Scene 2
Wedding Night

(Enter Mother Lee in rich attire.)

Mother (Singing to the tune of Riverside Daffodils ) :

In short spring coat with uprolled sleeves,

I play on lute,bewildered amid flowers and leaves.

I draw up curtain new

Lest its golden threads keep orchid boat out of view.

I am Mother Lee.My daughter Fragrant has come of age and I am worried day and night to find for her a life companion.Fortunately our friend Yang Longyou has introduced to us Master Hou Chaozong(Fangyu)of a noble family,an ace of the young scholars,who came to the box party the other day.Today is an auspicious day for their wedding,a sumptuous feast is provided and happy music will be played by the band,honorable guests are invited and beautiful sisters have gathered here.How much labor for such a happy day!

(Calling)Where is the maid?

Maid (Coming fan in hand) :

I make fun in the feast and in the bowers,

And overhear the lovers amid flowers.

Dear Mother Lee,are you calling me for the coverlet and pillows?

Mother (Angry) : Today is Fragrant’s wedding day,and the bridegroom will soon be here.How can you be still dreaming away your time?Why not draw up the curtain and sweep the floor clean and put chairs and tables in order?

Maid: Oh,yes,it will soon be done.

(Mother Lee gives orders for the arrangement.)

(Enter Yang Wencong[Longyou]in new dress.)

Yang (Singing to the tune of A Sprig of Flowers ) :

Peach blossoms red as brocade fine

Intoxicate as beauty’s wine.

The phoenix spreads its golden wing

To beautify the noonday spring.

From golden cup comes wit,

The incense burner lit.

Who will enjoy the pure delight

Of the rosy-sleeved beauty fair and bright?

I am Yang Wencong coming with the dowry for Fragrant Lee.

(Calling)Where is Mother Lee?

Mother: Welcome!Many thanks for your arrangement of Fragrant’s marriage.Now the wedding feast is ready.Why has the bridegroom not yet come?

Yang: I think he will soon be here.(Smiling)I have brought with me the dowry for Fragrant.Will you please let me show you?(Boxes large and small of the dowry are brought in.)Carry them to the nuptial chamber and put them in order!

Mother(Happy) :A thousand thanks cannot express my hearty gratitude.

Yang(Taking out silver coins) :Here are thirty pieces of silver for the expenditure of the feast.

Mother: I do not know how to express my gratitude.

(Calling)Fragrant,come out at once!

(Enter Fragrant in splendid attire.)

Show our gratitude for Master Yang,whose generosity is beyond our thanks.

(Fragrant bows to show her gratitude.)

Yang: Your beauty is worth much more than these humble gifts.Please do not mention it.I dare not delay you here long.Will you please not be disturbed?(Exit Fragrant.)

(Enter a servant.)

Servant(Announcing) :Here comes the bridegroom.

(Enter Master Hou in splendid attire,followed by attendants)

Hou: Though not a winner of laurel crown,

From the moon palace I am coming down.

(Yang and Mother Lee salute Hou.)

Yang: Congratulations,my dear Master Hou!

What more felicity can fall on you

Than to win a beauty incomparable in view!

I offer a humble dowry to show my delight

In your felicitous wedding night.

Hou(Saluting with clasped hands) :I have owed you so much that I do not know how to repay you.

Mother: Will you please sit down and drink tea?

(Tea is served.They sit down and drink.)

Yang: Is the wedding feast well arranged?

Mother: It is arranged in compliance with your order.

Yang(Saluting Hou with clasped hands) :Today is your happy wedding day,I should not divert your attention by my presence.So I beg to take leave and tomorrow I will come again for congratulations.

Hou: The longer you stay,the happier we shall be.

Yang: I would not divert your happy attention.(Exit.)

Announcer: Will it please the bridegroom to change his dress?

(Hou changes for the wedding attire.)

Mother: I beg to leave you for Fragrant’s attire and preparations for the wedding feast.(Exit.)

(Enter three guests:Ding Jizhi,Shen Gongxian and Zhang Yanzhu.)

Guests: We spend our life with flowers under the moon,

Play music light and sing to joyful tune.

Ding: I am Ding Jizhi.

Shen: I am Shen Gongxian.

Zhang: I am Zhang Yanzhu.

Ding: Today is Master Hou’s wedding day,so I am obliged to come early.

Zhang: Do you know which songstresses are invited in our company?

Shen: Can it be other than the famed sisters of the delightful resort?

Zhang: Should I pay for the expenditure?

Ding: Could you afford to pay so much?

Zhang: Heaven helps those who help themselves.Master Hou need not pay the expenditure.

Shen: Do not talk too much!Master Hou is now in his wedding dress.Let us go to the hall for congratulations.

All(Saluting Hou with clasped hands) :Congratulations,congratulations!

Hou: Let us share the delight together!

(Enter three courtesans:Jade Bian,White Kou and Safe Zheng.)

Courtesans: Drunken in love,we spread as grass all the way;

Like willow-down we’re busy all the day.

(They salute Hou and other guests.)

Zhang: Are you all famed songstresses?Would you please tell us your name?

Zheng: Are you master in charge of musicians?Why should we tell our names to you?

Hou(Smiling) :Excuse us for our ignorance of your high fame.

Bian: I am Jade Bian.

Hou: You are indeed a fairy from the Jade Capital.

Kou: I am White Kou.

Hou: You are really as tender as the willow of White Gate.

Zheng: I am Safe Zheng.

Hou(Hesitating) :It is indeed safe…

Zhang: It is not safe,not safe at all.

Zheng: Why not safe?Why not?

Zhang: How can I feel safe when you flirt with a new gallant?

