The Scarlet Libretto

Scene Two

49 Scene Two In the darkness between the final two scenes we can hear the chorus chanting: One law for the fallen world. One law for eternity. One law for the woman’s child. One law, our community. Save us from the Evil One. Give us Thy blessed Son. Save us, save us! One law, our community. One law, our community. One law. One law. One law. One. Lights rise on the street as we saw it at the beginning of the opera: meeting house, scaffold, jail, all decorated for Election Day. The crowd is gathering: farmers, fishermen, sailors, goodwives, a few Indians. Strike up the march. Let music play. Election Day! Election Day! FARMER Today the people have a say. CHORUS Election Day! Election Day! SAILOR From houses crowding to the bay, 50 GOODWIFE 1 From forests dark as ebony, GOODWIFE 2 The people come to work and pray. GOODWIFE 3 We worship in community. CHORUS Election Day! Election Day! At one fringe of the crowd we have noticed old Chillingworth conferring with a Shipmaster, their conversation apparently full of dark plotting. At another end Hester and Pearl have arrived. Hester’s plain dress is adorned with the scarlet letter. Pearl wears her brighter, bolder attire. Hester is watching the crowd, evidently looking for Dimmesdale. Instead, the Shipmaster, released from Chillingworth, accosts her. SHIPMASTER A word, a word! HESTER You have a berth for us? SHIPMASTER Madam, I do. For you, your child, and the gentleman you mentioned. HESTER We’re bound away from here. SHIPMASTER That is the wish of others, too. The old man, Chillingworth, has asked 51 if he might sail with us, and I have offered him a berth near yours. Before Hester can react, Mistress Hibbons emerges from the crowd. Now Hester’s attention is distracted from two sides at once. HESTER This cannot be! MISTRESS HIBBONS Who do you look for? Who? Is it the minister who met you in the wood? SHIPMASTER We’ll take the tide and sail before the week is out. MISTRESS HIBBONS A woman knows the world, the secrets of the wood, and you cannot escape. I know you are not good. HESTER Madame, you mistake me. SHIPMASTER We’ll take the tide and sail. MISTRESS HIBBONS I see you’ve brought your girl. 52 To Pearl: Thou art the lineage of the Prince of the Air! Wilt thou fly with me some night to meet the minister? Pearl looks desperately at her mother, who fends off the old woman. Just at that moment a drum roll sounds the start of the parade. Mistress Hibbons, startled, melts into the crowd, later to leave the stage altogether. From behind the meeting house a procession emerges to music that sounds both martial and religious. Flags and banners wave. At the head of the procession are Dimmesdale, looking pale and profoundly distracted, Wilson and Bellingham. SHIPMASTER (departing) We sail within the week. Chillingworth has fallen in behind the leaders with a kind of eager piety masking his dark intent. Most of the crowd joins the parade as it progresses. A few, like Hester and Pearl, remain as bystanders. The march circles the stage, passing the scaffold, crossing to the meeting house steps, which the three dignitaries mount as the chorus sings. CHORUS Strike up the march. Let the music play. Today the people have their say. Bless, O Lord, Election Day, and all of us who work and pray. Election Day! Election Day! God names His own elect to stay. We have a voice, who work and pray. It is our Lord who offers grace and not the humble human race. 53 We have a voice, who work and pray. Election Day! Election Day! BELLINGHAM (calling for order) Hear ye, hear ye, one and all, to mark our celebration now acknowledging our God, we bow our heads before this meeting hall. WILSON (praying) Come Holy Ghost, Creator blest, vouchsafe within our hearts to rest; come with Thy grace and heavenly aid, and fill the hearts which Thou hast made. ALL Amen. BELLINGHAM (indicating Dimmesdale) Our hearts are filled, and now we pause to listen to our shepherd here who knows his flock and knows the laws that bind us in this earthly sphere. Dimmesdale has been standing with head bowed, a hand over his heart. He now...