{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_11283/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_11283","id":"gutenberg_11283","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11283","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Plays/Films/Dramas","Fantasy","Fantasy drama, English","One Act Plays"],"text":"Title: Plays of Gods and Men\n\nAuthor: Lord Dunsany\n\n[Note: this edition was prepared from the 1917 Unwin edition. Later\nUS editions had many minor changes and an additional page of dialogue\nin \"The Laughter of the Gods\".]\n\nPreface\n\nLest any idle person might think that I have had time to write plays\nduring the last few years I may mention that the first act of _The\nTents of the Arabs_ was written on September 3rd, and the second act on\nSeptember 8th, 1910.\n\nThe first and second acts of _The Laughter of the Gods_ were written on\nJanuary 29th, and the third act on February 2nd and 3rd, 1911. _A Night\nat an Inn_ was written on January 17th, 1912, and _The Queen's Enemies_\non April 19, 20, 21, 24, 28, 29, 1913.\n\n                                         Dunsany, Captain\n                                         Royal Inniskilling Fusileers.\n\nThe Laughter of the Gods\n\nA Tragedy in Three Acts\n\nDramatis Person\u00e6\n\nKing Karnos\nVoice-of-the-Gods (a prophet)\nIchtharion\nLudibras\nHarpagas\nFirst Sentry\nSecond Sentry\nOne of the Camel Guard\nAn Executioner\nThe Queen\nTharmia (wife of Ichtharion)\nArolind (wife of Ludibras)\nCarolyx (wife of Harpagas)\nAttendants\n\nAct I\n\nTime: About the time of the decadence in Babylon.\n\nScene: The jungle city of Thek in the reign of King Karnos.\n\nTharmia:\n\nYou know that my lineage is almost divine.\n\nArolind:\n\nMy father's sword was so terrible that he had to hide it with a cloak.\n\nTharmia:\n\nHe probably did that because there were no jewels in the scabbard.\n\nArolind:\n\nThere were emeralds in it that outstared the sea.\n\n*       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTharmia:\n\nNow I must leave you here and go down among the shops for I have not\nchanged my hair since we came to Thek.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHave you not brought that from Barbul-el-Sharnak?\n\nTharmia:\n\nIt was not necessary. The King would not take his court where they\ncould not obtain necessities.\n\nArolind:\n\nMay I go with your Sincerity?\n\nTharmia:\n\nIndeed, Princely Lady, I shall be glad of your company.\n\nArolind:\n\n[To Ludibras] I wish to see the other palaces in Thek, [To Tharmia]\nthen we can go on beyond the walls to see what princes live in the\nneighbourhood.\n\nTharmia:\n\nIt will be delightful.\n\n    [Exeunt Tharmia and Arolind]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWell, we are here in Thek.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHow lucky we are that the King has come to Thek. I feared he would\nnever come.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIt is a most fair city.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhen he tarried year after year in monstrous Barbul-el-Sharnak, I\nfeared that I would see the sun rise never more in the windy glorious\ncountry. I feared we should live always in Barbul-el-Sharnak and be\nburied among houses.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIt is mountainous with houses: there are no flowers there. I wonder how\nthe winds come into it.\n\nLudibras:\n\nAh. Do you know that it is I that brought him here at last? I gave him\norchids from a far country. At last he noticed them. \"Those are good\nflowers,\" said he. \"They come from Thek,\" I said. \"Thek is purple with\nthem. It seems purple far out on the sand to the camel men.\" Then...\n\nIchtharion:\n\nNo, it was not you brought him. He saw a butterfly once in\nBarbul-el-Sharnak. There had not been one there for seven years. It\nwas lucky for us that it lived; I used to send for hundreds, but they\nall died but that one when they came to Barbul-el-Sharnak. The King\nsaw it.\n\nLudibras:\n\nIt was since then that he noticed my purple orchids.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nSomething changed in his mind when he saw the butterfly. He became\nquite different. He would not have noticed a flower but for that.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHe came to Thek in order to see the orchids.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nCome, come. We are here. Nothing else matters.\n\nLudibras:\n\nYes, we are here. How beautiful are the orchids.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWhat a beautiful thing the air is in the morning. I stand up very early\nand breathe it from my casement; not in order to nourish my body, you\nunderstand, but because it is the wild, sweet air of Thek.\n\nLudibras:\n\nYes, it is wonderful rising up in the morning. It seems all fresh from\nthe fields.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIt took us two days to ride out of Bar-el-Sharnak. Do you remember how\nmen stared at our camels? No one had gone away from the city for years.\n\nLudibras:\n\nI think it is not easy to leave a great city. It seems to grow thicker\naround you, and you forget the fields.\n\nIchtharion: [looking off]\n\nThe jungle is like a sea lying there below us. The orchids that blaze\non it are like Tyrian ships, all rich with purple of that wonderful\nfish; they have even dyed their sails with it.\n\nLudibras:\n\nThey are not like ships because they do not move. They are like... They\nare like no tangible thing in all the world. They are like faint,\nbeautiful songs of an unseen singer; they are like temptations to some\nunknown sin. They make me think of the tigers that slip through the\ngloom below them.\n\n    [Enter Harpagas and a Noble of the Court, with spears and leather\n    belts.]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWhere are you going?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nWe are going hunting.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHunting! How beautiful!\n\nHarpagas:\n\nA little street goes down from the palace door; the other end of it\ntouches the very jungle.\n\nLudibras:\n\nO, heavenly city of Thek.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHave you ever before gone hunting?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nNo; I have dreamed of it. In Barbul-el-Sharnak I nearly forgot my\ndream.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nMan was not made for cities. I did not know this once.\n\nLudibras:\n\nI will come with you.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI will come with you, too. We will go down by the little street, and\nthere will be the jungle. I will fetch a spear as we go.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhat shall we hunt in the jungle?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nThey say there are kroot and abbax; and tigers, some say, have been\nheard of.\n\nNoble:\n\nWe must never go back to Barbul-el-Sharnak again.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYou may rely on us.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWe shall keep the King in Thek.\n\n    [Exeunt, leaving two sentries standing beside the throne.]\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nThey are all very glad to be in Thek. I, too, am glad.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nIt is a very little city. Two hundred of these cities would not build\nBarbul-el-Sharnak.\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nNo. But it is a finer palace, and Barbul-el-Sharnak is the centre of\nthe world; men have drawn together there.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nI did not know there was a palace like this outside Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nIt was built in the days of the forefathers. They built palaces in\nthose days.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nThey must be in the jungle by now. It is quite close. How glad they\nwere to go.\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nYes, they were glad. Men do not hunt for tigers in Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\n    [Enter Tharmia and Arolind weeping.]\n\nTharmia:\n\nO it is terrible.\n\nArolind:\n\nO! O! O!\n\n1st Sentry: [To 2nd Sentry]\n\nSomething has happened.\n\n    [Enter Carolyx.]\n\nCarolyx:\n\nWhat is it, princely ladies?\n\n[To Sentries] Go. Go away.\n\n    [Exeunt Sentries.]\n\nWhat has happened?\n\nTharmia:\n\nO. We went down a little street.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nYes. Yes.\n\nArolind:\n\nThe main street of the city.\n\n    [Both weep quietly.]\n\nCarolyx:\n\nYes? Yes? Yes?\n\nTharmia:\n\nIt ends in the jungle.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nYou went into the jungle! There must be tigers there.\n\nTharmia:\n\nNo.\n\nArolind:\n\nNo.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nWhat did you do?\n\nTharmia:\n\nWe came back.\n\nCarolyx: [in a voice of anguish]\n\nWhat did you see in the street?\n\nTharmia:\n\nNothing.\n\nArolind:\n\nNothing.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nNothing?\n\nTharmia:\n\nThere are no shops.\n\nArolind:\n\nWe cannot buy new hair.\n\nTharmia:\n\nWe cannot buy [sobs] gold-dust to put upon our hair.\n\nArolind:\n\nThere are no [sobs] neighbouring princes.\n\n    [Carolyx bursts bitterly into tears and continues to weep.]\n\nTharmia:\n\nBarbul-el-Sharnak, Barbul-el-Sharnak. O why did the King leave\nBarbul-el-Sharnak?\n\nArolind:\n\nBarbul-el-Sharnak. Its streets were all of agate.\n\nTharmia:\n\nAnd there were shops where one bought beautiful hair.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nThe King must go at once.\n\nTharmia: [calmer now.]\n\nHe shall go tomorrow. My husband shall speak to him.\n\nArolind:\n\nPerhaps my husband might have more influence.\n\nTharmia and Arolind:\n\nMy husband brought him here.\n\nTharmia:\n\nWhat!\n\nArolind:\n\nNothing. What did you say?\n\nTharmia:\n\nI said nothing. I thought you spoke.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nIt may be better for my husband to persuade him, for he was ever\nopposed to his coming to Thek.\n\nTharmia: [To Arolind]\n\nHe could have but little influence with His Majesty since the King\n_has_ come to Thek.\n\nArolind:\n\nNo. It will be better for our husbands to arrange it.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nI myself have some influence with the Queen.\n\nTharmia:\n\nIt is of no use. Her nerves are all a-quiver. She weeps if you speak\nwith her. If you argue a matter with her she cries aloud and maidens\nmust come and fan her and put scent on her hands.\n\nArolind:\n\nShe never leaves her chamber and the King would not listen to her.\n\nTharmia:\n\nHark, they are coming back. They are singing a hunting song.... why,\nthey have killed a beast. All four of the men are bringing it on two\nbranches.\n\nArolind: [bored]\n\nWhat kind of beast is it?\n\nTharmia:\n\nI do not know. It seems to have barbed horns.\n\nCarolyx:\n\nWe must go and meet them.\n\n    [The song is loud and joyous.]\n\n    [Exeunt by the way that the Sentries went.]\n\n    [Enter Sentries.]\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nWhatever it is has passed away again for they were smiling.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nThey feared that their husbands were lost and now they return in\nsafety.\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nYou do not know, for you do not understand women.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nI understand them quite as well as you.\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nThat is what I say. You do not understand them. I do not understand\nthem.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\n......Oh. [A pause.]\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nWe shall never leave Thek now.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nWhy shall we never leave it?\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nDid you not hear how glad they were when they sang the hunting song?\nThey say a wild dog does not turn from the trail, they will go on\nhunting now.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nBut will the King stay here?\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nHe only does what Ichtharion and Ludibras persuade him. He does not\nlisten to the Queen.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nThe Queen is mad.\n\n1st Sentry:\n\nShe is not mad but she has a curious sickness, she is always frightened\nthough there is nothing to fear.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nThat would be a dreadful sickness; one would fear that the roof might\nfall on one from above or the earth break in pieces beneath. I would\nrather be mad than to fear things like that.\n\n1st Sentry: [looking straight before him]\n\nHush.\n\n    [Enter King and retinue. He sits on the throne. Enter from\n    other side Ichtharion, Ludibras, and Harpagas, each with his\n    wife beside him, hand in hand. Each couple bows before the\n    King, still hand in hand; then they seat themselves. The King\n    nods once to each couple.]\n\nKing: [To Tharmia]\n\nWell, your Sincerity, I trust that you are glad to have come to Thek.\n\nTharmia:\n\nVery glad, your Majesty.\n\nKing: [To Arolind]\n\nThis is pleasanter, is it not, than Barbul-el-Sharnak?\n\nArolind:\n\nFar pleasanter, your Majesty.\n\nKing:\n\nAnd you, princely lady Carolyx, find all that you need in Thek?\n\nCarolyx: More than all, your Majesty.\n\nKing: [To Harpagas]\n\nThen we can stay here long, can we not?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nThere are reasons of State why that were dangerous.\n\nKing:\n\nReasons of State? Why should we not stay here?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nYour Majesty, there is a legend in the World, that he who is greatest\nin the city of Barbul-el-Sharnak is the greatest in the world.\n\nKing:\n\nI had not heard that legend.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nYour Majesty, little legends do not hive in the sacred ears of kings;\nnevertheless they hum among lesser men from generation to generation.\n\nKing:\n\nI will not go for a legend to Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nYour Majesty, it is very dangerous....\n\nKing: [To Ladies]\n\nWe will discuss things of State which little interest your Sincerities.\n\nTharmia: [rising]\n\nYour Majesty, we are ignorant of these things.\n\n    [Exeunt.]\n\nKing: [To Ichtharion and Ludibras]\n\nWe will rest from things of State for awhile, shall we not? We will be\nhappy, (shall we not?) in this ancient beautiful palace.\n\nLudibras:\n\nIf your Majesty commands, we must obey.\n\nKing:\n\nBut is not Thek most beautiful? Are not the jungle orchids a wonder and\na glory?\n\nLudibras:\n\nThey have been thought so, your Majesty; they were pretty in\nBarbul-el-Sharnak where they were rare.\n\nKing:\n\nBut when the sun comes over them in the morning, when the dew is on\nthem still; are they not glorious then? Indeed, they are very glorious.\n\nLudibras:\n\nI think they would be glorious if they were blue, and there were fewer\nof them.\n\nKing:\n\nI do not think so. But you, Ichtharion, you think the city beautiful?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYes, your Majesty.\n\nKing:\n\nAh. I am glad you love it. It is to me adorable.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI do not love it, your Majesty. I hate it very much. I know it is\nbeautiful because your Majesty has said so.\n\nLudibras:\n\nThis city is dangerously unhealthy, your Majesty.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nIt is dangerous to be absent from Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWe implore your Majesty to return to the centre of the world.\n\nKing:\n\nI will not go again to Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\n    [Exeunt King with attendants. Ichtharion, Ludibras and Harpagas\n    remain.]\n\n    [Enter Arolind and Carolyx; each goes up to her husband, very\n    affectionate.]\n\nArolind:\n\nAnd you talked to the King?\n\nLudibras:\n\nYes.\n\nArolind:\n\nYou told him he must go back to Barbul-el-Sharnak at once?\n\nLudibras:\n\nWell, I----\n\nArolind:\n\nWhen does he start?\n\nLudibras:\n\nHe did not say he will start.\n\nArolind:\n\nWhat?\n\nCarolyx:\n\nWe are not going?\n\n    [Arolind and Carolyx weep and step away from their husbands.]\n\nLudibras:\n\nBut we spoke to the King.\n\nArolind:\n\nO, we must stay and die here.\n\nLudibras:\n\nBut we did what we could.\n\nArolind:\n\nO, I shall be buried in Thek.\n\nLudibras:\n\nI can do no more.\n\nArolind:\n\nMy clothes are torn, my hair is old. I am in rags.\n\nLudibras:\n\nI am sure you are beautifully dressed.\n\nArolind: [full height]\n\nBeautifully dressed! Of course I am beautifully dressed! But who is\nthere to see me? I am alone in the jungle, and here I shall be buried.\n\nLudibras:\n\nBut----\n\nArolind:\n\nOh, will you not leave me alone? Is nothing sacred to you? Not even my\ngrief?\n\n    [Exeunt Arolind and Carolyx.]\n\nHarpagas: [To Ludibras]\n\nWhat are we to do?\n\nLudibras:\n\nAll women are alike.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI do not allow my wife to speak to me like that.\n\n    [Exeunt Harpagas and Ludibras.]\n\nI hope Tharmia will not weep; it is very distressing to see a woman in\ntears.\n\n    [Enter Tharmia.]