O! o! O!
1st Sentry: [To 2nd Sentry]
Something has happened.
[Enter Carolyx.]
Carolyx:
What is it, princely ladies?
[To Sentries] Go. Go away.
[Exeunt Sentries.]
What has happened?
Tharmia:
O. We went down a little street.
Carolyx:
Yes. Yes.
Arolind:
The main street of the city.
[Both weep quietly.]
Carolyx:
Yes? Yes? Yes?
Tharmia:
It ends in the jungle.
Carolyx:
You went into the jungle! There must be tigers there.
Tharmia:
No.
Arolind:
No.
Carolyx:
What did you do?
Tharmia:
We came back.
Carolyx: [in a voice of anguish]
What did you see in the street?
Tharmia:
Nothing.
Arolind:
Nothing.
Carolyx:
Nothing?
Tharmia:
There are no shops.
Arolind:
We cannot buy new hair.
Tharmia:
We cannot buy [sobs] gold-dust to put upon our hair.
Arolind:
There are no [sobs] neighbouring princes.
[Carolyx bursts bitterly into tears and continues to weep.]
Tharmia:
Barbul-el-Sharnak, Barbul-el-Sharnak. O why did the King leave Barbul-el-Sharnak?
Arolind:
Barbul-el-Sharnak. Its streets were all of agate.
Tharmia:
And there were shops where one bought beautiful hair.
Carolyx:
The King must go at once.
Tharmia: [calmer now.]
He shall go tomorrow. My husband shall speak to him.
Arolind:
Perhaps my husband might have more influence.
Tharmia and Arolind:
My husband brought him here.
Tharmia:
What!
Arolind:
Nothing. What did you say?
Tharmia:
I said nothing. I thought you spoke.
Carolyx:
It may be better for my husband to persuade him, for he was ever opposed to his coming to Thek.
Tharmia: [To Arolind]
He could have but little influence with His Majesty since the King has come to Thek.
Arolind:
No. It will be better for our husbands to arrange it.
Carolyx:
I myself have some influence with the Queen.
Tharmia:
It is of no use. Her nerves are all a-quiver. She weeps if you speak with her. If you argue a matter with her she cries aloud and maidens must come and fan her and put scent on her hands.
Arolind:
She never leaves her chamber and the King would not listen to her.
Tharmia:
Hark, they are coming back. They are singing a hunting song…. why, they have killed a beast. All four of the men are bringing it on two branches.
Arolind: [bored]
What kind of beast is it?
Tharmia:
I do not know. It seems to have barbed horns.
Carolyx:
We must go and meet them.
[The song is loud and joyous.]
[Exeunt by the way that the Sentries went.]
[Enter Sentries.]
1st Sentry:
Whatever it is has passed away again for they were smiling.
2nd Sentry:
They feared that their husbands were lost and now they return in safety.
1st Sentry:
You do not know, for you do not understand women.
2nd Sentry:
I understand them quite as well as you.
1st Sentry:
That is what I say. You do not understand them. I do not understand them.
2nd Sentry:
……Oh. [A pause.]
1st Sentry:
We shall never leave Thek now.
2nd Sentry:
Why shall we never leave it?
1st Sentry:
Did you not hear how glad they were when they sang the hunting song? They say a wild dog does not turn from the trail, they will go on hunting now.
2nd Sentry:
But will the King stay here?
1st Sentry:
He only does what Ichtharion and Ludibras persuade him. He does not listen to the Queen.
2nd Sentry:
The Queen is mad.
1st Sentry:
She is not mad but she has a curious sickness, she is always frightened though there is nothing to fear.
2nd Sentry:
That would be a dreadful sickness; one would fear that the roof might fall on one from above or the earth break in pieces beneath. I would rather be mad than to fear things like that.
1st Sentry: [looking straight before him]
Hush.
[Enter King and retinue. He sits on the throne. Enter from other side Ichtharion, Ludibras, and Harpagas, each with his wife beside him, hand in hand. Each couple bows before the King, still hand in hand; then they seat themselves. The King nods once to each couple.]
