La Princesse jaune

Synopsis

A Dutch interior. 

Léna returns home hoping to find her cousin Kornélis, who has been living with the family since his parents died. She expresses her annoyance and jealousy on seeing a Japanese print that the young man seems to have fallen in love with. A poem written by her cousin to Ming, the princess in the picture, confirms her suspicions. Kornélis enters and Léna tells him her of her anxiety, but he merely replies by praising the beauty of the Japan he dreams of. When she begins to examine the vials he has brought back, he takes them from her hands and withdraws to his room. In a fit of pique, Léna decides to leave the family home. Kornélis returns after she has left. According to one of his books, a magic philtre can grant all the wishes of the person who drinks it: he hopes to bring the Japanese picture to life... Having concocted and drunk the potion, he sinks into a delirium of love and then collapses in his armchair. Léna, who has finally resolved to stay, returns just as Kornélis’s hallucination begins again: in the room, which he thinks has been transformed into a Japanese interior, Léna appears to him to be dressed like the woman in the portrait. He declares his love for her and Léna, touched, replies that she loves him. However, she eludes his embrace when he tries to steal a kiss from her and takes offence when he addresses her as Ming: she realises, on seeing the remains of the potion, that his words of love were not intended for her. Furious, she drags Kornélis in front of the print, but he no longer finds it as charming: the love he saw in Léna’s eyes during his delirium now seems to him to be much more attractive. As he declares his passion to his cousin, she initially laughs at him and repulses him, but then yields willingly.