THE FEMALE FIGURE. And if any say unto you 'Which one?' remember that though there is one person of the king and one of the queen, yet these two persons are not alike, but are woman and man, and that as woman was created after man, the skill and practice gained in making him were added to her, wherefore she is to be exalted above him in all personal respects, and—
THE MALE FIGURE. Peace, woman; for this is a damnable heresy. Both Man and Woman are what they are and must do what they must according to the eternal laws of Cause and Effect. Look to your words; for if they enter my ear and jar too repugnantly on my sensorium, who knows that the inevitable response to that stimulus may not be a message to my muscles to snatch up some heavy object and break you in pieces.
The Female Figure picks up a stone and is about to throw it at her consort.
ARJILLAX [springing up and shouting to Pygmalion, who is fondly watching the Male Figure] Look out, Pygmalion! Look at the woman!
Pygmalion, seeing what is happening, hurls himself on the Female Figure and wrenches the stone out of her hand. All spring up in consternation.
ARJILLAX. She meant to kill him.
STREPHON. This is horrible.
THE FEMALE FIGURE [wrestling with Pygmalion] Let me go. Let me go, will you [she bites his hand].
PYGMALION [releasing her and staggering] Oh!
A general shriek of horror echoes his exclamation. He turns deadly pale, and supports himself against the end of the curved seat.
THE FEMALE FIGURE [to her consort] You would stand there and let me be treated like this, you unmanly coward.
Pygmalion falls dead.
THE NEWLY BORN. Oh! Whats the matter? Why did he fall! What has happened to him?
They look on anxiously as Martellus kneels down and examines the body of Pygmalion.
MARTELLUS. She has bitten a piece out of his hand nearly as large as a finger nail: enough to kill ten men. There is no pulse, no breath.
ECRASIA. But his thumb is clinched.
MARTELLUS. No: it has just straightened out. See! He has gone. Poor Pygmalion!
THE NEWLY BORN. Oh! [She weeps].
STREPHON. Hush, dear: thats childish.
THE NEWLY BORN [subsiding with a sniff]!!
MARTELLUS [rising] Dead in his third year. What a loss to Science!
ARJILLAX. Who cares about Science? Serve him right for making that pair of horrors!
THE MALE FIGURE [glaring] Ha!
THE FEMALE FIGURE. Keep a civil tongue in your head, you.
THE NEWLY BORN. Oh, do not be so unkind, Arjillax. You will make water come out of my eyes again.
MARTELLUS [contemplating the Figures] Just look at these two devils. I modelled them out of the stuff Pygmalion made for them. They are masterpieces of art. And see what they have done! Does that convince you of the value of art, Arjillax!
STREPHON. They look dangerous. Keep away from them.
ECRASIA. No need to tell us that, Strephon. Pf! They poison the air.
THE MALE FIGURE. Beware, woman. The wrath of Ozymandias strikes like the lightning.
THE FEMALE FIGURE. You just say that again if you dare, you filthy creature.
ACIS. What are you going to do with them, Martellus? You are responsible for them, now that Pygmalion has gone.
MARTELLUS. If they were marble it would be simple enough: I could smash them. As it is, how am I to kill them without making a horrible mess?
THE MALE FIGURE [posing heroically] Ha! [He declaims]
Come one: come all: this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I.
THE FEMALE FIGURE [fondly] My man! My hero husband! I am proud of you. I love you.
MARTELLUS. We must send out a message for an ancient.
ACIS. Need we bother an ancient about such a trifle? It will take less than half a second to reduce our poor Pygmalion to a pinch of dust. Why not calcine the two along with him?
MARTELLUS. No: the two automata are trifles; but the use of our powers of destruction is never a trifle. I had rather have the case judged.
The He-Ancient emerges from the grove. The Figures are panic-stricken.
THE HE-ANCIENT [mildly] Am I wanted? I feel called. [Seeing the body of Pygmalion, and immediately taking a sterner tone] What! A child lost! A life wasted! How has this happened?
THE FEMALE FIGURE [frantically] I didn't do it. It was not me. May I be struck dead if I touched him! It was he [pointing to the Male Figure].
ALL [amazed at the lie] Oh!
THE MALE FIGURE. Liar. You bit him. Everyone here saw you do it.
THE HE-ANCIENT. Silence. [Going between the Figures] Who made these two loathsome dolls?
THE MALE FIGURE [trying to assert himself with his knees knocking] My name is Ozymandias, king of—
THE HE-ANCIENT [with a contemptuous gesture] Pooh!
THE MALE FIGURE [falling on his knees] Oh dont, sir. Dont. She did it, sir: indeed she did.
THE FEMALE FIGURE [howling lamentably] Boohoo! oo! ooh!
THE HE-ANCIENT. Silence, I say.
He knocks the Male Automaton upright by a very light flip under the chin. The Female Automaton hardly dares to sob. The immortals contemplate them with shame and loathing. The She-Ancient comes from the trees opposite the temple.
THE SHE-ANCIENT. Somebody wants me. What is the matter? [She comes to the left hand of the Female Figure, not seeing the body of Pygmalion]. Pf! [Severely] You have been making dolls. You must not: they are not only disgusting: they are dangerous.
THE FEMALE FIGURE [snivelling piteously] I'm not a doll, mam. I'm only poor Cleopatra-Semiramis, queen of queens. [Covering her face with her hands] Oh, don't look at me like that, mam. I meant no harm. He hurt me: indeed he did.
THE HE-ANCIENT. The creature has killed that poor youth.
THE SHE-ANCIENT [seeing the body of Pygmalion] What! This clever child, who promised so well!
THE FEMALE FIGURE. He made me. I had as much right to kill him as he had to make me. And how was I to know that a little thing like that would kill him? I shouldn't die if he cut off my arm or leg.
ECRASIA. What nonsense!
MARTELLUS. It may not be nonsense. I daresay if you cut off her leg she would grow another, like the lobsters and the little lizards.
THE HE-ANCIENT. Did this dead boy make these two things?
MARTELLUS. He made them in his laboratory. I moulded their limbs. I am sorry. I was thoughtless: I did not foresee that they would kill and pretend to be persons they were not, and declare things that were false, and wish evil. I thought they would be merely mechanical fools.
THE MALE FIGURE. Do you blame us for our human nature?
THE FEMALE FIGURE. We are flesh and blood and not angels.
THE MALE FIGURE. Have you no hearts?
ARJILLAX. They are mad as well as mischievous. May we not destroy them?
STREPHON. We abhor them.
THE