\n\nDo not be unhappy, do not be at all unhappy. But I have been unable to\npersuade the King to return to Barbul-el-Sharnak. You will be happy\nhere after a little while.\n\nTharmia: [breaks into loud laughter]\n\n_You_ are the King's adviser. Ha-ha-ha! _You_ are the Grand High\nVizier of the Court. Ha-ha-ha. _You_ are the warder of the golden wand.\nHa-ha-ha O, go and throw biscuits to the King's dog.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWhat!\n\nTharmia:\n\nThrow little ginger biscuits to the King's dog. Perhaps he will obey\nyou. Perhaps you will have some influence with the King's dog if you\nfeed him with little biscuits. You----\n\n    [Laughs and exits. Ichtharion sits with his miserable head in his\n    hands.]\n\n    [Reenter Ludibras and Harpagas.]\n\nLudibras:\n\nHas her Sincerity, the princely Lady Tharmia, been speaking with you?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nShe spoke a few words.\n\n    [Ludibras and Harpagas sigh.]\n\nWe must leave Thek. We must depart from Thek.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhat, without the King?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nNo.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nNo. They would say in Barbul-el-Sharnak \"these were once at Court,\" and\nmen that we have flogged would spit in our faces.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWho can command a King?\n\nHarpagas:\n\nOnly the gods.\n\nLudibras:\n\nThe gods? There are no gods now. We have been civilised over three\nthousand years. The gods that nursed our infancy are dead, or gone to\nnurse younger nations.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI refuse the listen to---- O, the sentries are gone. No, the gods are\nno use to us; they were driven away by the decadence.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nWe are not in the decadence here. Barbul-el-Sharnak is in a different\nage. The city of Thek is scarcely civilised.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nBut everybody lives in Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nThe gods----\n\nLudibras:\n\nThe old prophet is coming.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nHe believes as much in the gods as you or I do.\n\nLudibras:\n\nYes, but we must not speak as though we knew that.\n\n    [Voice-of-the-Gods (a prophet) walks across the stage.]\n\nIchtharion, Ludibras, and Harpagas: [rising]\n\nThe gods are good.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThey are benignant. [exit]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nListen! Let him prophesy to the King. Let him bid the King go hence\nlest they smite the city.\n\nLudibras:\n\nCan we make him do it?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI think we can make him do it.\n\nHarpagas:\n\nThe King is more highly civilised even than we are. He will not care\nfor the gods.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHe cannot ignore them; the gods crowned his forefather and if there are\nno gods who made him King?\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhy, that is true. He must obey a prophecy.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIf the King disobeys the gods the people will tear him asunder, whether\nthe gods created the people or the people created the gods.\n\n    [Harpagas slips out after the Prophet.]\n\nLudibras:\n\nIf the King discovers this we shall be painfully tortured.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHow can the King discover it?\n\nLudibras:\n\nHe knows that there are no gods.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nNo man knows that of a certainty.\n\nLudibras:\n\nBut if there are----!\n\n    [Enter Prophet with Harpagas. Ichtharion quickly sends Ludibras and\n    Harpagas away.]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThere is a delicate matter concerning the King.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThen I can help you little for I only serve the gods.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIt also concerns the gods.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nAh. Then I hearken.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThis city is for the King, whose body is fragile, a very unhealthy\ncity. Moreover, there is no work here that a King can profitably do.\nAlso it is dangerous for Barbul-el-Sharnak to be long without a King,\nlest----\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nDoes this concern the gods?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIn this respect it does concern the gods--that if the gods knew this\nthey would warn the King by inspiring you to make a prophecy. As they\ndo not know this----\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThe gods know all things.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThe gods do not know things that are not true. This is not strictly\ntrue----\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt is written and hath been said that the gods cannot lie.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThe gods of course cannot lie, but a prophet may sometimes utter a\nprophecy that is a good prophecy and helpful to men, thereby pleasing\nthe gods, although the prophecy is not a true one.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThe gods speak through my mouth; my breath is my own breath, I am human\nand mortal, but my voice is from the gods and the gods cannot lie.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIs it wise in an age when the gods have lost their power to anger\npowerful men for the sake of the gods?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt _is_ wise.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWe are three men and you are alone with us. Will the gods save you if\nwe want to put you to death and slip away with your body into the\njungle?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIf you should do this thing the gods have willed it. If they have not\nwilled it you cannot.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWe do not wish to do it. Nevertheless you will make this prophecy--you\nwill go before the King and you will say that the gods have spoken and\nthat within three days' time, for the sake of vengeance upon some\nunknown man who is in this city, they will overthrow all Thek unless\nevery man is departed.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nI will not do it, for the gods cannot lie.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHas it not been the custom since unremembered time for a prophet to\nhave two wives?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nMost certainly. It is the law.\n\n    [Ichtharion holds up three fingers.]\n\nWhat!\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThree.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nDo not betray me. It was long ago.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYou will be allowed to serve the gods no more if men know this. The\ngods will not protect you in this matter for you have offended also\nagainst the gods.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt is worse that the gods should lie. Do not betray me.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI go to tell the others what I know.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nI will make the false prophecy.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nAh. You have chosen wisely.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nWhen the gods punish me who make them lie, they will know what\npunishment to give to you.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThe gods will not punish us. It is long ago that the gods used to\npunish men.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThe gods will punish us.\n\nAct II\n\n    [Same scene.]\n\n    [Same day.]\n\nKing Karnos: [pointing off L.]\n\nLook at them now, are they not beautiful? They catch the last rays of\nthe lingering sun. Can you say that the orchids are not beautiful now?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYour majesty, we were wrong, they are most beautiful. They tower up\nfrom the jungle to take the sun. They are like the diadem of some\njubilant king.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nAh. Now you have come to love the beauty of Thek.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYes, yes, your Majesty, I see it now. I would live in this city always.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYes, we will live here always. There is no city lovelier than Thek. Am\nI not right?\n\nLudibras:\n\nYour Majesty, no city is like it.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nAh. I am always right.\n\nTharmia:\n\nHow beautiful is Thek.\n\nArolind:\n\nYes, it is like a god.\n\n    [Three notes are stricken on a sonorous gong.]\n\nWhispers: [on]\n\nThere has been a prophecy. There has been a prophecy.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nAh! there has been a prophecy. Bring in the prophet. [Exit attendant.]\n\n    [Enter mournfully with dejected head and walking very slowly\n     Voice-of-the-Gods.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYou have made a prophecy.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nI have made a prophecy.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nI would hear that prophecy. [A pause.]\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nYour Majesty, the gods in three days' time----\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nStop! Is it not usual to begin with certain words? [A pause.]\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt is written and hath been said... that the gods cannot lie.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThat is right.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThat the gods cannot lie.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYes. Yes.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIn three days' time the gods will destroy this city for vengeance upon\nsome man, unless all men desert it.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThe gods will destroy Thek!\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nYes.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhen will this happen?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt must be in three days' time.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nHow will it happen?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nWhy. It will happen.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nHow?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nWhy... there will be a sound... as the riving of wood... a sound as of\nthunder coming up from the ground. A cleft will run like a mouse across\nthe floor. There will be a red light, and then no light at all, and in\nthe darkness Thek shall tumble in.\n\n    [The King sits in deep thought. Exit Prophet slowly; he begins to\n    weep, then casts his cloak over his face. He stretches out his arms\n    to grope his way and is led by the hand. The King sits thinking.]\n\nTharmia:\n\nSave us, your Majesty.\n\nArolind:\n\nSave us.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWe must fly, your Majesty.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWe must escape swiftly.\n\n    [The King sits still in silence. He lifts a stick on his\n    right to beat a little silver bell; but puts it down again. At\n    last he lifts it up and strikes the bell. An Attendant\n    enters.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nBring back that prophet. [Attendant bows and exits.]\n\n    [The King looks thoughtful. The rest have a frightened\n    look. Re-enter Prophet.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhen the gods prophesy rain in the season of rain, or the death of an\nold man, we believe them. But when the gods prophesy something\nincredible and ridiculous, such as happens not nowadays, and hath not\nbeen heard of since the fall of Bleth, then our credulity is overtaxed.\nIt is possible that a man should lie; it is not possible that the gods\nshould destroy a city nowadays.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nO King, have mercy.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhat, would you be sent safe away while your King is destroyed by the\ngods?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nNo, no, your Majesty. I would stay in the city, your Majesty. But if\nthe gods do not destroy the city, if the gods have misled me.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIf the gods have misled you they have chosen your doom. Why ask for\nmercy from me?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIf the gods have misled me, and punish me no further, I ask mercy from\nyou, O King.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIf the gods have misled you, let the gods protect you from my\nexecutioner.\n\n1st Sentry: [Laughs aside to 2nd Sentry]\n\nVery witty.\n\n2nd Sentry:\n\nYes, yes. [Laughs too.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIf the doom fall not at sunset, why then the executioner----\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nYour Majesty!\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNo more! No doubt the gods will destroy the whole city at sunset.\n\n    [The sentries titter. The Prophet is led away.]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYour Majesty! Is it safe to kill a prophet, even for any guilt? Will\nnot the people----\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNot while he is a prophet; but if he has prophesied falsely his death\nis due to the gods. The people once even burned a prophet themselves\nbecause he had taken three wives.\n\nIchtharion: [Aside to Ludibras]\n\nIt is most unfortunate, but what can we do?\n\nLudibras: [Aside to Ichtharion]\n\nHe will not be killed if he betray us instead.\n\nIchtharion: [Aside]\n\nWhy... that is true.\n\n    [All are whispering.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhy do you whisper?\n\nTharmia:\n\nYour Majesty, we fear that the gods will destroy us all and...\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYou do not fear it?\n\n    [Dead silence. A plaintive lament off. Enter the Queen. Her\n    face is pale as paper.]\n\nQueen: [loq.]\n\nO your Majesty. Your Majesty. I have heard the lutanist, I have heard\nthe lutanist.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nShe means the lute that is heard by those about to die.\n\nQueen:\n\nI have heard Gog-Owza, the lutanist, playing his lute. And I shall die,\nO I shall die.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNo. No. No. You have not heard Gog-Owza. Send for her maidens, send for\nthe Queen's maidens.\n\nQueen:\n\nI have heard Gog-Owza playing, and I shall die.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nHark. Why, I hear it too. That is not Gog-Owza, it is only a man with a\nlute; I hear it too.\n\nQueen:\n\nO the King hears it too. The King will die. The great King will die. My\nchild will be desolate for the King will die. Mourn, people of the\njungle. Mourn, citizens of Thek. And thou, O Barbul-el-Sharnak, O\nmetropolitan city, mourn thou in the midst of the nations, for the\ngreat King will die.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNo. No. No. [To oldest present.] Listen you. Do you not hear it?\n\nThe Oldest:\n\nYes, your Majesty.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYou see it is a real lute. That is no spirit playing.\n\nQueen:\n\nO but he is old; in a few days he will die; it is Gog-Owza, and the\nKing will die.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNo, no, it is only a man. Look out of the window there. [To any Young\nMan.]\n\nThe Young Man:\n\nIt is dark, your Majesty, and I cannot see.\n\nQueen:\n\nIt is the spirit Gog-Owza.\n\nThe Young Man:\n\nI can hear the music clearly.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nHe is young.\n\nQueen:\n\nThe young are always in danger; they go about among swords. He will die\ntoo and the great King and I. In a few days we will be buried.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nLet us all listen; we cannot all die in a few days' time.\n\nTharmia:\n\nI hear it clearly.\n\nQueen:\n\nWomen are blossoms in the hand of Death. They are often close to Death.\nShe will die too.\n\nAll:\n\nI hear it. I hear it. And I. And I. And I. It is only a man with a\nlute.\n\nQueen: [pacified]\n\nI should like to see him, then I should know for certain.\n\n    [She looks out of the casement.]\n\nNo, it is too dark.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWe will call the man if you wish it.\n\nQueen:\n\nYes, I shall be easy then, and then I shall sleep.\n\n    [King instructs Attendants to enquire without. Queen at window still.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIt is some man down by the river playing his lute. I am told that\nsometimes a man will play all night.\n\nTharmia: [Aside]\n\nThat's their amusement here.\n\nArolind: [Aside]\n\nWell, really, its almost all the music we get.\n\nTharmia: [Aside]\n\nIt really is.\n\nArolind: [Aside]\n\nO how I cry for the golden Hall of Song in Barbul-el-Sharnak. I think\nit would almost hold the city of Thek.\n\n    [Re-enter Attendant]\n\nAttendant:\n\nIt is only a common lute, your Majesty. All hear it except one man.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nAll except one, did you say? Ah, thank you.\n\n    [To Queen at window.]\n\nIt is only a common lute.