King: [To Tharmia]
Well, your Sincerity, I trust that you are glad to have come to Thek.
Tharmia:
Very glad, your Majesty.
King: [To Arolind]
This is pleasanter, is it not, than Barbul-el-Sharnak?
Arolind:
Far pleasanter, your Majesty.
King:
And you, princely lady Carolyx, find all that you need in Thek?
Carolyx: More than all, your Majesty.
King: [To Harpagas]
Then we can stay here long, can we not?
Harpagas:
There are reasons of State why that were dangerous.
King:
Reasons of State? Why should we not stay here?
Harpagas:
Your Majesty, there is a legend in the World, that he who is greatest in the city of Barbul-el-Sharnak is the greatest in the world.
King:
I had not heard that legend.
Harpagas:
Your Majesty, little legends do not hive in the sacred ears of kings; nevertheless they hum among lesser men from generation to generation.
King:
I will not go for a legend to Barbul-el-Sharnak.
Harpagas:
Your Majesty, it is very dangerous….
King: [To Ladies]
We will discuss things of State which little interest your Sincerities.
Tharmia: [rising]
Your Majesty, we are ignorant of these things.
[Exeunt.]
King: [To Ichtharion and Ludibras]
We will rest from things of State for awhile, shall we not? We will be happy, (shall we not?) in this ancient beautiful palace.
Ludibras:
If your Majesty commands, we must obey.
King:
But is not Thek most beautiful? Are not the jungle orchids a wonder and a glory?
Ludibras:
They have been thought so, your Majesty; they were pretty in Barbul-el-Sharnak where they were rare.
King:
But when the sun comes over them in the morning, when the dew is on them still; are they not glorious then? Indeed, they are very glorious.
Ludibras:
I think they would be glorious if they were blue, and there were fewer of them.
King:
I do not think so. But you, Ichtharion, you think the city beautiful?
Ichtharion:
Yes, your Majesty.
King:
Ah. I am glad you love it. It is to me adorable.
Ichtharion:
I do not love it, your Majesty. I hate it very much. I know it is beautiful because your Majesty has said so.
Ludibras:
This city is dangerously unhealthy, your Majesty.
Harpagas:
It is dangerous to be absent from Barbul-el-Sharnak.
Ichtharion:
We implore your Majesty to return to the centre of the world.
King:
I will not go again to Barbul-el-Sharnak.
[Exeunt King with attendants. Ichtharion, Ludibras and Harpagas
remain.]
[Enter Arolind and Carolyx; each goes up to her husband, very
affectionate.]
Arolind:
And you talked to the King?
Ludibras:
Yes.
Arolind:
You told him he must go back to Barbul-el-Sharnak at once?
Ludibras:
Well, I——
Arolind:
When does he start?
Ludibras:
He did not say he will start.
Arolind:
What?
Carolyx:
We are not going?
[Arolind and Carolyx weep and step away from their husbands.]
Ludibras:
But we spoke to the King.
Arolind:
O, we must stay and die here.
Ludibras:
But we did what we could.
Arolind:
O, I shall be buried in Thek.
Ludibras:
I can do no more.
Arolind:
My clothes are torn, my hair is old. I am in rags.
Ludibras:
I am sure you are beautifully dressed.
Arolind: [full height]
Beautifully dressed! Of course I am beautifully dressed! But who is there to see me? I am alone in the jungle, and here I shall be buried.
Ludibras:
But——
Arolind:
Oh, will you not leave me alone? Is nothing sacred to you? Not even my grief?
[Exeunt Arolind and Carolyx.]
Harpagas: [To Ludibras]
What are we to do?
Ludibras:
All women are alike.
Ichtharion:
I do not allow my wife to speak to me like that.
[Exeunt Harpagas and Ludibras.]
I hope Tharmia will not weep; it is very distressing to see a woman in tears.
[Enter Tharmia.]
Do not be unhappy, do not be at all unhappy. But I have been unable to persuade the King to return to Barbul-el-Sharnak. You will be happy here after a little while.
