The Scarlet Libretto

Scene Three

19 Scene Three Summer, years later. The garden outside the house of Governor Bellingham. Strolling among the blooming roses are the Governor, himself, with John Wilson. Behind them, evidently in a separate conversation, are Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale, the one looking older, the other paler, as if ill. BELLINGHAM (to Wilson) My dear Sir, I am pained to see the child has grown up savagely. Her mother proudly keeps apart and practices the needle’s art to earn her bread. She’s learned to scrimp. They say her daughter Pearl’s an imp. WILSON This imp could be a child of night. She dresses in a cloth as bright as that incriminating letter her sinful mother has embroidered. Long years the congregation watched, observing that the child is touched with an uncanny spirit. Though we cannot fathom how, she grows as if unlawfully, and loves to dance among the apple groves and sings no tune we recognize and has much mischief in her eyes. BELLINGHAM So have I heard. I have been slow to act upon the rumor, though, because in our community so many troubles occupy 20 we few who govern. As you know our founder Winthrop’s dying now. WILSON And soon a new election day will come for those who work and pray. BELLINGHAM Still, I have given hours of thought to Hester Prynne, and we have got to know as a community if she has raised a child too free. WILSON We must interrogate the child? BELLINGHAM To see if she has grown too wild. The mother, meanwhile, we’ll observe, discovering whether, as we’ve heard, she bears a look of sorcery. They shall be with us presently. The two men turn aside on the garden path and continue their conversation. Meanwhile, Dimmesdale and Chillingworth can now be overheard. CHILLINGWORTH Sir, you are not well. DIMMESDALE My friend, you must not trouble over me. I’m one who takes too much to heart concerns of my community. 21 CHILLINGWORTH Your heart is what I worry for. The way you hold your hand across your chest as if to stop a pain. DIMMESDALE It’s nothing. CHILLINGWORTH Nothing? Or some great loss? David gazed upon Bathsheba, so beautiful as she was bathing, and lay with her, and sent her husband into the battle to be killed. That was the story of your sermon. Why, I wondered, dwell upon the guilty king of long ago? DIMMESDALE To make us all remember, friend, mankind is born enslaved to sin. Atonement is a task for all no matter where God’s Grace may fall. BELLINGHAM Behold, the unhappy woman has come. WILSON And with her a scarlet little bird. Hester and her daughter, Pearl (wearing a red dress) enter the garden and curtsey before the Governor and Mr. Wilson. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth look on with heightened interest, each keeping his motives to himself, the one torn by love and guilt, the other eager to possess and to control. 22 BELLINGHAM Hester Prynne, the years have passed. The town has seen how much this lass has grown, and now it is our role to fear for her immortal soul. We charge you, speak of what you do to teach the child the good, the true. HESTER The lessons that I would impart are carried here, upon my heart. WILSON Woman, that is a badge of shame. HESTER And teaches me to lay no blame, to judge no person but myself. BELLINGHAM Then we shall question this dear elf. If you, her mother, will allow, we’ll start the examination now. Bellingham and Wilson take Pearl aside. Hester, full of concern, looks at Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, who approach. Chillingworth, smiling odiously, has whispered something in Dimmesdale’s ear. HESTER What do you speak of? What? What are you planning now? Did you convince these men to exercise their power? DIMMESDALE This good man is a friend 23 and would do you no harm. I lean on his advice and trust him to be true. Bellingham and Wilson have been shocked by something Pearl has said to them, and stagger backwards. WILSON How can this be! BELLINGHAM The little imp! WILSON She has a very devilish wit. HESTER She is my child, a gift of God. WILSON We have found it very odd she cannot say how...