\n\nQueen:\n\nOne man did not hear it. Who was he? Where is he? Why didn't he?\n\nAttendant:\n\nHe was riding back again to Barbul-el-Sharnak. He was just starting. He\nsaid he did not hear it.\n\nQueen:\n\nOh, send for him here.\n\nAttendant:\n\nHe is gone, your Majesty.\n\nQueen:\n\nOvertake him quick. Overtake him.\n\n    [Exit Attendant.]\n\nTharmia: [Aside to Arolind]\n\nI wish that I were going back to Barbul-el-Sharnak.\n\nArolind:\n\nO to be again at the centre of the world!\n\nTharmia:\n\nWere we not talking of the golden hall?\n\nArolind:\n\nAh, yes. How lovely it was! How beautiful it was when the King was\nthere and strange musicians came from the heathen lands with huge\nplumes in their hair, and played on instruments that we did not know.\n\nTharmia:\n\nThe Queen was better then. The music eased her.\n\nArolind:\n\nThis lute player is making her quite mad.\n\nTharmia:\n\nWell. Well. No wonder. He has a mournful sound. Listen!\n\nArolind:\n\nDo not let us listen. It makes me feel cold.\n\nTharmia:\n\nHe cannot play like Nagra or dear Trehannion. It is because we have\nheard Trehannion that we do not like to listen.\n\nArolind:\n\nI do not like to listen because I feel cold.\n\nTharmia:\n\nWe feel cold because the Queen has opened the casement.\n\nKing Karnos: [To Attendant]\n\nFind the man that is playing the lute and give him this and let him\ncease to play upon his lute.\n\n    [Exit Attendant]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHark! He is playing still.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYes, we all hear him; it is only a man.\n\n    [To another or same Attendant]\n\nLet him stop playing.\n\nAttendant:\n\nYes, your Majesty. [Exit]\n\n    [Enter an Attendant with another]\n\nAttendant:\n\nThis is the man that does not hear the lute.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nAh. You are deaf, then, are you not?\n\nMan:\n\nNo, your Majesty.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYou hear me clearly?\n\nMan:\n\nYes, your Majesty.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nListen! ...Now you hear the lute?\n\nMan:\n\nNo, your Majesty.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWho sent you to Barbul-el-Sharnak?\n\nMan:\n\nThe captain of the camel-guard sent me, your Majesty.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThen go and never return. You are deaf and also a fool. [To himself]\nThe Queen will not sleep. [To Another] Bring music, bring music\nquickly. [Muttering] The Queen will not sleep.\n\n    [The man bows low and departs. He says farewell to a sentry.\n    The Queen leans from the casement muttering. Music heard off.]\n\nQueen:\n\nAh, that is earthly music, but of that other tune I have a fear.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWe have all heard it. Comfort yourself. Calm yourself.\n\nQueen:\n\nOne man does not hear it.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nBut he has gone away. We all hear it now.\n\nQueen:\n\nI wish that I could see him.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nA man is a small thing and the night very large and full of wonders.\nYou may well not see him.\n\nQueen:\n\nI should like to see him. Why cannot I see him?\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nI have sent the camel-guard to search for him and to stop him playing\nhis lute.\n\n    [To Ichtharion]\n\nDo not let the Queen know about this prophecy. She would think... I do\nnot know what she would think.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nNo, your Majesty.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThe Queen has a very special fear of the gods.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYes, your Majesty.\n\nQueen:\n\nYou speak of me?\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nO no. We speak of the gods.\n\n    [The earthly music ceases.]\n\nQueen:\n\nO do not speak of the gods. The gods are very terrible; all the dooms\nthat shall ever be come forth from the gods. In misty windings of the\nwandering hills they forge the future even as on an anvil. The future\nfrightens me.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nCall the Queen's maidens. Send quickly for her maidens. Do not let the\nfuture frighten you.\n\nQueen:\n\nMen laugh at the gods; they often laugh at the gods. I am more sure\nthat the gods laugh too. It is dreadful to think of the laughter of the\ngods. O the lute! the lute! How clearly I hear the lute. But you all\nhear it? Do you not? You swear that you all hear it?\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYes, yes. We all hear the lute. It is only a man playing.\n\nQueen:\n\nI wish I could see him. Then I should know that he was only a man and\nnot Gog-Owza, most terrible of the gods. I should be able to sleep\nthen.\n\nKing Karnos: [Soothingly]\n\nYes, yes.\n\n    [Enter Attendant]\n\nHere comes the man that I have sent to find him. You have found the\nlute player. Tell the queen that you have found the lute player.\n\nAttendant:\n\nThe camel-guard have searched, your Majesty, and cannot find any man\nthat is playing a lute.\n\n    [Curtain]\n\nAct III\n\n    [Three days elapse.]\n\nTharmia:\n\nWe have done too much. We have done too much. Our husbands will be put\nto death. The prophet will betray them and they will be put to death.\n\nArolind:\n\nO what shall we do?\n\nTharmia:\n\nIt would have been better for us to have been clothed with rags than to\nbring our husbands to death by what we have done.\n\nArolind:\n\nWe have done much and we have angered a king, and (who knows!) we may\nhave angered even the gods.\n\nTharmia:\n\nEven the gods! We are become like Helen. When my mother was a child she\nsaw her once. She says she was the quietest and gentlest of creatures\nand wished only to be loved, and yet because of her there was a war for\nfour or five years at Troy, and the city was burned which had\nremarkable towers; and some of the gods of the Greeks took her side, my\nmother says, and some she says were against her, and they quarrelled\nupon Olympus where they live, and all because of Helen.\n\nArolind:\n\nO don't, don't. It frightens me. I only want to be prettily dressed and\nsee my husband happy.\n\nTharmia:\n\nHave you seen the prophet?\n\nArolind:\n\nOh yes, I have seen him. He walks about the palace. He is free but\ncannot escape.\n\nTharmia:\n\nWhat does he look like? Has he a frightened look?\n\nArolind:\n\nHe mutters as he walks. Sometimes he weeps; and then he puts his cloak\nover his face.\n\nTharmia:\n\nI fear that he will betray them.\n\nArolind:\n\nI do not trust a prophet. He is the go-between of gods and men. They\nare so far apart. How can he be true to both?\n\nTharmia:\n\nThis prophet is false to the gods. It is a hateful thing for a prophet\nto prophesy falsely.\n\n    [Prophet walks across hanging his head and muttering.]\n\nProphet:\n\nThe gods have spoken a lie. The gods have spoken a lie. Can all their\nvengeance ever atone for this?\n\nTharmia:\n\nHe spoke of vengeance.\n\nArolind:\n\nO he will betray them.\n\n    [They weep. Enter the Queen.]\n\nQueen:\n\nWhy do you weep? Ah, you are going to die. You heard the death-lute.\nYou do well to weep.\n\nTharmia:\n\nNo, your Majesty. It is the man that has played for the last three\ndays. We all heard him.\n\nQueen:\n\nThree days. Yes, it is three days. Gog-Owza plays no longer than three\ndays. Gog-Owza grows weary then. He has given his message and he will\ngo away.\n\nTharmia:\n\nWe have all heard him, your Majesty, except the deaf young man that\nwent back to Barbul-el-Sharnak. We hear him now.\n\nQueen: Yes! But nobody has seen him yet. My maidens have searched for\nhim but they have not found him.\n\nTharmia:\n\nYour Majesty, my husband heard him, and Ludibras, and while they live\nwe know there is nothing to fear. If the King grew angry with them--\nbecause of any idle story that some jealous man might tell--some\ncriminal wishing to postpone his punishment--if the King were to grow\nangry with them they would open their veins; they would never survive\nhis anger. Then we should all of us say, \"Perhaps it was Gog-Owza that\nIchtharion or Ludibras heard.\"\n\nQueen:\n\nThe King will never grow angry with Ichtharion or Ludibras.\n\nTharmia:\n\nYour Majesty would not sleep if the King grew angry with them.\n\nQueen:\n\nOh, no. I should not sleep; it would be terrible.\n\nTharmia:\n\nYour Majesty would be wakeful all night long and cry.\n\nQueen:\n\nOh, yes. I should not sleep; I should cry all night. [Exit]\n\nArolind:\n\nShe has no influence with the King.\n\nTharmia:\n\nNo. But he hates to hear her cry all night.\n\n    [Enter Ichtharion]\n\nI am sure that the prophet will betray you. But we have spoken to the\nQueen. We have told her it would be dreadful if the King were to grow\nangry with you, and she things she will cry all night if he is angry.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nPoor frightened brain! How strong are little fancies! She should be a\nbeautiful Queen. But she goes about white and crying, in fear of the\ngods. The gods, that are no more than shadows in the moonlight. Man's\nfear rises weird and large in all this mystery and makes a shadow of\nhimself upon the ground and Man jumps and says \"the gods.\" Why they are\nless than shadows; we have seen shadows, we have not seen the gods.\n\nTharmia:\n\nO do not speak like that. There used to be gods. They overthrew Bleth\ndreadfully. And if they still live on in the dark of the hills, why,\nthey might hear your words.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWhy! you grow frightened, too. Do not be frightened. We will go and\nspeak with the prophet, while you follow the Queen; be much with her,\nand do not let her forget that she will cry if the King should be angry\nwith us.\n\nArolind:\n\nI am almost afraid when I am with the Queen; I do not like to be with\nher.\n\nTharmia:\n\nShe could not hurt us; she is afraid of all things.\n\nArolind:\n\nShe makes me have huge fears of prodigious things.\n\n    [Exeunt Tharmia and Arolind.]\n\n    [Enter Ludibras.]\n\nLudibras:\n\nThe prophet is coming this way.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nSit down. We must speak with him. He will betray us.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhy should the prophet betray us?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nBecause the guilt of the false prophecy is not his guilt; it is ours;\nand the King may spare him if he tells him that. Again, he mutters of\nvengeance as he walks; many have told me.\n\nLudibras:\n\nThe King will not spare him even if he betrays us. It was he that spoke\nthe false prophecy to the King.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThe King does not in his heart believe in the gods. It is for cheating\nhim that the prophet is to die. But if he knows we had planned it----\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhat can we say to the prophet?\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWhy, we can say nothing. But we can learn what he will do from what he\nsays to us.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHere he is. We must remember everything that he says.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nWatch his eyes.\n\n    [Enter the Prophet, his eyes concealed by his cloak.]\n\nIchtharion and Ludibras:\n\nThe gods are good.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThey are benignant.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI am much to blame. I am very much to blame.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWe trust that the King will relent.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHe often relents at sunset; he looks out over the orchids in the\nevening. They are very beautiful then, and if he is angry his anger\npasses away just when the cool breeze comes at the set of sun.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHe is sure to relent at sunset.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nDo not be angry. I am indeed to blame. Do not be angry.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nI do not wish the King to relent at sunset.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nDo not be unhappy.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nI say to you that I have betrayed the gods.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nListen to me. Do not be so unhappy. There are no gods. Everybody knows\nthat there are no gods. The King knows it.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nYou have heard their prophet lie and believe that the gods are dead?\n\nLudibras:\n\nThere are indeed no gods. It is well known.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThere are gods, and they have a vengeance even for you. Listen and I\nwill tell you what it shall be. Aye and for you also... Listen!... No,\nno, they are silent in the gloom of the hills. They have not spoken to\nme since I lied.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYou are right; the gods will punish us. It is natural that they should\nnot speak just now; but they will certainly punish us. It is not\ntherefore necessary for any man to avenge himself upon us, even though\nthere were any cause.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt is not necessary.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIndeed, it might even further anger the gods if a man should be before\nthem to punish us.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThe gods are very swift; no man outruns them.\n\nLudibras:\n\nA man would be rash to attempt to.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThe sun is falling low. I will leave you now, for I have ever loved the\nsun at evening. I go to watch it drop through the gilded clouds, and\nmake a wonder of familiar things. After the sunset, night, and after an\nevil deed, the vengeance of the gods. [Exit R.]\n\nLudibras: [with contemptuous wonder]\n\nHe really believes in the gods.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHe is as mad as the Queen; we must humour his madness if we ever see\nhim more. I think that all will be well.\n\n    [An executioner steals after the Prophet; he is dressed in\n    crimson satin to the knees; he wears a leather belt and\n    carries the axe of his trade.]\n\nLudibras:\n\nHis voice was angry as he went away. I fear he may yet betray us.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIt is not likely. He thinks that the gods will punish us.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHow long will he think so? The Queen's fancies change thrice an hour.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThe executioner keeps very close to him now. He comes closer every\nhour. There is not much time for him to change his fancies.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHe has the will to betray us if that fancy leaves him.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThe executioner is very eager for him. He invented a new stroke lately,\nbut he has not had a man since we came to Thek.\n\nLudibras:\n\nI do not like an eager executioner--the King sees him and it makes him\nthink...\n\nIchtharion:\n\nLook how low the sun is; he has no time to betray us. The King is not\nyet here.\n\nLudibras:\n\nHe is coming.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nBut the prophet is not here.\n\nLudibras:\n\nNo, he is not yet come.\n\n    [Enter the King.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThe Queen's maidens have persuaded her that there is nothing to fear.\nThey are quite excellent; they shall dance before me. The Queen will\nsleep; they are quite excellent. Ah, Ichtharion. Come to me,\nIchtharion.\n\nLudibras:\n\nWhy does the King send for you?\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYou were wrong, Ichtharion.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYour Majesty!\n\n    [Ludibras watches.]\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYou were wrong to think that Thek is not very lovely.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYes, I was wrong and I am much to blame.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYes, it is very beautiful at evening. I will watch them go down over\nthe orchids. I will never see Barbul-el-Sharnak any more. I will sit\nand watch the sun go down on the orchids till it is gone and all their\ncolours fade.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nIt is very beautiful now. How still it is! I have never seen so still a\nsunset before.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIt is like a picture done by a dying painter, full of a beautiful\ncolour. Even if all these orchids died to-night yet their beauty is an\nindestructible memory.\n\nLudibras: [Aside to Ichtharion]\n\nThe prophet is coming this way.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYour Majesty, the prophet walks about in the palace, and the\nexecutioner is close behind him. If the Queen saw him and the\nexecutioner would it not trouble her? Were it not better that he should\nbe killed at once? Shall I whistle for the executioner?\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNot now. I said at sunset.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nYour Majesty, it is merciful to kill a man before the set of the sun.\nFor it is natural in a man to love the sun. But to see it set and to\nknow that it will not come again is even a second death. It would be\nmerciful to kill him now.