31 Plays in 31 Days: #7 - "I Killed Sycorax"

[breakinglight11]

This piece is dedicated to crearespero because it draws on an idea she came up with. It features Ariel, the fairy from Shakespeare's The Tempest, and takes place after the events of that play. This is very rough and definitely needs more work, but I think I could turn it into something decent if I took the time to work it out. It's in very lazy iambic pentameter, and the arc could use expanding, but I just wanted to get it on the page for now. I like Frances's idea, because it suggests that Ariel is something wild and dangerous, not simply a pretty and amusing spritely servant.

Day #7 - "I Killed Sycorax"

SILVANA, a sorceress
ARIEL, an airy sprite
~~~

(SILVANA draws a summoning circle in the sand. She casts handfuls of powder into it, murmuring under her breath. ARIEL appears without her notice.)

ARIEL: What game play you by scratching here this sketch
Upon these lonely and unblemished sands?

(SILVANA startles.)

SILVANA: By God! Tread not so softly, and speak plain!

ARIEL: I do not tread, for only mortals do,
And I am more than of this blighted earth.

SILVANA: Angel bright or devil damn’d, it’s well for you
To cross this earth in gentle steps to me.
The rods of sorcery lie within my power,
And my deeds I answer nothing here to you.

ARIEL: For all that I be spirit of the air,
You are seen through far clearer thus than I.
You have designs upon the place, as many
Else have had when they set foot upon these sands.

SILVANA: I hear the older powers all have fled.

ARIEL: And you seek to hold their place as master?

SILVANA: I am well as pos’d and potent as those who
Have held this place before me. Why should I
Not come and seize the place if I can hold it?

ARIEL: I see your circle and have heard your words
Whispered to the world and wind in bond.
It is not the place you’d take. You want their dainty servant.
Well, I have come. I flit before here, and I must tell
You that you deal with force beyond your grasp.

SILVANA: Better should you serve yourself to make
Some bond with me before I make it for thee.
You’ve been a slave before, proud sprite.
You could be so again.

ARIEL: Remember well the likes of them that bound
A spirit of my potent quality.

SILVANA: Mistake me for no common rate, thou lob,
No meaner than the sea witch and the mage
Who by turns seal’d you up inside a tree
And released you only at his will and pleasure.

ARIEL: Place you yourself among their sort?

SILVANA: Near enough to share their conquest here.

ARIEL: Their fate indeed you may yet share,
For there are but few ways a conqueror ends.
I shall tell you secrets that heretofore
The island only had been to keep.
Know how I cast off the yokes that held me,
Know why the witch and mage are gone:
I killed Sycorax, and the old man
Became my friend. And which of these,
O green sorceress, are you fitter now to meet?

(Pause.)

ARIEL: Think on that before you lay your trap.

(Exit ARIEL in a flurry.)

Comments

[crearespero.livejournal.com]

I am so honoured and pleased and delighted that you took inspiration from my thing to make this thing :). Awesomeness.

[crazyprogrammer.livejournal.com]

I've always rather liked Ariel. This was fun :)

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you!