DAVID BELASCO, JOHN LUTHER LONG
657
gettin'—I have still of those large American cigarette.
(Madame Butterfly gestures towards Pinkerton's tobacco jar decorated with the flag of his country.)
Sharpless. (Accepting a cigarette while she fills her pipe.) Thanks. I 'm on a little visit of inquiry, Madame Butterfly,—your name, I believe in our language. Lieutenant Pinkerton wrote to me to find out—
Madame Butterfly. (Almost breathless.) Ah, you have hear from him? He is well?
Sharpless. O, he's all right.
Madame Butterfly. (Relieved.) Ah! Tha's mak' me mos' bes' happy female woman in Japan—mebby in that whole worl'—w'at you thing?
Sharpless. Ha—ha! (Puffing at the cigarette.) Sawdust. Pinkerton must have left these!
Madame Butterfly. O! I so glad you came. . . . I goin' as' you a liddle question.
Sharpless. Well?
Madame Butterfly. You know 'bout birds in those your country?
Sharpless. Something.
Madame Butterfly. Tha's what I thing—you know aeverything. Tha's why your country sen' you here.
Sharpless. You flatter me.
Madame Butterfly. O, no, you got big head.
Sharpless. Pinkerton again—I can hear him!
Madame Butterfly. O, aexcuse me: I forgettin' my manners. I got liddle more raddle. (She offers him her pipe which he gravely touches, returning it. She touches it again, then puts it down.) Now, what you know 'bout jus' robins?
Sharpless. What?
Madame Butterfly. 'Bout when do they nes' again? Me, I thing it mus' be mor' early in Japan as in America, accoun' they nestin' here now.
Sharpless. O, at the same time I fancy.
Madame Butterfly. (Disappointed.) Yaes? . . . then they's nestin' there. (Then taking hope again.) Sa-ey, I tell you—perhaps some time sooner, some time later, jus' how they feel like.
Sharpless. Possibly. Why do you ask?
Madame Butterfly. Because Lef-ten-ant B. F. Pik-ker-ton say he will come back to me w'en the robins nes' again.
Sharpless. (To himself.) Poor devil! One of his infernal jokes.
Madame Butterfly. (Clapping her hands.) Me, I thing it's time. . . . I 've wait so long.
(Suzuki enters with a tea-pot. Madame Butterfly gives Sharpless a cup of tea.)
Nakodo. (Appearing at the door.) Tea, most illustrious?
Madame Butterfly. Ah! Enter, Nakodo. Your presence lights up my entire house. (She gives him a cup. Accepting it, he goes up to a cushion and sits.) Tha's bad man. W'en my husban's gone 'way, he try for get me marry again.
Nakodo. The rich Yamadori. Madame Cho-Cho-San is very poor.
Madame Butterfly. (Bowing politely.) O, liddle ol' frien'; those are my business.
Nakodo. Rejected advice makes the heart sad.
Madame Butterfly. We-el, if those heart hurt you so much, you better not arrive here no more.
Sharpless. Madame Butterfly; may I ask—er—where are your people?
Nakodo. They have outcasted her!
Madame Butterfly. Sa-ey, tha's foanny! My people make me marry when I don' want; now I am marry, they don' want. Before I many Lef-ten-ant B. F. Pik-ker-ton, my honorable Father—(she bows low—Nakodo bows—Sharpless bows) die—he's officer. These are his sword . . . (pointing to an inscription) 't is written. . . .
(She holds out the sword that the inscription may be read.)
Nakodo. (Reading.) "To die with honor, when one can no longer live with honor." (He bows, then turns and bows towards the shrine and goes back to his cushion where he sits.)
Madame Butterfly. He's kill' himself accoun' he soldier of Emporer an' defeat in battle. Then we get—ver' poor. Me? I go dance liddle. Also I thing if some rich man wish me, I gettin' marry for while, accoun' my grandmother, (she bows respectfully—Nakodo bows—Sharpless politely nods) don' got no food, no obi. Then ol' Nakodo, he say a (Nakodo picks up his cushion and moves down to join in the conversation) man's jus' as' him for nice wive for three monse. Nakodo tell him he don' know none more nizer as me.