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nI have said--at sunset. It were unjust to kill him before his prophecy\nis proven false.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nBut, your Majesty, we know that it is false. He also knows it.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nHe shall die at sunset.\n\nLudibras:\n\nYour Majesty, the prophet will pray for life if he is not killed now.\nIt would be pity to grant it.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIs not a King's word death? I have said he shall die at sunset.\n\n    [Enter Prophet. The Executioner creeps along close behind him.]\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nO the gods are about to have lied. The gods will have lied. I have\nprophesied falsely and the gods will have lied. My death cannot atone\nfor it nor the punishment of others.\n\n    [Ichtharion and Ludibras start.]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nHe will betray us yet.\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nO why did you let your voice come through my lips? O why did you allow\nyour voice to lie? For centuries it has been said from city to city,\n\"The gods cannot lie.\" The nomads have known it out upon the plains.\nThe mountaineers have known it near the dawn. That is all over now. O\nKing, let me die at once. For I have prophesied falsely and at sunset\nthe gods will lie.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nIt is not sunset yet. No doubt you have spoken truly.\n\n    [Enter Queen.]\n\nHow well the Queen looks. Her maidens are quite excellent.\n\nLudibras: [To Ichtharion]\n\nThere is something a little dreadful in seeing the Queen so calm. She\nis like a windless sunset in the Winter before a hurricane comes and\nthe snow swirls up before it over the world.\n\nIchtharion:\n\nI do not like calm sunsets; they make me think that something is going\nto happen. Yes, the Queen is very quiet; she will sleep to-night.\n\nQueen:\n\nI am not frightened any longer. All the wild fancies of my brain have\nleft it. I have often troubled you with little fears. Now they are all\nat rest and I am afraid no longer.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThat is good; I am very glad. You will sleep tonight.\n\nQueen:\n\nSleep. Why--yes, I shall sleep. O yes, we shall all sleep.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nYour maidens have told you that there is nothing to fear.\n\nQueen:\n\nNothing to fear? No, no more little fears to trouble me.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThey have told you there is nothing at all to fear. Indeed there is\nnothing.\n\nQueen:\n\nNo more little fears. There is one great fear.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nA great fear! Why, what is it?\n\nQueen:\n\nI must not say. For you have often soothed me when I was frightened,\nand it were not well for me to trouble you at the last.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhat is your fear? Shall I send again for your maidens?\n\nQueen:\n\nNo, it is not my fear. It is all men's fear if they knew.\n\nKing Karnos: [glancing round]\n\nAh, you have seen my man in red. I will send him away. I will----\n\nQueen:\n\nNo, no. My fear is not earthly. I am not afraid of little things any\nmore.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhy, what is it then?\n\nQueen:\n\nI do not quite know. But you know how I have ever feared the gods. The\ngods are going to do some dreadful thing.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nBelieve me; the gods do nothing nowadays.\n\nQueen:\n\nYou have indeed been very good to me. It seems a little while since the\ncamels came to Argun-Zeerith by the iris marshes, the camels with the\ngold-hung palanquin, and the bells above their heads, high up in the\nair, the silver bridal bells. It seems a very little while ago. I did\nnot know how swift the end would come.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhat end? To whom is the end coming?\n\nQueen:\n\nDo not be troubled. We should not let Fate trouble us. The World and\nits daily cares, ah, they are frightful: but Fate--I smile at Fate.\nFate cannot hurt us if we smile at it.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nWhat end do you say is coming?\n\nQueen:\n\nI do not know. Something that has been shall soon be no more.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNo, no. Look upon Thek. It is built of rock and our palace is all of\nmarble. Time has not scratched it with six centuries. Six tearing\ncenturies with all their claws. We are throned on gold and founded upon\nmarble. Death will some day find me, indeed, but I am young. Sire after\nsire of mine has died in Barbul-el-Sharnak or in Thek, but has left our\ndynasty laughing sheer in the face of Time from over these age-old\nwalls.\n\nQueen:\n\nSay farewell to me now, lest something happen.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNo, no, we will not say unhappy things.\n\nExecutioner:\n\nThe sun has set.\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nNot yet. The jungle hides it. It is not yet set. Look at the beautiful\nlight upon the orchids. For how long they have flashed their purple on\nthe gleaming walls of Thek. For how long they will flash there on our\nimmortal palace, immortal in marble and immortal in song. Ah, how the\ncolour changes.\n\n    [To the Executioner]\n\nThe sun is set. Take him away.\n\n    [To the Queen]\n\nIt is _he_ whose end you foresaw.\n\n    [The Executioner grips the Prophet by the arm.]\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nThe gods have lied!\n\nKing Karnos:\n\nThe jungle is sinking! It has fallen into the earth!\n\n    [The Queen smiles a little, holding his hand.]\n\nThe city is falling in! The houses are rolling towards us!\n\n    [Thunder off.]\n\nIchtharion:\n\nThey are coming up like a wave and darkness is coming with them.\n\n    [Loud and prolonged thunder. Flashes of red light and then\n    total darkness. A little light comes back, showing recumbent\n    figures, shattered pillars and rocks of white marble.]\n\n    [The Prophet's back is broken, but he raises the fore-part of\n    his body for a moment.]\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods: [triumphantly]\n\nThey have not lied!\n\nIchtharion:\n\nO, I am killed.\n\n    [Laughter heard off.]\n\nSomeone is laughing. Laughing even in Thek! Why, the whole city is\nshattered.\n\n    [The laughter grows demoniac.]\n\nWhat is that dreadful sound?\n\nVoice-of-the-Gods:\n\nIt is the laughter of the gods that cannot lie, going back to their\nhills.\n\n    [He dies.]\n\n    [Curtain]\n\nThe Queen's Enemies\n\nDramatis Person\u00e6\n\nThe Queen\nAckaz\u00e1rpses (her handmaid)\nPrince Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes\nPrince Zoph\u00e9rnes\nThe Priest of Horus\nThe King of the Four Countries\nThe Twin Dukes of Ethiopia\nTharni, Tharrabas, Harlee (Slaves)\nSlaves.\n\nScene: An underground temple in Egypt.\n\nTime: The Sixth Dynasty.\n\n    [The Curtain rises on darkness in both parts of the stage. Two\n    Slaves appear with tapers on the steps. As they go down the\n    steps, they light the torches that are clamped against the\n    wall, with their tapers. Afterwards when they come to the\n    temple they light the torches there till they are all lit. The\n    two Slaves are Tharni and Tharrabas.]\n\nTharrabas:\n\nIs it much further, Tharni?\n\nTharni:\n\nI think not, Tharrabas.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nA dank and terrible place.\n\nTharni:\n\nIt is not much further.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nWhy does the Queen banquet in so fearful a place?\n\nTharni:\n\nI know not. She banquets with her enemies.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nIn the land from which I was taken we do not banquet with our enemies.\n\nTharni:\n\nNo? The Queen will banquet with her enemies.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nWhy? Know you why?\n\nTharni:\n\nIt is the way of the Queen.\n\n    [Silence.]\n\nTharrabas:\n\nThe door, Tharni, we have come to the door!\n\nTharni:\n\nYes, that's the Temple.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nSurely a grim place.\n\nTharni:\n\nThe banquet is prepared. We light these torches, that is all.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nUnto whom is it holy?\n\nTharni:\n\nThey say to the Nile once. I know not to whom it is holy now.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nSo Nile has left it?\n\nTharni:\n\nThey say they worship him in this place no longer.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nAnd if I were holy Nile I also would stay up there [pointing] in the\nsunlight.\n\n    [He suddenly sees the huge misshapen bulk of Harlee.]\n\nOh-h-h!\n\nHarlee:\n\nUrh\n\nTharni:\n\nWhy, it's Harlee.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nI thought you were some fearful, evil god.\n\n    [Harlee laughs. He remains leaning on his great iron bar.]\n\nTharni:\n\nHe waits here for the Queen.\n\nTharrabas:\n\nWhat sinister need could she have of Harlee?\n\nTharni:\n\nI know not. You wait for the Queen, Harlee?\n\n    [Harlee nods.]\n\nTharrabas:\n\nI would not banquet here. Not with a Queen.\n\n    [Harlee laughs long.]\n\nTharrabas:\n\nOur work is done. Come. Let us leave this place.\n\n    [Exeunt Tharrabas and Tharni up the steps.]\n\n    [The Queen appears with her handmaid, Ackaz\u00e1rpses, coming down\n    the steps. Her handmaid holds her train. They enter the\n    temple.]\n\nQueen:\n\nAh. All is ready.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nNo, no, Illustrious Lady. Nothing is ready. Your raiment--we must\nfasten it here [shoulder], and then the bow in your hair.\n\n    [She begins to titivate the Queen.]\n\nQueen:\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses, Ackaz\u00e1rpses, I cannot _bear_ to have enemies.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nIndeed, Illustrious Lady, it is wrong that you should have enemies.\nOne so delicate, so slender and withal so beautiful should never have\na foe.\n\nQueen:\n\nIf the gods could understand they would never permit it.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nI have poured out dark wine to them, I have offered them fat, indeed, I\nhave often offered them savoury things. I have said: The Queen should\nnot have enemies; she is too delicate, too fair. But they will not\nunderstand.\n\nQueen:\n\nIf they could see my tears they would never permit such woes to be\nborne by one small woman. But they only look at men and their horrible\nwars. Why must men slay one another and make horrible war?\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nI blame your enemies, Illustrious Lady, more than the gods. Why should\nthey trouble you who are so fair and so easily hurt by their anger? It\nwas but a little territory you took from them. How much better to lose\na little territory than to be unmannerly and unkind.\n\nQueen:\n\nO speak not of the territory. I know naught of these things. They say\nmy Captains took it. How should I know? O why will they be my enemies?\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nYou are most fair to-night, Illustrious Lady.\n\nQueen:\n\nI must needs be fair to-night.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nIndeed you are most fair.\n\nQueen:\n\nA little more perfume, Ackaz\u00e1rpses.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nI will tie the coloured bow more evenly.\n\nQueen:\n\nO they will never look at it. They will not know if it is orange or\nblue. I shall weep if they do not look at it. It is a pretty bow.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nCalm yourself, lady! They will be here soon.\n\nQueen:\n\nIndeed I think they are very close to me now, for I feel myself\ntrembling.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nYou must not tremble, Illustrious Lady; you must not tremble.\n\nQueen:\n\nThey are such terrible men, Ackaz\u00e1rpses.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nBut you must not tremble, for your raiment is now perfect; yet if you\ntremble, alas! who may say how it will hang?\n\nQueen:\n\nThey are such huge, terrible men.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nO the raiment, the raiment; you must not, you must not!\n\nQueen:\n\nO I cannot bear it. I cannot bear it. There is Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes, that\nhuge, fierce soldier, and the terrible Priest of Horus, and... and...\nO I cannot see them, I cannot see them.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nLady, you have invited them.\n\nQueen:\n\nO say I am ill, say I am sick of a fever.\n\nQuick, quick, say I have some swift fever and cannot see them.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nIllustrious Lady----\n\nQueen:\n\nQuick, for I cannot bear it.\n\n    [Exit Ackaz\u00e1rpses.]\n\nQueen:\n\nO, I cannot bear to have enemies.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nLady, they are here.\n\nQueen:\n\nO what shall we do?... Set this bow higher upon my head so that it\nmust be seen. [Ackaz\u00e1rpses does so.] The pretty bow.\n\n    [She continues to look in a hand mirror. A Slave descends the\n    stairs. Then Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes and Zoph\u00e9rnes. Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes and\n    Zoph\u00e9rnes stop; the Slave stops lower down.]\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nFor the last time, Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes, consider. Even yet we may turn\nback.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nShe had no guards outside nor was there any hiding place for them.\nThere was the empty plain and the Nile only.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWho knows what she may have in this dark temple?\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nIt is small and the stairway narrow; our friends are close behind us.\nWe could hold these steps with our swords against all her men.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nTrue. They are narrow steps. Yet... Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes, I do not fear man\nor god or even woman, yet when I saw the letter this woman sent\nbidding us banquet with her I felt that it was not well that we should\ncome.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nShe said that she would love us though we were her enemies.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nIt is not natural to love one's enemies.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nShe is much swayed by whims. They sway her as the winds in spring sway\nflowers--this way and that. This is one of her whims.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nI do not trust her whims.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nThey name you Zoph\u00e9rnes, giver of good counsel, therefore I will turn\nback because you counsel it, though I would fain go down and banquet\nwith this little playful lady.\n\n    [They turn and mount.]\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nBelieve me, Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes, it is better. I think that if you had gone\ndown these steps we scarcely should have seen the sky again.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nWell, well, we turn back, though I would fain have humoured the\nQueen's whim. But look. The others come. We cannot turn back. There\ncomes the Priest of Horus; we must go to the banquet now.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nSo be it.\n\n    [They descend.]\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nWe will be circumspect. If she has men in there we return at once.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nSo be it.\n\n    [The Slave opens the door.]\n\nSlave:\n\nThe Princes Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes and Zoph\u00e9rnes.\n\nQueen:\n\nWelcome, Illustrious Princes.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nGreeting.\n\nQueen:\n\nO you have brought your sword!\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nI have brought my sword.\n\nQueen:\n\nO but it is so terrible, your great sword.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWe always carry our swords.\n\nQueen:\n\nO but you do not need them. If you have come to kill me your great\nhands are enough. But why do you bring your swords?\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nIllustrious Lady, we do not come to kill you.\n\nQueen:\n\nTo your post, Harlee.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWhat are this Harlee and his post?\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nDo not tremble, Illustrious Lady, indeed you must not tremble.\n\nQueen:\n\nHe is but a fisherman; he lives upon the Nile. He nets fish; indeed he\nis nothing.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nFor what is your great bar of iron, Slave?\n\n    [Harlee opens his mouth showing that he is tongueless. Exit.]\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nUgh! They have burned out his tongue.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nHe goes on secret errands.\n\n    [Enter Second Slave.]\n\nSecond Slave:\n\nThe Priest of Horus.\n\nQueen:\n\nWelcome, holy companion of the gods.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nGreeting.\n\nThird Slave:\n\nThe King of the Four Countries.\n\n    [She and he make obeisance.]