the game must be played! It's the law--you know it as well as I do.

LIFE: But remember that the sun, the blessed healing sun still rises every morning.

DEATH: (Irritated) Oh, don't remind me of the sun!

LIFE: (Crying out) Hold! We must play first.

DEATH: (Jovially) So now it is you who are asking me to play! Come, Life do me a favor. Give me this one and the girl shall be yours!

YOUTH: (Passionately) Falsehoods. Evasions. What is Love, then? You gave me a girl who sold flowers on the street. She had hair like gold and a body all curves and rose-white like marble. I sang my songs for her, and the whole world listened. Then an ugly beast came and offered her gold ... and she laughed at me--and went away.

DEATH: (Laughing indulgently) That is Love, my boy. You are lucky to find it out so young.

LIFE: (Astonished) Of both? (Furiously) You lie, Death! I have already won Youth, he cannot die.

DEATH: (Laughing) Ho. Ho. Youth cannot die, you say. True. But the Girl dies if I win; isn't that so? (Life nods.) Well, and if she dies, what then? He loves her, yet he cannot follow. Nay, he shall live--forever mute, forever regretting his lost love, until you yourself will beg me to take him!

LIFE: Kings are my enemies. Do you remember how careless I was during the French Revolution? I've always had it on my conscience, and I think I'd feel better if I told you; whenever I threw a good combination, I--juggled the dice!

DEATH: (Nodding) I'm not surprised. Heavens, aren't women unscrupulous! And yet they call me unfair ... Well, I suppose I've got to keep an eye on you.

YOUTH: (Bitterly) O, I am through with you ... I want none of you! (Turning his back and addressing Death) And who are you?

DEATH: (Rising with cheerful complacency) I am Death!

LIFE: She is mine!

DEATH: (Sardonically) Haven't you forgotten something? The game!

LIFE: But she knows you--through your songs...

DEATH: (Scornfully) And you have been seeking me for weeks! Are you to be fooled again by this tricky charlatan? You who have had enough of Life? There is no place for cowards among the lofty dead!

YOUTH: Yes. But we will have lived. Until then, Death, you are Powerless. I fear you not, and I will guard her from you.

DEATH: (Shrugging) Geniuses! Geniuses!

GIRL: Why did you want to die?

DEATH: (Slyly) His sweetheart left him.

GIRL: What are all these ... without Love?

DEATH: (With a smile) What--you without Love? How about those who stand at the stage door every evening--and send you flowers and jewels? One of them shot himself because you stamped on his flowers. Believe me, my dear, that is all the Love there is--

LIFE: I'll give you a whole regiment of soldiers.

DEATH: (With scorn) Soldiers! What do you care about soldiers? Look at your figures again. You've been losing millions of soldiers in Europe for the past two years--and you're much more excited about these two rattle-pated young idiots. Your idea of a fair trade is to get something for nothing. You love too much. With such covetness how can you ever know the thrill of chance?

LIFE: I warn you I will stop at nothing. By the way, what's the game tomorrow night?

DEATH: A Plague. And in that game, I regret to say you haven't a chance in the world.

LIFE: Youth and The Girl. He is a Poet, and she a Dancer.

DEATH: A strong man and a beautiful woman. (He laughs, ironically) Up to the same old tricks, eh? You sly thing, you think if they meet they'll fall in love and cheat me! (Pause.) Well, suppose I consent. What will you give?

LIFE: It is half-won. She too has found love.

DEATH: Ah! But in willing to die she laid her life on the knees of the Fates. So we must play for her. It is the law.

GIRL: The loveliest of all! (Remembering sadly) But I can never dance for you anymore. I came here to die!

DEATH: And you'd forgotten it already! O you're all alike, you suicides. Life's shallowest little deceit fools you again--though you have seen through her and know her for what she is.

GIRL: Love? No. That's Desire!

DEATH: Bah! Desire when they seek you--Love when you seek them.

LIFE: (Counting abstractly) Fifty thousand, fifty-one, sixty-five, ninety-- (She goes on through the next speech.)

DEATH: Come come, Life, forget your losses. It's no fun playing with a dull partner. I had hoped for a good game tonight, although there is little in it for me--just a couple of suicides.

LIFE: (Turning) Youth! (To Death) You've tricked me. You were only playing for time.

