As VIVIANE laughs and cavorts, amused by the essentially harmless (though frightening and confusing) activities of her servants, MERLIN chides her, saying that humans don't deserve to be gratuitously tormented. He reminds her that he is himself half human: his father was an incubus, a spirit of the air, but his mother was mortal. He adds that humans are capable of as much nobility and generosity as any creatures. VIVIANE disagrees:
Their birth is bloodstained, greed devours their souls.
Forging in shame religions out of dread,
they shun no cruelty.
Pain is their faith.
What man cannot control
he must destroy.
Vile envy grinds
their vengeful hearts to dust.
The beasts in the wood, though wild, are nobler-
there is no scourge of Nature worse than man!
MERLIN Act I, Scene I (excerpt)
P.1999 Radio-France.
© 1998 TLON EDITIONS. All rights reserved.