\n\nFourth Slave:\n\nThe Twin Dukes of Ethiopia.\n\nKing of the Four Countries:\n\nWe are all met.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nAll that have warred against her Captains.\n\nQueen:\n\nO speak not of my Captains. It troubles me to hear of violent men. But\nyou have been my enemies, and I cannot bear to have enemies. Therefore\nI have asked you to banquet with me.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nAnd we have come.\n\nQueen:\n\nO look not so sternly at me. I cannot bear to have enemies. When I\nhave enemies I do not sleep. Is it not so, Ackaz\u00e1rpses?\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nIndeed, the Illustrious Lady has suffered much.\n\nQueen:\n\nO Ackaz\u00e1rpses, why should I have enemies?\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nAfter to-night you will sleep, Illustrious Lady.\n\nQueen:\n\nWhy, yes, for we shall all be friends; shall we not, princes? Let us\nbe seated.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\n[To Zoph\u00e9rnes.] There is no other doorway. That is well.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWhy, no, there is not. Yet what is that great hole that is full of\ndarkness?\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nOnly one man at a time could come that way. We are safe from man or\nbeast. Nothing could enter that way for our swords.\n\nQueen:\n\nI pray you be seated.\n\n    [They seat themselves cautiously, she standing watching them.]\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nThere are no servitors.\n\nQueen:\n\nAre there not viands before you, Prince Zoph\u00e9rnes, or are there too\nfew fruits that you should blame me?\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nI do not blame you.\n\nQueen:\n\nI fear you blame me with your fierce eyes.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nI do not blame you.\n\nQueen:\n\nO my enemies, I would have you kind to me. And indeed there are no\nservitors, for I know what evil things you think of me----\n\nA Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nNo, Queen, indeed we think no evil of you.\n\nQueen:\n\nAh, but you think terrible things.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nWe think no evil of you, Illustrious Lady.\n\nQueen:\n\nI feared that if I had servitors you would think... you would say,\n\"This wicked Queen, our enemy, will bid them attack us while we\nfeast.\"\n\n    [First Duke of Ethiopia furtively hands food to his Slave\n    standing behind him, who tastes it.]\n\nThough you do not know how I dread the sight of blood, and indeed I\nwould never bid them do such a thing. The sight of blood is shocking.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nWe trust you, Illustrious Lady.\n\n    [He does the same with his Slave.]\n\nQueen:\n\nAnd for miles around this temple and all along this river I have said,\n\"Let there be no man.\" I have commanded and there are not. Will you\nnot trust me now?\n\n    [Zoph\u00e9rnes does the same and all the guests, one by one.]\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nIndeed, we trust you.\n\nQueen:\n\nAnd you, Prince Zoph\u00e9rnes, with your fierce eyes that so frighten me,\nwill you not trust me?\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nO Queen, it is part of the art of war to be well prepared when in an\nenemy's country, and we have been so long at war with your Captains\nthat we perforce remember some of the art. It is not that we do not\ntrust you.\n\nQueen:\n\nI am all alone with my handmaid and none will trust me! O Ackaz\u00e1rpses,\nI am frightened: what if my enemies should slay me and carry me up,\nand cast my body into the lonely Nile.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nNo, no, Illustrious Lady. They will not harm you. They do not know how\ntheir fierce looks distress you. They do not know how delicate you\nare.\n\nPriest of Horus: [to Ackaz\u00e1rpses]\n\nIndeed we trust the Queen and none would harm her.\n\n    [Ackaz\u00e1rpses soothes the Queen.]\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes: [to Zoph\u00e9rnes]\n\nI think we do wrong to doubt her, seeing she is alone.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes: [to Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes]\n\nYet I would that the banquet were over.\n\nQueen: [to Ackaz\u00e1rpses and the Priest of Horus, but audible to all]\n\nYet they do not eat the food that I set before them.\n\nDuke of Ethiopia:\n\nIn Ethiopia when we feast with queens it is our custom not to eat at\nonce but to await the Queen till she has eaten.\n\nQueen: [Eats.]\n\nBehold then, I have eaten.\n\n    [She looks at the Priest of Horus.]\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nIt has been the custom of all that held my office, from the time when\nthere went on earth the children of the Moon, never to eat till the\nfood is dedicate, by our sacred signs, to the gods. [He begins to wave\nhis hands over the food.]\n\nQueen:\n\nThe King of the Four Countries does not eat. And you, Prince\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes, you have given royal wine unto your slave.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nO Queen, it is the custom of our dynasty... and has indeed long been\nso,... as many say,... that the noble should not feast till the base\nhave feasted, reminding us that our bodies even as the humble bodies\nof the base----\n\nQueen:\n\nWhy do you thus watch your slave, Prince Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes?\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nEven to remind myself that I have done as our dynasty doth.\n\nQueen:\n\nAlas for me, Ackaz\u00e1rpses, they will not feast with me, but mock me\nbecause I am little and alone. O I shall not sleep to-night, I shall\nnot sleep. [She weeps.]\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nYes, yes, Illustrious Lady, you shall sleep. Be patient and all shall\nbe well and you will sleep.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nBut Queen, Queen, we are about to eat.\n\nDuke of Ethiopia:\n\nYes, yes, indeed we do not mock you.\n\nKing of Four Countries:\n\nWe do not mock you, Queen.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nThey do not mean to mock you.\n\nQueen:\n\nThey... give my food to slaves.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nThat was a mistake.\n\nQueen:\n\nIt was... no mistake.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nThe slaves were hungry.\n\nQueen: [still weeping]\n\nThey believe I would poison them.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nNo, no, Illustrious Lady, they do not believe _that_.\n\nQueen:\n\nThey believe I would poison them.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses: [comforting her]\n\nO hush, hush. They do not mean to be so cruel.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nThey do not believe you would poison them. But they do not know if the\nmeat was killed with a poisonous arrow or if an asp may have\ninadvertently bitten the fruit. These things may happen, but they do\nnot believe you would poison them.\n\nQueen:\n\nThey believe I would poison them.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nNo; Queen, see, we eat.\n\n    [They hastily whisper to slaves.]\n\n1st Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nWe eat your viands, Queen.\n\n2nd Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nWe drink your wine.\n\nKing of Four Countries:\n\nWe eat your good pomegranates and Egyptian grapes.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWe eat.\n\n    [They all eat.]\n\nPriest of Horus: [smiling affably]\n\nI _too_ eat of your excellent banquet, O Queen.\n\n    [He peels a fruit slowly, glancing constantly at the others.\n    Meanwhile the catches in the Queen's breath grow fewer, she\n    begins to dry her eyes.]\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses: [in her ear]\n\nThey eat.\n\n    [Ackaz\u00e1rpses lifts her head and watches them.]\n\nQueen:\n\nPerhaps the wine is poisoned.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nNo, no, Illustrious Lady.\n\nQueen:\n\nPerhaps the grape was cut by a poisoned arrow.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nBut indeed... indeed...\n\n    [Queen drinks from his cup.]\n\nQueen:\n\nWill you not drink my wine?\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nI drink to our continued friendship.\n\n    [He drinks.]\n\nA Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nOur continued friendship!\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nThere has been no true enmity. We misunderstood the Queen's armies.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes: [to Zoph\u00e9rnes]\n\nWe have wronged the Queen. The wine's not poisoned. Let us drink to\nher.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nSo be it.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nWe drink to you, Queen.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWe drink.\n\nQueen:\n\nThe flagon, Ackaz\u00e1rpses.\n\n    [Ackaz\u00e1rpses brings it. The Queen pours it into her cup.]\n\nFill up your goblets from the flagon, princes. [She drinks.]\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nWe wronged you, Queen. It is a blessed wine.\n\nQueen:\n\nIt is an ancient wine and grew in Lesbos, looking from Mytelene to the\nSouth. Ships brought it overseas and up this river to gladden the\nhearts of man in holy Egypt. But to me it brings no joy.\n\nDuke of Ethiopia:\n\nIt is a happy wine, Queen.\n\nQueen:\n\nI have been thought a poisoner.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nIndeed, none has thought that, Illustrious Lady.\n\nQueen:\n\nYou have all thought it.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nWe ask your pardon, Queen.\n\nKing of Four Countries:\n\nWe ask your pardon.\n\nDuke of Ethiopia:\n\nIndeed we erred.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes: [rising]\n\nWe have eaten your fruits and drunk your wine; and we have asked your\npardon. Let us now depart in amity.\n\nQueen:\n\nNo, no! No, no! You must not go! I shall say... \"They are my enemies\nstill,\" and I shall not sleep. I that cannot bear to have enemies.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nLet us depart in all amity.\n\nQueen:\n\nO will you not feast with me?\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWe have feasted.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nNo, no, Zoph\u00e9rnes. Do you not see? The Queen takes it to heart.\n\n    [Zoph\u00e9rnes sits down.]\n\nQueen:\n\nO feast with me a little longer and make merry, and be my enemies no\nmore. Rh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes, there is some country eastwards towards Assyria,\nis there not? I do not know its name--a country which your dynasty\nclaims of me...\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nHa!\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes: [resignedly]\n\nWe have lost it.\n\nQueen:\n\n...and for whose sake you are my enemy and your fierce uncle, Prince\nZoph\u00e9rnes.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nWe fought somewhat with your armies, Queen. But indeed it was but to\npractise the military art.\n\nQueen:\n\nI will call my Captains to me. I will call them down from their high\nplaces and reprove them and bid them give the country back to you that\nlies eastwards towards Assyria. Only you shall tarry here at the feast\nand forget you ever were my enemies... forget...\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nQueen...! Queen...! It was my mother's country as a child.\n\nQueen:\n\nYou will not leave me alone then here to-night.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nNo, most royal lady.\n\nQueen: [to King of Four Countries who appears about to depart]\n\nAnd in the matter of the merchant men that trade amongst the isles,\nthey shall offer spices at _your_ feet, not at mine, and the men of\nthe isles shall offer goats to _your_ gods.\n\nKing of Four Countries:\n\nMost generous Queen... indeed...\n\nQueen:\n\nBut you will not leave my banquet and go unfriendly away.\n\nKing of Four Countries:\n\nNo, Queen... [He drinks.]\n\nQueen: [she looks at the Twin Dukes amiably]\n\nAll Ethiopia shall be yours, down to the unknown kingdoms of the\nbeasts.\n\n1st Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nQueen.\n\n2nd Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nQueen. We drink to the glory of your throne.\n\nQueen:\n\nStay then and feast with me. For not to have enemies is the beggar's\njoy; and I have looked from windows long and long, envying those that\ngo their way in rags. Stay with me, dukes and princes.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nIllustrious Lady, the generosity of your royal heart has given the\ngods much joy.\n\nQueen: [smiles at him.]\n\nThank you.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nEr... in the matter of the tribute due to Horus from all the people of\nEgypt...\n\nQueen:\n\nIt is yours.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nIllustrious Lady.\n\nQueen:\n\nI will take none of it. Use it how you will.\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nThe gratitude of Horus shall shine on you. My little Ackaz\u00e1rpses, how\nhappy you are in having so royal a mistress.\n\n    [His arm is round Ackaz\u00e1rpses' waist: she smiles at him.]\n\nQueen: [rising]\n\nPrinces and gentlemen, let us drink to the future.\n\nPriest of Horus: [starting suddenly]\n\nAh-h-h!\n\nQueen:\n\nSomething has troubled you, holy companion of the gods?\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nNo, nothing. Sometimes the spirit of prophecy comes on me. It comes\nnot often. It seemed to come then. I thought that one of the gods\nspoke to me clearly.\n\nQueen:\n\nWhat said he?\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nI thought he said... speaking here [right ear] or just behind me...\nDrink not to the Future. But it was nothing.\n\nQueen:\n\nWill you drink then to the past?\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nO no, Illustrious Lady, for we forget the past; your good wine has\nmade us forget the past and its quarrels.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nWill you not drink to the present?\n\nPriest of Horus:\n\nAh, the present! The present that places me by so lovely a lady. I\ndrink to the present.\n\nQueen: [to the others]\n\nAnd we, we will drink to the future, and to forgetting--to the\nforgetting of our enemies.\n\n    [All drink; good temper comes on all. The banquet begins \"to\n    go well.\"]\n\nQueen:\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses, they are all merry now.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nThey are all merry.\n\nQueen:\n\nThey are telling Ethiopian tales.\n\n1st Duke of Ethiopia:\n\n...for when Winter comes the pigmies at once put themselves in\nreadiness for war and having chosen a place for battle wait there for\nsome days, so that the cranes when they arrive find their enemy\nalready arrayed. And at first they preen themselves and do not give\nbattle, but when they are fully rested after their great journey they\nattack the pigmies with indescribably fury so that many are slain, but\nthe pigmies...\n\nQueen: [taking her by the wrist]\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses! Come!\n\n    [The Queen rises.]\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nQueen, you do not leave us?\n\nQueen:\n\nFor a little while, Prince Zoph\u00e9rnes.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nFor what purpose?\n\nQueen:\n\nI go to pray to a very secret god.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nWhat is his name?\n\nQueen:\n\nHis name is secret like his deeds.\n\n    [She goes to door. Silence falls. All watch her. She and\n    Ackaz\u00e1rpses slip out. For a moment silence. Then all draw their\n    wide swords and lay them before them on the table.]\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nTo the door, slaves. Let no man enter.\n\n1st Duke of Ethiopia:\n\nShe cannot mean to harm us!\n\n    [A Slave comes back from door and abases himself. Loq.]\n\nSlave:\n\nThe door is bolted.\n\nRh\u00e1damand\u00e1spes:\n\nIt is easily broken with our swords.\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes:\n\nNo harm can come to us while we guard the entrances.\n\n    [Meanwhile the Queen has gone up the stairs. She beats with a fan\n    on the wall thrice. The great grating lifts outwards and upwards\n    very slowly.]\n\nZoph\u00e9rnes: [to the Two Dukes]\n\nQuick, to the great hole.\n\nStand on each side of it with your swords.\n\n    [They lift their swords over the hole.]\n\nSlay whatever enters.\n\nQueen:\n\n    [on the step, kneeling, her two arms stretched upwards]\n\nO holy Nile! Ancient Egyptian river! O blessed Nile!\n\nWhen I was a little child I played beside you, picking mauve flowers.\nI threw you down the sweet Egyptian flowers. It is the little Queen\nthat calls to you, Nile. The little Queen that cannot bear to have\nenemies.\n\nHear me, O Nile.\n\nMen speak of other rivers. But I do not hearken to fools. There is\nonly Nile. It is the little child that prays to you who used to pick\nmauve flowers.\n\nHear me, O Nile.\n\nI have prepared a sacrifice to god. Men speak of other gods: there is\nonly Nile. I have prepared a sacrifice of wine--the Lesbian wine from\nfairy Mitylene--to mingle with your waters till you are drunken and go\nsinging to the sea from the Abyssinian hills.