DEATH: Come, sister. Be game. All's fair in everything but the dice. And just think. If you win this cast the other is half won. They'll meet then ...

LIFE: O I am not afraid to play. This time I have you, Death.

DEATH: Have me! Ho, Ho. Nay, Life. I am cleverer than you. On this game hangs the doom of both!

LIFE: (Falling on her knees) O Death, I beg of you--

DEATH: Ho. Ho. Life on her knees to Death. No, sister. I couldn't help you if I would. It is the law. Let us play.

LIFE: (Indignantly) Whoever said anything about not playing? All I want is your consent to let them meet here before the game begins.

DEATH: I'll bet this isn't so innocent as it sounds. Who are they? I haven't paid much attention to the case.

YOUTH: (Taken aback) Death! How different from my dream of you. I thought you were sombre, austere; and instead, you're--if I may say so--just a trifle commonplace.

DEATH: I'm not as young as I once was. One's figure, you know--

GIRL: To be supremely happy for a moment--an hour--that is worth living for!

DEATH: Life offers you many things--I but one. She pours out the sunshine before you to make you glad; she sends the winter to chill your heart. She gives you Love and Desire--and takes them away. She brings you warm quietness--and kills it with hunger and anxiety. Life offers you many things--I but one. Come closer, tired heart, and hold out your weary hands. See! What a pearl I offer--to kings and beggars alike. Come--I will give you peace!

LIFE: (Delightedly) Ah!

DEATH: Look at her. A pleasing exterior, eh? And yet you wouldn't be seeking me if you didn't know better. Alas, my boy, beauty is not even skin deep.

LIFE: (Quickly) I'll give you Kaiser Wilhelm, The Czar of Russia, George of England and old Francis Joseph--that's two to one!

DEATH: Now that's dishonest. You're always trying to unload a lot of monarchs on me when you know I don't want them. Why, when you play for them you almost go to sleep and I always win. No bargaining in kings, my dear.

LIFE: Don't forget I have Science to help me.

DEATH: Science, Bah! A fool's toy! I sweep them all together in my net--the men of learning and the ones they try to cure.

LIFE: (Pleading) O I'll give you anything.

DEATH: Sshh! Too late! Here's one of them.

GIRL: Nothing! (Going to Youth) O then she was not worth your love. She was like the men who wait for me at the stage-door; she wanted to destroy you.

DEATH: Such is Life, my dear young lady, Love is the destroyer always.

YOUTH: (Swiftly) Yes, and Youth has found Love--real Love at last. Love that burns like fire and flowers like the trees. You shall not die. (To Death) And I will fight you for her! Love is stronger than Death!

DEATH: Than Life, you mean. Think of the great lovers of the world--Paola and Francesca, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde. I, I claimed them all. Who are you to set yourself up against such august precedents? (To the Girl) You think he loves you. It is not you he loves, but your dancing of his songs. He is a Poet--therefore he loves only himself. And his sweetheart, for lack of whom he was going to die. See! He has already forgotten her! (Slowly) As you will one day be forgotten.

LIFE: O, soldiers don't matter one way or the other to me; but some day the dreamers will chain you to the earth, and I will have the game all my way.

DEATH: That remains to be seen. But how about kings?

LIFE: Soon the Girl will be here. Then you will think me beautiful.

DEATH: That's the comedy of it. You probably will, you know.

LIFE: (Shrugging) O, the law! Laws are always in your favor, Death!

DEATH: There you are. I always said the universe would be in a wild state of disorder if the women had any say! No, you must play the game.

YOUTH: So I came here to leap into the sea!

DEATH: Very good. Only hurry. Some one might come.

[They go offstage with their arms about each other.]

DEATH: Well, it was a good game after all. You see, that's the difference between you and me; you play to win, and I play for the fun of the thing. (He laughs.) But tell me, Life; why is it you make such a fuss over dreamers and care so little for soldiers?

YOUTH: (Excitedly, with gestures) I tried poison, but just as I was about to swallow it they snatched it from me ... I tried to shoot myself. They cheated me; the pistol wouldn't go off.

DEATH: Well-meaning idiots!

YOUTH: That is true. (Going to Death) Ah, Death, I have been seeking you for weeks.

DEATH: Yet I am always present. Where did you seek me?