8. I Present Doctor Vysarius
[Enter the VALET in cloak and doublet of dark velvet—bloodless, effete, and exuding an altogether corpse-like elegance. He stands before the gathered court and bows.]
VALET.
Dread sovereign!
[Pause.]
MAXIMILIAN, coquettishly.
. . . Who, me?
VALET.
Imperial majesty, I present Doctor Vysarius!
[The COURTIERS part to reveal this unhappy figure—DOCTOR VYSARIUS. He has appeared in the midst of them, like the Red Death. He is tall – impossibly so, and his dark robes and long, stony mask lend him the air of some jet black, solitary tower, erected suddenly and mysteriously there in the sighing bulk of the particolored gentry. He faces the emperor and bows slowly, precisely, perfectly.]
MAXIMILIAN.
What is this?
[Everything slows. VYSARIUS approaches the throne. COURTIERS chant as in a trance.]
Your mask . . .
COURTIERS.
His mask, his mask . . .
MAXIMILIAN.
. . . is strange.
COURTIERS.
. . . is strange, is strange, is strange . . .
VALET.
It is a vizard, sire,
Such that your ladies, fair,
Are often wont to wear
To keep fair-flesh un-sunned.
COURTIERS.
Un-sunned!
MAXIMILIAN.
Why, he likes not light?
VALET.
Likes light well,
But not so well
To have it shine
Upon his face;
Not his design
But custom to his race.
LEOPOLD.
What race is that?
VALET.
…He’s from another land!
COURTIERS.
Another land, another land . . .
VALET.
Has heard your praises, sire,
Rung out without relief
In such a distant seat
As he alone could hear them.
MAXIMILIAN.
Praises? Let me hear them!
VALET.
That this house be center
To all mannish pride,
Thy court, the middle-chamber
Of a world so wide.
MAXIMILIAN.
Why! Is it not so?
COURTIERS.
Not so, not so, not so . . .
LEOPOLD, to Vysarius.
You are a doctor?
COURTIERS.
Doctor, doctor, doctor . . .
VALET.
Of living tissues,
Of body and of mind!
LEOPOLD.
He will not speak?
COURTIERS.
Not-speak, not-speak, not-speak . . .
VALET.
A function of his visor,
Not held by strap, but
Fixed with a button
Clenched in his teeth.
LEOPOLD.
And that is well, but I would hear him speak.
VALET, meaningfully.
He speaks,
Only listen,
You shall hear.
MAXIMILIAN.
I am curious,
Doctor Vysarius,
How shall you serve my court?
VALET, with a grand waving of arms.
Astrology, alchemy, augury!
COURTIERS.
O!
LEOPOLD, spitefully.
Magician!
[VYSARIUS slowly turns to regard LEOPOLD.]
VALET.
“You say so.”