\n\nO Nile, hear me.\n\nFruits also I have made ready, all the sweet juices of the earth; and\nthe meat of beasts also.\n\nHear me, O Nile: for it is not the meat of beasts only. I have slaves\nfor you and princes and a King. There has been no such sacrifice. Come\ndown, O Nile, from the sunlight. O ancient Egyptian river!\n\nThe sacrifice is ready. O Nile, hear me.\n\nDuke of Ethiopia:\n\nNo one comes.\n\nQueen: [beats again with her fan]\n\nHarlee, Harlee, let in the water upon the princes and gentlemen.\n\n    [A green torrent descends from the great hole. Green gauzes\n    rise from the floor; the torches hiss out. The temple is flooded.\n    The water from under the doors rises up the steps, the torches\n    hiss out one by one. The water, finding its own level, just\n    touches the end of the Queen's skirt and stops. She withdraws the\n    skirt with catlike haste from the water.]\n\nQueen:\n\nO Ackaz\u00e1rpses! Are all my enemies gone?\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nIllustrious Lady, the Nile has taken them all.\n\nQueen: [with intense devotion]\n\nThat holy river.\n\nAckaz\u00e1rpses:\n\nIllustrious Lady, will you sleep to-night?\n\nQueen:\n\nYes. I shall sleep sweetly.\n\n    [curtain]\n\nThe Tents of the Arabs\n\nDramatis Person\u00e6\n\nThe King\nBel-Narb, Aoob (camel-drivers)\nThe Chamberlain\nZabra (a notable)\nEznarza (a gypsy of the desert)\n\nScene: Outside the gate of the city of Thalanna.\n\nTime: Uncertain.\n\nAct I\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nBy evening we shall be in the desert again.\n\nAoob:\n\nYes.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nThen no more city for us for many weeks.\n\nAoob:\n\nAh!\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nWe shall see the lights come out, looking back from the camel-track;\nthat is the last we shall see of it.\n\nAoob:\n\nWe shall be in the desert then.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nThe old angry desert.\n\nAoob:\n\nHow cunningly the Desert hides his wells. You would say he had an\nenmity with man. He does not welcome you as the cities do.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nHe _has_ an enmity. I hate the desert.\n\nAoob:\n\nI think there is nothing in the world so beautiful as cities.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nCities are beautiful things.\n\nAoob:\n\nI think they are loveliest a little after dawn when night falls off\nfrom the houses. They draw it away from them slowly and let it fall\nlike a cloak and stand quite naked in their beauty to shine in some\nbroad river; and the light comes up and kisses them on the forehead. I\nthink they are loveliest then. The voices of men and women begin to\narise in the streets, scarce audible, one by one, till a slow loud\nmurmur arises and all the voices are one. I often think the city\nspeaks to me then: she says in that voice of hers, \"Aoob, Aoob, who\none of these days shall die, I am not earthly, I have been always, I\nshall not die.\"\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nI do not think that cities are loveliest at dawn. We can see dawn in\nthe desert any day. I think they are loveliest just when the sun is\nset and a dusk steals along the narrower streets, a kind of mystery in\nwhich we can see cloaked figures and yet not quite discern whose\nfigures they be. And just when it would be dark, and out in the desert\nthere would be nothing to see but a black horizon and a black sky on\ntop of it, just then the swinging lanterns are lighted up and lights\ncome out in windows one by one and all the colours of the raiments\nchange. Then a woman perhaps will slip from a little door and go away\nup the street into the night, and a man perhaps will steal by with a\ndagger for some old quarrel's sake, and Skarmi will light up his house\nto sell brandy all night long, and men will sit on benches outside his\ndoor playing skabash by the glare of a small green lantern, while they\nlight great bubbling pipes and smoke nargroob. O, it is all very good\nto watch. And I like to think as I smoke and see these things that\nsomewhere, far away, the desert has put up a huge red cloud like a\nwing so that all the Arabs know that next day the Siroc will blow, the\naccursed breath of Eblis the father of Satan.\n\nAoob:\n\nYes, it is pleasant to think of the Siroc when one is safe in a city,\nbut I do not like to think about it now, for before the day is out we\nwill be taking pilgrims to Mecca, and who ever prophesied or knew by\nwit what the desert had in store? Going into the desert is like\nthrowing bone after bone to a dog, some he will catch and some of them\nhe will drop. He may catch our bones, or we may go by and come to\ngleaming Mecca. O-ho, I would I were a merchant with a little booth in\na frequented street to sit all day and barter.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nAye, it is easier to cheat some lord coming to buy silk and ornaments\nin a city than to cheat death in the desert. Oh, the desert, the\ndesert, I love the beautiful cities and I hate the desert.\n\nAoob: [pointing off L]\n\nWho is that?\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nWhat? There by the desert's edge where the camels are?\n\nAoob:\n\nYes, who is it?\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nHe is staring across the desert the way that the camels go. They say\nthat the King goes down to the edge of the desert and often stares\nacross it. He stands there for a long time of an evening looking\ntowards Mecca.\n\nAoob:\n\nOf what use is it to the King to look towards Mecca? He cannot go to\nMecca. He cannot go into the desert for one day. Messengers would run\nafter him and cry his name and bring him back to the council-hall or\nto the chamber of judgments. If they could not find him their heads\nwould be struck off and put high up upon some windy roof: the judges\nwould point at them and say, \"They see better there!\"\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nNo, the King cannot go away into the desert. If God were to make me\nKing I would go down to the edge of the desert once, and I would shake\nthe sand out of my turban and out of my beard and then I would never\nlook at the desert again. Greedy and parched old parent of thousands\nof devils! He might cover the wells with sand, and blow with his\nSiroc, year after year and century after century, and never earn one\nof my curses--if God made me King.\n\nAoob:\n\nThey say you are like the King.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nYes, I _am_ like the King. Because his father disguised himself as a\ncamel-driver and came through our villages. I often say to myself,\n\"God is just. And if I could disguise myself as the King and drive him\nout to be a camel-driver, that would please God for He is just.\"\n\nAoob:\n\nIf you did this God would say, \"Look at Bel-Narb, whom I made to be a\ncamel-driver and who has forgotten this.\" And then he would forget\nyou, Bel-Narb.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nWho knows what God would say?\n\nAoob:\n\nWho knows? His ways are wonderful.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nI would not do this thing, Aoob. I would not do it. It is only what I\nsay to myself as I smoke, or at night out in the desert. I say to\nmyself, \"Bel-Narb is King in Thalanna.\" And then I say, \"Chamberlain,\nbring Skarmi here with his brandy and his lanterns and boards to play\nskabash, and let all the town come and drink before the palace and\nmagnify my name.\"\n\nPilgrims: [calling off L.]\n\nBel-Narb! Bel-Narb! Child of two dogs. Come and untether your camels.\nCome and start for holy Mecca.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nA curse on the desert.\n\nAoob:\n\nThe camels are rising. The caravan starts for Mecca. Farewell,\nbeautiful city.\n\n    [Pilgrims' voices off: \"Bel-Narb! Bel-Narb!\"]\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nI come, children of sin.\n\n    [Exeunt Bel-Narb and Aoob.]\n\n    [The King enters through the great door crowned. He sits upon the\n    step.]\n\nKing:\n\nA crown should not be worn upon the head. A sceptre should not be\ncarried in Kings' hands. But a crown should be wrought into a golden\nchain, and a sceptre driven stake-wise into the ground so that a King\nmay be chained to it by the ankle. Then he would know that he might\nnot stray away into the beautiful desert and might never see the palm\ntrees by the wells. O Thalanna, Thalanna, how I hate this city with\nits narrow, narrow ways, and evening after evening drunken men playing\nskabash in the scandalous gambling house of that old scoundrel Skarmi.\nO that I might marry the child of some unkingly house that generation\nto generation had never known a city, and that we might ride from here\ndown the long track through the desert, always we two alone till we\ncame to the tents of the Arabs. And the crown--some foolish, greedy\nman should be given it to his sorrow. And all this may not be, for a\nKing is yet a King.\n\n    [Enter Chamberlain through door.]\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty!\n\nKing:\n\nWell, my lord Chamberlain, have you _more_ work for me to do?\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYes, there is much to do.\n\nKing:\n\nI had hoped for freedom this evening, for the faces of the camels are\ntowards Mecca, and I would see the caravans move off into the desert\nwhere I may not go.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nThere is very much for your Majesty to do. Iktra has revolted.\n\nKing:\n\nWhere is Iktra?\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIt is a little country tributary to your Majesty, beyond Zebdarlon, up\namong the hills.\n\nKing:\n\nAlmost, had it not been for this, almost I had asked you to let me go\naway among the camel-drivers to golden Mecca. I have done the work of\na King now for five years and listened to my councilors, and all the\nwhile the desert called to me; he said, \"Come to the tents of my\nchildren, to the tents of my children!\" And all the while I dwelt\namong these walls.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIf your majesty left the city now----\n\nKing:\n\nI will not, we must raise an army to punish the men of Iktra.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty will appoint the commanders by name. A tribe of your\nMajesty's fighting men must be summoned from Agrarva and another from\nColoono, the jungle city, as well as one from Mirsk. This must be done\nby warrants sealed by your hand. Your Majesty's advisers await you in\nthe council-hall.\n\nKing:\n\nThe sun is very low. Why have the caravans not started yet?\n\nChamberlain:\n\nI do not know. And then your Majesty----\n\nKing: [laying his hand on the Chamberlain's arm]\n\nLook, look! It is the shadows of the camels moving towards Mecca. How\nsilently they slip over the ground, beautiful shadows. Soon they are\nout in the desert flat on the golden sands. And then the sun will set\nand they will be one with night.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIf your Majesty has time for such things there are the camels\nthemselves.\n\nKing:\n\nNo, no, I do not wish to watch the camels. They can never take me out\nto the beautiful desert to be free forever from cities. Here I must\nstay to do the work of a King. Only my dreams can go, and the shadows\nof the camels carry them, to find peace by the tents of the Arabs.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nWill your Majesty now come to the council-hall?\n\nKing:\n\nYes, yes, I come.\n\n    [Voices off: \"Ho-_Yo!_ Ho-_Yay!_ ...Ho-_Yo!_ Ho-_Yay!_\"]\n\nNow the whole caravan has started. Hark to the drivers of the\nbaggage-camels. They will run behind them for the first ten miles, and\ntomorrow they will mount them. They will be out of sight of Thalanna\nthen, and the desert will lie all round them with sunlight falling on\nits golden smiles. And a new look will come into their faces. I am\nsure that the desert whispers to them by night saying, \"Be at peace,\nmy children, at peace, my children.\"\n\n    [Meanwhile the Chamberlain has opened the door for the King and\n    is waiting there bowing, with his hand resolutely on the opened\n    door.]\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty will come to the council-hall?\n\nKing:\n\nYes, I will come. Had it not been for Iktra I might have gone away and\nlived in the golden desert for a year, and seen holy Mecca.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nPerhaps your Majesty might have gone had it not been for Iktra.\n\nKing:\n\nMy curse upon Iktra! [He goes through the doorway.]\n\n    [As they stand in doorway enter Zabra R.]\n\nZabra:\n\nYour Majesty.\n\nKing:\n\nO-ho. More work for an unhappy King.\n\nZabra:\n\nIktra is pacified.\n\nKing:\n\nIs pacified?\n\nZabra:\n\nIt happened suddenly. The men of Iktra met with a few of your Majesty's\nfighting men and an arrow chanced to kill the leader of the revolt, and\ntherefore the mob fled away although they were many, and they have all\ncried for three hours, \"Great is the King!\"\n\nKing:\n\nI will even yet see Mecca and the dreamed-of tents of the Arabs. I\nwill go down now into the golden sands, I----\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty----\n\nKing:\n\nIn a few years I will return to you.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty, it cannot be. We could not govern the people for more\nthan a year. They would say, \"The King is dead, the King----\"\n\nKing:\n\nThen I will return in a year. In one year only.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIt is a long time, your Majesty.\n\nKing:\n\nI will return at noon a year from to-day.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nBut, your Majesty, a princess is being sent for from Tharba.\n\nKing:\n\nI thought one was coming from Karshish.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIt has been thought more advisable that your Majesty should wed in\nTharba. The passes across the mountains belong to the King of Tharba\nand he has great traffic with Sharan and the Isles.\n\nKing:\n\nLet it be as you will.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nBut, your Majesty, the ambassadors start this week; the princess will\nbe here in three months' time.\n\nKing:\n\nLet her come in a year and a day.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty!\n\nKing:\n\nFarewell, I am in haste. I go to make ready for the desert. [Exit\nthrough door still speaking.] The olden, golden mother of happy men.\n\nChamberlain: [to Zabra]\n\nOne from whom God had not withheld all wisdom would not have given\nthat message to our crazy young King.\n\nZabra:\n\nBut it must be known. Many things might happen if it were not known at\nonce.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nI knew it this morning. He is off to the desert now.\n\nZabra:\n\nThat is evil indeed; but we can lure him back.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nPerhaps not for many days.\n\nZabra:\n\nThe King's favour is like gold.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIt is like much gold. Who are the Arabs that the King's favour should\nbe cast among them? The walls of their houses are canvas. Even the\ncommon snail has a finer wall to his house.\n\nZabra:\n\nO, it is most evil. Alas that I told him this! We shall be poor men.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nNo one will give us gold for many days.\n\nZabra:\n\nYet you will govern Thalanna while he is away. You can increase the\ntaxes of the merchants and the tribute of the men that till the\nfields.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nThey will only pay taxes and tribute to the King, who gives of his\nbounty to just and upright men when he is in Thalanna. But while he is\naway the surfeit of his wealth will go to unjust men and to men whose\nbeards are unclean and who fear not God.\n\nZabra:\n\nWe shall indeed be poor.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nA little gold perhaps from evil-doers for justice. Or a little money\nto decide the dispute of some righteous wealthy man; but no more till\nthe King returns, whom God prosper.\n\nZabra:\n\nGod increase him. Will you yet try to detain him?\n\nChamberlain:\n\nNo. When he comes by with his retinue and escort I will walk beside\nhis horse and tell him that a progress through the desert will well\nimpress the Arabs with his splendour and turn their hearts towards\nhim. And I will speak privily to some captain at the rear of the\nescort and he shall afterwards speak to the chief commander that he\nmay lose the camel-track in a few days' time and take the King and his\nfollowers to wander in the desert and so return by chance to Thalanna\nagain. And it may yet be well with us. We will wait here till they\ncome by.\n\nZabra:\n\nWill the chief commander do this thing certainly?\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYes, he will be one Thakbar, a poor man and a righteous.\n\nZabra:\n\nBut if he be not Thakbar but some greedy man who demands more gold\nthan we would give to Thakbar?\n\nChamberlain:\n\nWhy, then we must give him even what he demands, and God will punish\nhis greed.\n\nZabra:\n\nHe must come past us here.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYes, he must come this way. He will summon the cavalry from the Saloia\nSamang.\n\nZabra:\n\nIt will be nearly dark before they can come.