Zheng: If I did not satisfy a new gallant,could I be satisfied with you?(All burst in laughter.)

Bian: The bridegroom is already here.Why is the bride late?

(Enter Fragrant Lee,accompanied by White Kou and Safe Zheng.)

Shen: Music should be played for the congratulatory ceremony.

(Ding,Zhang,Shen and musicians play the wedding music.)

(Hou and Fragrant salute each other.)

Zheng: In accordance with the custom of the green mansions,there should be no wedding ceremony but a wedding feast.(Hou and Fragrant take the honorable seats,Ding,Shen,Zhang on their left and White Kou,Jade Bian and Safe Zheng on their right.Wine is served.Guests on the left hold up their cups and those on the right play music.)

Hou (Singing to the tune of Liangzhou Prelude ):

We read verse and prose as we please

Among flowers and willow trees.

What felicity is on the way

For us today?

My blue gown clings to you,

As happy as the poet in Yangzhou.

I ponder how

To pencil your green brow,

And how to play on flute and sing

Of happiness in spring.

You bring fresh shower

For my long thirsting flower.

The setting sun on the decline,

I have just drunk a cup of wine.

(Guests on the right hold up their cups and those on the left play music.)

Fragrant (Singing to the previous tune ) :

The flower shivers,if you please;

The screen is wrinkled with the breeze.

In face of such a hero as you,

Boundless is spring in view.

My golden hairpin can’t adorn my head,

It’s not so charming as a flower red,

Nor so fragrant as wild grass green.

It cannot beautify the bride behind the screen.

Tonight the candle flame will redden the curtained bed.

Even a veteran would feel shy at the sight.

What can I say for my first night?

Ding: Behold!The sun is sinking behind yonder hills and crows are hovering over their nest.It is time to see the newly-weds to their nuptial bed.

Shen: No hurry.Master Hou is the talent of the day,while Fragrant is the incomparable beauty of the age.Their wedding is celebrated with wine.How could there be no verse to celebrate their love?

Zhang: You are right.Let me get ink and paper ready for Master Hou to write.

Hou: You need not prepare any paper,for I have brought a palace fan as my gift for Fragrant and I may write my verse on it to eternalize this memorable night.

Zheng: Good!I will hold the inkstand in my hand.

Kou: You are not a hand to hold the inkstand but to take off the boots of the drunken.

Bian: Only Fragrant’s hand is qualified to hold the fragrant inkstand.

All: That is right.

(Fragrant holds the inkstand for Hou to write on the fan.)

All (Reading) : A slanting way leads to a crimson bower;

The prince drives his carriage in search of the flower.

Along the stream stand only withered trees;

They lead to the peach blooming in the eastern breeze.

All: Who could be sought after but Fragrant?

(Fragrant puts the fan into her sleeve.)

Zheng: We are not as good as the peach blooming in the eastern breeze.But are we already withered trees?

Zhang: Even withered trees may bloom again when comes spring.

Zheng: Then let the withered trees

Bloom in rain and in breeze!

(Enter a servant with a billet.)

Servant: Here comes a poem from Master Yang.

Hou (Taking the poem and singing) :

Fragrant while young is fairer than we can believe;

She is too tender to be hidden in the sleeve.

Why should the fairy come down from Witch Mountain proud

To bring fresh shower for the dreaming prince like a cloud?

(Smiling)Master Yang is still as young as his name.Though old,he has not forgotten the nuptial bed.

Zhang: When he says Fragrant can be hidden in the sleeve,is he not comparing her to the fan pendant?

(All burst in laughter.)

Ding: Let us play music and drink to the newly-weds and offer our best wishes!

Zheng: Only when tipsy can they enjoy the nuptial night all the better.

(All play music and the newly-weds drink their nuptial cups.)

Hou and Fragrant (Singing together to the tune of Higher and Higher ) :

Golden cup full of wine,

We drink till the sun is on the decline.

Hand in hand,with eyebrows so slender,

And skin so tender,

We wish the nuptial night to be endless.

But how could we before all unbutton our dress?

We’d wait till over is the feast,

Dim is lamplight and mute the water clock at least.

Ding: Listen!The drumbeats announce the second watch.It is late now.We must withdraw from the feast.

Zhang: How can we leave such good wine undrunk?

Zheng: I have not eaten enough.Would you please wait a little longer?

Bian: Do not disturb the happy night of the newly-weds!Let us play wedding music and see the bride and the bride-groom to their nuptial chamber!

(Wedding music is played for their departure.)

All (Singing to the previous tune ):

The lute and flute are played in painted bower

To celebrate the happy hour.

Dim lamplight turns the night into spring day.

The lovers on their way

With hand in hand

To the fairy dreamland.

Incense permeates the curtained bed,

Envy is aroused in green eyes and frowning forehead.

Seeing the drunken lovers would intoxicate.

Who would not be the beloved mate?

(Exeunt the lovers hand in hand in lantern light.)

Zhang: Let us go to bed in pairs!

Zheng: Do you dream to sleep with me without paying in cash!

(Zhang gives her ten coins,and Zheng counts before they withdraw.)

All (Singing the Epilogue ) :

The moons old and new shine alike on River Qinhuai;

The water stained with rouge and powder eastward goes by.

From night to night the joy of love spreads far and nigh.

Ding: Flowers bloom and water flows by the southern shore.

Kou: Arriving at Qinhuai,lovers feel sorrow no more.

Shen: They do not care if war flames rise far,far away.

Bian: The midnight drinking song in their heart will long stay.

(Exeunt.) BGVm6OxGKyKEGndOrjxZDyFp/Zxrhnue2BTPqhiOlv0WEBSvXVCqj8WmWtjwgTDk