doves in the
scene at Melisande's tower window; or the episodic passage near the end
of the third act, during the tense and painful scene of Golaud's
espionage: "Do you see those poor people down there trying to kindle a
little fire in the forest?--It has rained. And over there, do you see
the old gardener trying to lift that tree that the wind has blown down
across the road?--He cannot; the tree is too big ... too heavy; ... it
will lie where it fell." Note, further on (in the third scene of the
fourth act), just in advance of the culmination of the tragedy, the
strange and ominous scene wherein Little Yniold describes the passing of
the flock of sheep:

"Why, there is no more sun.... They are coming, the little sheep.
How many there are! They fear the dark! They crowd together! They
cry! and they go quick! They are at the crossroads, and they know
not which way to turn!... Now they are still.... Shepherd! why do
they not speak any more?

THE SHEPHERD (_who is out of sight_)
"Because it is no longer the road to the fold.

YNIOLD
"Where are they going?--Shepherd! Shepherd!--where are they
going?--Where are they going to sleep to-night? Oh! oh! it is too
dark!--I am going to tell something to somebody."

Always the setting, the accessories, reflect and underscore the inner
movement of the drama, and always with arresting and intense effect.

It tempts one to extravagant praise, this heart-shaking and lovely
drama; this _vieille et triste legende de la foret_, with its
indescribable glamour, its affecting sincerity, its restraint, its
exquisite and unflagging simplicity. The hesitant and melancholy
personages who invest its scenes--Melisande, timid, naive, child-like,
wistful, mercurial, infinitely pathetic; Pelleas, dream-filled, ardent,
yet honorable in his passion; old Arkel, wise, gentle, and resigned; the
tragic and brooding figure of Golaud; Little Yniold, artless and
pitiful, a figure impossible anywhere save in Maeterlinck; the grave and
simple diction, at times direct and homely in phrasing and imagery, at
times rapturous, subtle, and evasive; the haunting _mise-en-scene_: the
dim forest, the fountain in the park, the luminous and fragrant
nightfall, the occasional glimpses, sombre and threatening, of the sea,
the silent and gloomy castle,--all these unite to form a dramatic and
poetic and pictorial ensemble which completely fascinates and enchains
the m