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nNo, he is in great haste. He will pass before sunset. He will make\nthem mount at once.\n\nZabra: [looking off R.]\n\nI do not see stir at the Saloia.\n\nChamberlain: [looking, too] No--no. I do not see. He will _make_ a\nstir.\n\n    [As they look a man comes through the doorway wearing a coarse\n    brown cloak which falls over his forehead. Exit furtively L.]\n\nWhat man is that? He has gone down to the camels.\n\nZabra:\n\nHe has given a piece of money to one of the camel-drivers.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nSee, he has mounted.\n\nZabra:\n\nCan it have been the King!\n\n    [Voice off L. \"Ho-Yo! Ho-Yay!\"]\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIt is only some camel-driver going into the desert. How glad his voice\nsounds.\n\nZabra:\n\nThe Siroc will swallow him.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nWhat--if it _were_ the King!\n\nZabra:\n\nWhy, if it were the King we should starve for a year.\n\n    [One year elapses between the first and second acts.]\n\nAct II\n\n    [The same scene.]\n\n    [The King, wrapped in a camel-driver's cloak, sits by Eznarza, a\n    gypsy of the desert.]\n\nKing:\n\nNow I have known the desert and dwelt in the tents of the Arabs.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThere is no land like the desert and like the Arabs no people.\n\nKing:\n\nIt is all over and done; I return to the walls of my fathers.\n\nEznarza:\n\nTime cannot put it away; I go back to the desert that nursed me.\n\nKing:\n\nDid you think in those days on the sands, or among the tents in the\nmornings, that my year would ever end, and I be brought away by\nstrength of my word to the prisoning of a palace?\n\nEznarza:\n\nI knew that Time would do it, for my people have learned the way of\nhim.\n\nKing:\n\nIs it then Time that has mocked our futile prayers? Is he then greater\nthan God that he has laughed at our praying?\n\nEznarza:\n\nWe may not say that he is greater than God. Yet we prayed that our own\nyear might not pass away. God could not save it.\n\nKing:\n\nYes, yes. We prayed that prayer. All men would laugh at it.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThe prayer was not laughable. Only he that is lord of the years is\nobdurate. If a man prayed for life to a furious, merciless Sultan well\nmight the Sultan's slaves laugh. Yet it is not laughable to pray for\nlife.\n\nKing:\n\nYes, we are slaves of Time. To-morrow brings the princess who comes\nfrom Tharba. We must bow our heads.\n\nEznarza:\n\nMy people say that Time lives in the desert. He lies there in the sun.\n\nKing:\n\nNo, no, not in the desert. Nothing alters there.\n\nEznarza:\n\nMy people say that the desert is his country. He smites not his own\ncountry, my people say. But he overwhelms all other lands of the\nworld.\n\nKing:\n\nYes, the desert is always the same, even the littlest rocks of it.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThey say that he loves the Sphinx and does not harm her. They say that\nhe does not dare to harm the Sphinx. She has borne him many gods whom\nthe infidels worship.\n\nKing:\n\nTheir father is more terrible than all the false gods.\n\nEznarza:\n\nO, that he had but spared our little year.\n\nKing:\n\nHe destroys all things utterly.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThere is a little child of man that is mightier than he, and who saves\nthe world from Time.\n\nKing:\n\nWho is this little child that is mightier than Time? Is it Love that\nis mightier?\n\nEznarza:\n\nNo, not Love.\n\nKing:\n\nIf he conquers even Love then none are mightier.\n\nEznarza:\n\nHe scares Love away with weak white hairs and with wrinkles. Poor\nlittle Love, poor Love, Time scares him away.\n\nKing:\n\nWhat is this child of man that can conquer Time and that is braver\nthan Love?\n\nEznarza:\n\nEven Memory.\n\nKing:\n\nYes. I will call to him when the wind is from the desert and the\nlocusts are beaten against my obdurate walls. I will call to him more\nwhen I cannot see the desert and cannot hear the wind of it.\n\nEznarza:\n\nHe shall bring back our year to us that Time cannot destroy. Time\ncannot slaughter it if Memory says no. It is reprieved, though\nbanished. We shall often see it though a little far off and all its\nhours and days shall dance to us and go by one by one and come back\nand dance again.\n\nKing:\n\nWhy, that is true. They shall come back to us. I had thought that they\nthat work miracles whether in Heaven or Earth were unable to do one\nthing. I thought that they could not bring back days again when once\nthey had fallen into the hands of Time.\n\nEznarza:\n\nIt is a trick that Memory can do. He comes up softly in the town or\nthe desert, wherever a few men are, like the strange dark conjurors\nwho sing to snakes, and he does his trick before them, and does it\nagain and again.\n\nKing:\n\nWe will often make him bring the old days back when you are gone to\nyour people and I am miserably wedded to the princess coming from\nTharba.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThey will come with sand on their feet from the golden, beautiful\ndesert; they will come with a long-gone sunset each one over his head.\nTheir lips will laugh with the olden evening voices.\n\nKing:\n\nIt is nearly noon. It is nearly noon. It is nearly noon.\n\nEznarza:\n\nWhy, we part then.\n\nKing:\n\nO, come into the city and be Queen there. I will send its princess\nback again to Tharba. You shall be Queen in Thalanna.\n\nEznarza:\n\nI go now back to my people. You will wed the princess from Tharba on\nthe morrow. You have said it. I have said it.\n\nKing:\n\nO, that I had not given my word to return.\n\nEznarza:\n\nA King's word is like a King's crown and a King's sceptre and a King's\nthrone. It is in fact a foolish thing, like a city.\n\nKing:\n\nI cannot break my word. But you can be Queen in Thalanna.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThalanna will not have a gypsy for a Queen.\n\nKing:\n\nI will make Thalanna have her for a Queen.\n\nEznarza:\n\nYou cannot make a gypsy live for a year in a city.\n\nKing:\n\nI knew of a gypsy that lived once in a city.\n\nEznarza:\n\nNot such a gypsy as I... come back to the tents of the Arabs.\n\nKing:\n\nI cannot. I gave my word.\n\nEznarza:\n\nKings have broken their words.\n\nKing:\n\nNot such a King as I.\n\nEznarza:\n\nWe have only that little child of man whose name is Memory.\n\nKing:\n\nCome. He shall bring back to us, before we part, one of those days\nthat were banished.\n\nEznarza:\n\nLet it be the first day. The day we met by the well when the camels\ncame to El-Lolith.\n\nKing:\n\nOur year lacked some few days. For my year began here. The camels were\nsome days out.\n\nEznarza:\n\nYou were riding a little wide of the caravan, upon the side of the\nsunset. Your camel was swinging on with easy strides. But you were\ntired.\n\nKing:\n\nYou had come to the well for water. At first I could see your eyes,\nthen the stars came out, and it grew dark and I only saw your shape,\nand there was a little light about your hair: I do not know if it was\nthe light of the stars, I only knew that it shone.\n\nEznarza:\n\nAnd then you spoke to me about the camels.\n\nKing:\n\nThen I heard your voice. You did not say the things you would say now.\n\nEznarza:\n\nOf course I did not.\n\nKing:\n\nYou did not say things in the same way even.\n\nEznarza:\n\nHow the hours come dancing back!\n\nKing:\n\nNo, no. Only their shadows. We went together then to Holy Mecca. We\ndwelt alone in tents in the golden desert. We heard the wild free day\nsing sings in his freedom, we heard the beautiful night wind. Nothing\nremains of our year but desolate shadows. Memory whips them and they\nwill not dance.\n\n    [Eznarza does not answer.]\n\nWe made our farewells where the desert was. The city shall not hear\nthem.\n\n    [Eznarza covers her face. The King rises softly and walks up the\n    steps. Enter L. the Chamberlain and Zabra, only noticing each\n    other.]\n\nChamberlain:\n\nHe will come. He will come.\n\nZabra:\n\nBut it is noon now. Our fatness has left us. Our enemies mock at us.\nIf he do not come God has forgotten us and our friends will pity us!\n\n    [Enter Bel-Narb and Aoob.]\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIf he is alive he will come.\n\nZabra:\n\nI fear that it is past noon.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nThen he is dead or robbers have waylaid him.\n\n    [Chamberlain and Zabra put dust upon their heads.]\n\nBel-Narb: [To Aoob.]\n\nGod is just!\n\n    [To Chamberlain and Zabra.]\n\nI am the King!\n\n    [The King's hand is on the door. When Bel-Narb says this he goes\n    down the steps again and sits beside the gypsy. She raises her\n    head from her hands and looks at him fixedly. He watches Bel-Narb,\n    and the Chamberlain and Zabra. He partially covers his face Arab\n    fashion.]\n\nChamberlain:\n\nAre you indeed the King?\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nI am the King.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYour Majesty has altered much since a year ago.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nMen alter in the desert. And alter much.\n\nAoob:\n\nIndeed, your Excellency, he is the King. When the King went into the\ndesert disguised I fed his camel. Indeed he is the King.\n\nZabra:\n\nHe is the King. I know the King when I see him.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYou have seen the King seldom.\n\nZabra:\n\nI have often seen the King.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nYes, we have often met, often and often.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nIf some one could recognize your Majesty, some one besides this man\nwho came with you, then we should all be certain.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nThere is no need of it. I am the King.\n\n    [The King rises and stretches out his hand palm downwards.]\n\nKing:\n\nIn holy Mecca, in green-roofed Mecca of the many gates, we knew him\nfor the King.\n\nBel-Narb:\n\nYes, that is true. I saw this man in Mecca.\n\nChamberlain: [Bowing low.]\n\nPardon, your Majesty. The desert had altered you.\n\nZabra:\n\nI knew your Majesty.\n\nAoob:\n\nAs well as I do.\n\nBel-Narb: [Pointing to the King.]\n\nLet this man be rewarded suitably. Give him some post in the palace.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nYes, your Majesty.\n\nKing:\n\nI am a camel-driver and we go back to our camels.\n\nChamberlain:\n\nAs you wish.\n\n    [Exeunt Bel-Narb, Aoob, Chamberlain and Zabra through door.]\n\nEznarza:\n\nYou have done wisely, wisely, and the reward of wisdom is happiness.\n\nKing:\n\nThey have their king now. But we will turn again to the tents of the\nArabs.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThey are foolish people.\n\nKing:\n\nThey have found a foolish King.\n\nEznarza:\n\nIt is a foolish man that would choose to dwell among walls.\n\nKing:\n\nSome are born kings, but this man has chosen to be one.\n\nEznarza:\n\nCome, let us leave them.\n\nKing:\n\nWe will go back again.\n\nEznarza:\n\nCome back to the tents of my people.\n\nKing:\n\nWe will dwell a little apart in a dear brown tent of our own.\n\nEznarza:\n\nWe shall hear the sand again, whispering low to the dawn wind.\n\nKing:\n\nWe shall hear the nomads stirring in their camps far off because it is\ndawn.\n\nEznarza:\n\nThe jackals will patter past us slipping back to the hills.\n\nKing:\n\nWhen at evening the sun is set we shall weep for no day that is gone.\n\nEznarza:\n\nI will raise up my head of a night time against the sky, and the old,\nold, unbought stars shall twinkle through my hair, and we shall not\nenvy any of the diademmed queens of the world.\n\nCURTAIN\n\nA Night at an Inn\n\nDramatis Person\u00e6\n\nA. E. Scott-Fortescue (the Toff,  dilapidated gentleman)\nWilliam Jones (Bill)\nAlbert Thomas\nJacob Smith (Sniggers) (All Merchant Sailors.)\n1st Priest of Klesh\n2nd Priest of Klesh\n3rd Priest of Klesh\nKlesh\n\n    [The Curtain rises on a room in an inn.]\n\n    [Sniggers and Bill are talking. The Toff is reading a paper.\n    Albert sits a little apart.]\n\nSniggers:\n\nWhat's his idea, I wonder?\n\nBill:\n\nI don't know.\n\nSniggers:\n\nAnd how much longer will he keep us here?\n\nBill:\n\nWe've been here three days.\n\nSniggers:\n\nAnd 'aven't seen a soul.\n\nBill:\n\nAnd a pretty penny it cost us when he rented the pub.\n\nSniggers:\n\n'Ow long did 'e rent the pub for?\n\nBill:\n\nYou never know with him.\n\nSniggers:\n\nIt's lonely enough.\n\nBill:\n\n'Ow long did you rent the pub for, Toffy?\n\n    [The Toff continues to read a sporting paper; he takes no notice\n    of what is said.]\n\nSniggers:\n\n'E's _such_ a toff.\n\nBill:\n\nYet 'e's clever, no mistake.\n\nSniggers:\n\nThose clever ones are the beggars to make a muddle. Their plans are\nclever enough, but they don't work, and then they make a mess of\nthings much worse than you or me.\n\nBill:\n\nAh\n\nSniggers:\n\nI don't like this place.\n\nBill:\n\nWhy not?\n\nSniggers:\n\nI don't like the looks of it.\n\nBill:\n\nHe's keeping us here because those niggers can't find us. The three\nheathen priests what was looking for us so. But we want to go and sell\nour ruby soon.\n\nAlbert:\n\nThere's no sense in it.\n\nBill:\n\nWhy not, Albert?\n\nAlbert:\n\nBecause I gave those black devils the slip in Hull.\n\nBill:\n\nYou give 'em the slip, Albert?\n\nAlbert:\n\nThe slip, all three of them. The fellows with the gold spots on their\nforeheads. I had the ruby then, and I give them the slip in Hull.\n\nBill:\n\nHow did you do it, Albert?\n\nAlbert:\n\nI had the ruby and they were following me....\n\nBill:\n\nWho told them you had the ruby? You didn't show it?\n\nAlbert:\n\nNo.... But they kind of know.\n\nSniggers:\n\nThey kind of know, Albert?\n\nAlbert:\n\nYes, they know if you've got it. Well, they sort of mouched after me,\nand I tells a policeman and he says, O they were only three poor\nniggers and they wouldn't hurt me. Ugh! When I thought of what they\ndid in Malta to poor old Jim.\n\nBill:\n\nYes, and to George in Bombay before we started.\n\nSniggers:\n\nUgh!\n\nBill:\n\nWhy didn't you give 'em in charge?\n\nAlbert:\n\nWhat about the ruby, Bill?\n\nBill:\n\nAh!\n\nAlbert:\n\nWell, I did better than that. I walks up and down through Hull. I\nwalks slow enough. And then I turns a corner and I runs. I never sees\na corner but I turns it. But sometimes I let a corner pass just to\nfool them. I twists about like a hare. Then I sits down and waits. No\npriests.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWhat?\n\nAlbert:\n\nNo heathen black devils with gold spots on their face. I give 'em the\nslip.\n\nBill:\n\nWell done, Albert.\n\nSniggers: [after a sigh of content]\n\nWhy didn't you tell us?\n\nAlbert:\n\n'Cause 'e won't let you speak. 'E's got 'is plans and 'e thinks we're\nsilly folk. Things must be done 'is way. And all the time I've give\n'em the slip. Might 'ave 'ad one of them crooked knives in him before\nnow but for me who give 'em the slip in Hull.\n\nBill:\n\nWell done, Albert.\n\nSniggers:\n\nDo you hear that, Toffy? Albert has give 'em the slip.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nYes, I hear.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWell, what do you say to that?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nO... Well done, Albert.\n\nAlbert:\n\nAnd what a' you going to do?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nGoing to wait.\n\nAlbert:\n\nDon't seem to know what 'e's waiting for.\n\nSniggers:\n\nIt's a nasty place.\n\nAlbert:\n\nIt's getting silly, Bill. Our money's gone and we want to sell the\nruby. Let's get on to a town.\n\nBill:\n\nBut 'e won't come.\n\nAlbert:\n\nThen we'll leave him.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWe'll be all right if we keep away from Hull.\n\nAlbert:\n\nWe'll go to London.\n\nBill:\n\nBut 'e must 'ave 'is share.\n\nSniggers:\n\nAll right. Only let's go. [to the Toff] We're going, do you hear? Give\nus the ruby.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nCertainly.\n\n    [He gives them a ruby from his waistcoat pocket: it is the size\n    of a small hen's egg.]\n\n    [He goes on reading his paper.]\n\nAlbert:\n\nCome on, Sniggers.\n\n    [Exeunt Albert and Sniggers.]\n\nBill:\n\nGood-bye, old man. We'll give you your fair share, but there's nothing\nto do here, no girls, no halls, and we must sell the ruby.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nI'm not a fool, Bill.\n\nBill:\n\nNo, no, of course not. Of course you ain't, and you've helped us a\nlot. Good-bye. You'll say good-bye?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nOh, yes. Good-bye.\n\n    [Still reads paper. Exit Bill.]\n\n    [The Toff puts a revolver on the table beside him and goes on\n    with his paper.]\n\nSniggers: [Out of breath.]\n\nWe've come back, Toffy.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nSo you have.\n\nAlbert:\n\nToffy--How did they get here?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nThey walked, of course.\n\nAlbert:\n\nBut it's eighty miles.\n\nSniggers:\n\nDid you know they were here, Toffy?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nExpected them about now.\n\nAlbert:\n\nEighty miles.\n\nBill:\n\nToffy, old man--what are we to do?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAsk Albert.\n\nBill:\n\nIf they can do things like this there's no one can save us but you,\nToffy--I always knew you were a clever one. We won't be fools any\nmore. We'll obey you, Toffy.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nYou're brave enough and strong enough. There isn't many that would\nsteal a ruby eye out of an idol's head, and such an idol as that was\nto look at, and on such a night. You're brave enough, Bill. But you're\nall three of you fools. Jim would have none of my plans and where's\nJim? And George. What did they do to him?\n\nSniggers:\n\nDon't, Toffy!\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, then, your strength is no use to you. You want cleverness; or\nthey'll have you the way that they had George and Jim.\n\nAll:\n\nUgh!\n\nThe Toff:\n\nThose black priests would follow you round the world in circles, year\nafter year, till they got the idol's eye. And if we died with it\nthey'd follow our grandchildren. That fool thinks he can escape men\nlike that by running round three streets in the town of Hull.\n\nAlbert:\n\nGod's truth, _you_ 'aven't escaped them, because they're _'ere_.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nSo I supposed.\n\nAlbert:\n\nYou _supposed_?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nYes, I believe there's no announcement in the Society papers. But I\ntook this country seat especially to receive them. There's plenty of\nroom if you dig; it is pleasantly situated and what is most important\nit is in a very quiet neighbourhood. So I am at home to them this\nafternoon.\n\nBill:\n\nWell, you're a deep one.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAnd remember you've only my wits between you and death, and don't put\nyour futile plans against those of an educated gentleman.\n\nAlbert:\n\nIf you're a gentleman, why don't you go about among gentlemen instead\nof the likes of us?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nBecause I was too clever for them as I am too clever for you.\n\nAlbert:\n\nToo clever for them?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nI never lost a game of cards in my life.\n\nBill:\n\nYou never lost a game?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNot when there was money on it.\n\nBill:\n\nWell, well.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nHave a game of poker?\n\nAll:\n\nNo, thanks.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nThen do as you're told.\n\nBill:\n\nAll right, Toffy.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI saw something just then. Hadn't we better draw the curtains?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNo.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWhat?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nDon't draw the curtains.\n\nSniggers:\n\nO all right.\n\nBill:\n\nBut Toffy, they can see us. One doesn't let the enemy do that. I don't\nsee why....\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNo, of course you don't.\n\nBill:\n\nO all right, Toffy.\n\n    [All begin to pull out revolvers.]\n\nThe Toff: [putting his own away]\n\nNo revolvers, please.\n\nAlbert:\n\nWhy not?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nBecause I don't want any noise at my party. We might get guests that\nhadn't been invited. _Knives_ are a different matter.\n\n    [All draw knives. The Toff signs to them not to draw them yet.\n    Toffy has already taken back his ruby.]\n\nBill:\n\nI think they're coming, Toffy.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNot yet.\n\nAlbert:\n\nWhen will they come?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWhen I am quite ready to receive them. Not before.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI should like to get this over.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nShould you? Then we'll have them now.\n\nSniggers:\n\nNow?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nYes. Listen to me. You shall do as you see me do. You will all pretend\nto go out. I'll show you how. I've got the ruby. When they see me\nalone they will come for their idol's eye.\n\nBill:\n\nHow can they tell like this which one of us has it?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nI confess I don't know, but they seem to.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWhat will you do when they come in?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nI shall do nothing.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWhat?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nThey will creep up behind me. Then my friends, Sniggers and Bill and\nAlbert, who gave them the slip, will do what they can.\n\nBill:\n\nAll right, Toffy. Trust us.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nIf you're a little slow you will see enacted the cheerful spectacle\nthat accompanied the demise of Jim.\n\nSniggers:\n\nDon't, Toffy. We'll be there all right.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nVery well. Now watch me.\n\n    [He goes past the windows to the inner door R.; he opens it\n    inwards. Then under cover of the open door he slips down on his\n    knee and closes it, remaining on the inside, appearing to have\n    gone out. He signs to the others who understand. Then he appears\n    to re-enter in the same manner.]\n\nNow, I shall sit with my back to the door. You go out one by one so\nfar as our friends can make out. Crouch very low to be on the safe\nside. They mustn't see you through the window.\n\n    [Bill makes his sham exit.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nRemember, no revolvers. The police are, I believe, proverbially\ninquisitive.\n\n    [The other two follow Bill. All three are now crouching inside\n    the door R. The Toff puts the ruby beside him on the table. He\n    lights a cigarette.]\n\n    [The door in back opens so slowly that you can hardly say at what\n    moment it began. The Toff picks up his paper.]\n\n    [A Native of India wriggles along the floor ever so slowly,\n    seeking cover from chairs. He moves L. where the Toff is. The\n    three sailors are R. Sniggers and Albert lean forward. Bill's arm\n    keeps them back. An armchair had better conceal them from the\n    Indian. The black Priest nears the Toff.]\n\n    [Bill watches to see if any more are coming. Then he leaps\n    forward alone (he has taken his boots off) and knifes the\n    Priest.]\n\n    [The Priest tries to shout but Bill's left hand is over his mouth.]\n\n    [The Toff continues to read his sporting paper. He never looks round.]\n\nBill: [sotto voce]\n\nThere's only one, Toffy. What shall we do?\n\nThe Toff: [without turning his head]\n\nOnly one?\n\nBill:\n\nYes.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWait a moment. Let me think.\n\n    [Still apparently absorbed in his paper.]\n\nAh, yes. You go back, Bill. We must attract another guest. Now are you\nready?\n\nBill:\n\nYes.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAll right. You shall now see my demise at my Yorkshire residence. You\nmust receive guests for me.\n\n    [He leaps up in full view of the window, flings up both arms and\n    falls on to the floor near the dead Priest.]\n\nNow be ready.\n\n    [His eyes close.]\n\n    [There is a long pause. Again the door opens, very very slowly.\n    Another Priest creeps in. He has three golden spots upon his\n    forehead. He looks round, then he creeps up to his companion and\n    turns him over and looks inside each of his clenched hands. Then\n    he looks at the recumbent Toff. Then he creeps towards him. Bill\n    slips after him and knifes him like the other with his left hand\n    over his mouth.]\n\nBill: [sotto voce]\n\nWe've only got two, Toffy.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nStill another.\n\nBill:\n\nWhat'll we do?\n\nThe Toff: [sitting up]\n\nHum.\n\nBill:\n\nThis is the best way, much.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nOut of the question. Never play the same game twice.\n\nBill:\n\nWhy not, Toffy?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nDoesn't work if you do.\n\nBill:\n\nWell?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nI have it, Albert. You will now walk into the room. I showed you how\nto do it.\n\nAlbert:\n\nYes.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nJust run over here and have a fight at this window with these two men.\n\nAlbert:\n\nBut they're----\n\nThe Toff:\n\nYes, they're dead, my perspicuous Albert. But Bill and I are going to\nresuscitate them.----. Come on.\n\n    [Bill picks up a body under the arms.]\n\nThat's right, Bill. [Does the same.] Come and help us, Sniggers----\n[Sniggers comes] Keep low, keep low. Wave their arms about, Sniggers.\nDon't show yourself. Now, Albert, over you go. Our Albert is slain.\nBack you get, Bill. Back, Sniggers. Still, Albert. Mustn't move when\nhe comes. Not a muscle.\n\n    [A Face appears at the window and stays for some time. Then the\n    door opens and looking craftily round the third Priest enters. He\n    looks at his companions' bodies and turns round. He suspects\n    something. He takes up one of the knives and with a knife in each\n    hand he puts his back to the wall. He looks to the left and\n    right.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nCome on, Bill.\n\n    [The Priest rushes to the door. The Toff knifes the last Priest\n    from behind.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nA good day's work, my friends.\n\nBill:\n\nWell done, Toffy. Oh, you are a deep one.\n\nAlbert:\n\nA deep one if ever there was one.\n\nSniggers:\n\nThere ain't any more, Bill, are there?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNo more in the world, my friend.\n\nBill:\n\nAye, that's all there are. There were only three in the temple. Three\npriests and their beastly idol.\n\nAlbert:\n\nWhat is it worth, Toffy? Is it worth a thousand pounds?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nIt's worth all they've got in the shop. Worth just whatever we like to\nask for it.\n\nAlbert:\n\nThen we're millionaires, now.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nYes, and what is more important, we no longer have any heirs.\n\nBill:\n\nWe'll have to sell it now.\n\nAlbert:\n\nThat won't be easy. It's a pity it isn't small and we had half a\ndozen. Hadn't the idol any other on him?\n\nBill:\n\nNo, he was green jade all over and only had this one eye. He had it in\nthe middle of his forehead, and was a long sight uglier than anything\nelse in the world.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI'm sure we ought all to be very grateful to Toffy.\n\nBill:\n\nAnd indeed we ought.\n\nAlbert:\n\nIf it hadn't 'ave been for him----\n\nBill:\n\nYes, if it hadn't 'a' been for old Toffy....\n\nSniggers:\n\nHe's a deep one.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, you see, I just have a knack of foreseeing things.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI should think you did.\n\nBill:\n\nWhy, I don't suppose anything happens that our Toff doesn't foresee.\nDoes it, Toffy?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, I don't think it does, Bill. I don't think it often does.\n\nBill:\n\nLife is no more than just a game of cards to our old Toff.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, we've taken these fellows' trick.\n\nSniggers: [going to the window]\n\nIt wouldn't do for any one to see them.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nO nobody will come this way. We're all alone on a moor.\n\nBill:\n\nWhere will we put them?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nBury them in the cellar, but there's no hurry.\n\nBill:\n\nAnd what then, Toffy?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWhy, then we'll go to London and upset the ruby business. We'll have\nreally come through this job very nicely.\n\nBill:\n\nI think the first thing we ought to do is give a little supper to old\nToffy. We'll bury these fellows to-night.\n\nAlbert:\n\nYes, let's.\n\nSniggers:\n\nThe very thing.\n\nBill:\n\nAnd we'll all drink his health.\n\nAlbert:\n\nGood old Toffy.\n\nSniggers:\n\nHe ought to have been a general or a premier.\n\n    [They get bottles from cupboard, etc.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, we've earned our bit of a supper.\n\n    [They sit down.]\n\nBill: [Glass in hand.]\n\nHere's to old Toffy who guessed everything.\n\nAlbert and Sniggers:\n\nGood old Toffy.\n\nBill:\n\nToffy who saved our lives and made our fortunes.\n\nAlbert and Sniggers:\n\nHear. Hear.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAnd here's to Bill who saved me twice to-night.\n\nBill:\n\nCouldn't have done it but for your cleverness, Toffy.\n\nSniggers:\n\nHear, hear. Hear, hear.\n\nAlbert:\n\nHe foresees everything.\n\nBill:\n\nA speech, Toffy. A speech from our general.\n\nAll:\n\nYes, a speech.\n\nSniggers:\n\nA speech.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, get me some water. This whiskey's too much for my head, and I\nmust keep it clear till our friends are safe in the cellar.\n\nBill:\n\nWater. Yes, of course. Get him some water, Sniggers.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWe don't use water here. Where shall I get it?\n\nBill:\n\nOutside in the garden.\n\n    [Exit Sniggers.]\n\nAlbert:\n\nHere's to fortune. [They all drink.]\n\nBill:\n\nHere's to Albert Thomas, Esquire. [He drinks.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAlbert Thomas, Esquire. [He drinks.]\n\nAlbert:\n\nAnd William Jones Esquire.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAlbert Jones, Esquire. [The Toff and Albert drink.]\n\n    [Re-enter Sniggers terrified.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nHullo, here's Jacob Smith Esquire, J.P., alias Sniggers, back again.\n\nSniggers:\n\nToffy, I've been thinking about my share in that ruby. I don't want\nit, Toffy, I don't want it.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNonsense, Sniggers, nonsense.\n\nSniggers:\n\nYou shall have it, Toffy, you shall have it yourself, only say\nSniggers has no share in this 'ere ruby. Say it, Toffy, say it.\n\nBill:\n\nWant to turn informer, Sniggers?\n\nSniggers:\n\nNo, no. Only I don't want the ruby, Toffy....\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNo more nonsense, Sniggers, we're all in together in this, if one hangs\nwe all hang; but they won't outwit me. Besides, it's not a hanging\naffair, they had their knives.\n\nSniggers:\n\nToffy, Toffy, I've always treated you fair, Toffy. I was always one to\nsay, Give Toffy a chance. Take back my share, Toffy.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWhat's the matter? What are you driving at?\n\nSniggers:\n\nTake it back, Toffy.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nAnswer me; what are you up to?\n\nSniggers:\n\nI don't want my share any more.\n\nBill:\n\nHave you seen the police?\n\n    [Albert pulls out his knife.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nNo, no knives, Albert.\n\nAlbert:\n\nWhat then?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nThe honest truth in open court, barring the ruby. We were attacked.\n\nSniggers:\n\nThere's no police.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWell, then, what's the matter?\n\nBill:\n\nOut with it.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI swear to God...\n\nAlbert:\n\nWell?\n\nThe Toff:\n\nDon't interrupt.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI swear I saw something _what I didn't like._\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWhat you didn't like?\n\nSniggers: [In tears.]\n\nO Toffy, Toffy, take it back. Take my share. Say you take it.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nWhat has he seen?\n\n    [Dead silence only broken by Sniggers' sobs. Then stony steps\n    are heard.]\n\n    [Enter a hideous Idol. It is blind and gropes its way. It gropes\n    its way to the ruby and picks it up and screws it into a socket\n    in the forehead.]\n\n    [Sniggers still weeps softly; the rest stare in horror. The Idol\n    steps out, not groping. Its steps move off then stops.]\n\nThe Toff:\n\nO great heavens!\n\nAlbert: [In a childish, plaintive voice.]\n\nWhat is it, Toffy?\n\nBill:\n\nAlbert, it is that obscene idol [in a whisper] come from India.\n\nAlbert:\n\nIt is gone.\n\nBill:\n\nIt has taken its eye.\n\nSniggers:\n\nWe are saved.\n\nOff, a Voice: [With outlandish accent.]\n\nMeestaire William Jones, Able Seaman.\n\n    [The Toff has never spoken, never moved. He only gazes stupidly\n    in horror.]\n\nBill:\n\nAlbert, Albert, what is this?\n\n    [He rises and walks out. One moan is heard. Sniggers goes to\n    window. He falls back sickly.]\n\nAlbert: [In a whisper.]\n\nWhat has happened?\n\nSniggers:\n\nI have seen it. I have seen it. O I have seen it. [He returns to\ntable.]\n\nThe Toff: [Laying his hand very gently on Sniggers' arm, speaking\nsoftly and winningly.]\n\nWhat was it, Sniggers?\n\nSniggers:\n\nI have seen it.\n\nAlbert:\n\nWhat?\n\nSniggers:\n\nO.\n\nVoice:\n\nMeestaire Albert Thomas, Able Seaman.\n\nAlbert:\n\nMust I go, Toffy? Toffy, must I go?\n\nSniggers: [Clutching him.]\n\nDon't move.\n\nAlbert: [Going.]\n\nToffy, Toffy. [Exit.]\n\nVoice:\n\nMeestaire Jacob Smith, Able Seaman.\n\nSniggers:\n\nI can't go, Toffy. I can't go. I can't do it.\n\n    [He goes.]\n\nVoice:\n\nMeestaire Arnold Everett Scott-Fortescue, late Esquire, Able Seaman.\n\nThe Toff:\n\nI did not foresee it. [Exit.]\n\nCURTAIN.","title":"Plays of Gods and Men","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":20709}