Tharmia: [breaks into loud laughter]
You are the King’s adviser. Ha-ha-ha! You are the Grand High Vizier of the Court. Ha-ha-ha. You are the warder of the golden wand. Ha-ha-ha O, go and throw biscuits to the King’s dog.
Ichtharion:
What!
Tharmia:
Throw little ginger biscuits to the King’s dog. Perhaps he will obey you. Perhaps you will have some influence with the King’s dog if you feed him with little biscuits. You——
[Laughs and exits. Ichtharion sits with his miserable head in his hands.]
[Reenter Ludibras and Harpagas.]
Ludibras:
Has her Sincerity, the princely Lady Tharmia, been speaking with you?
Ichtharion:
She spoke a few words.
[Ludibras and Harpagas sigh.]
We must leave Thek. We must depart from Thek.
Ludibras:
What, without the King?
Harpagas:
No.
Ichtharion:
No. They would say in Barbul-el-Sharnak “these were once at Court,” and men that we have flogged would spit in our faces.
Ludibras:
Who can command a King?
Harpagas:
Only the gods.
Ludibras:
The gods? There are no gods now. We have been civilised over three thousand years. The gods that nursed our infancy are dead, or gone to nurse younger nations.
Ichtharion:
I refuse the listen to—— O, the sentries are gone. No, the gods are no use to us; they were driven away by the decadence.
Harpagas:
We are not in the decadence here. Barbul-el-Sharnak is in a different age. The city of Thek is scarcely civilised.
Ichtharion:
But everybody lives in Barbul-el-Sharnak.
Harpagas:
The gods——
Ludibras:
The old prophet is coming.
Harpagas:
He believes as much in the gods as you or I do.
Ludibras:
Yes, but we must not speak as though we knew that.
[Voice-of-the-Gods (a prophet) walks across the stage.]
Ichtharion, Ludibras, and Harpagas: [rising]
The gods are good.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
They are benignant. [exit]
Ichtharion:
Listen! Let him prophesy to the King. Let him bid the King go hence lest they smite the city.
Ludibras:
Can we make him do it?
Ichtharion:
I think we can make him do it.
Harpagas:
The King is more highly civilised even than we are. He will not care for the gods.
Ichtharion:
He cannot ignore them; the gods crowned his forefather and if there are no gods who made him King?
Ludibras:
Why, that is true. He must obey a prophecy.
Ichtharion:
If the King disobeys the gods the people will tear him asunder, whether the gods created the people or the people created the gods.
[Harpagas slips out after the Prophet.]
Ludibras:
If the King discovers this we shall be painfully tortured.
Ichtharion:
How can the King discover it?
Ludibras:
He knows that there are no gods.
Ichtharion:
No man knows that of a certainty.
Ludibras:
But if there are——!
[Enter Prophet with Harpagas. Ichtharion quickly sends Ludibras and
Harpagas away.]
Ichtharion:
There is a delicate matter concerning the King.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
Then I can help you little for I only serve the gods.
Ichtharion:
It also concerns the gods.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
Ah. Then I hearken.
Ichtharion:
This city is for the King, whose body is fragile, a very unhealthy city. Moreover, there is no work here that a King can profitably do. Also it is dangerous for Barbul-el-Sharnak to be long without a King, lest——
Voice-of-the-Gods:
Does this concern the gods?
Ichtharion:
In this respect it does concern the gods—that if the gods knew this they would warn the King by inspiring you to make a prophecy. As they do not know this——
Voice-of-the-Gods:
The gods know all things.
Ichtharion:
The gods do not know things that are not true. This is not strictly true——
Voice-of-the-Gods:
It is written and hath been said that the gods cannot lie.
Ichtharion:
The gods of course cannot lie, but a prophet may sometimes utter a prophecy that is a good prophecy and helpful to men, thereby pleasing the gods, although the prophecy is not a true one.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
The gods speak through my mouth; my breath is my own breath, I am human and mortal, but my voice is from the gods and the gods cannot lie.
Ichtharion:
Is it wise in an age when the gods have lost their power to anger powerful men for the sake of the gods?
Voice-of-the-Gods:
It is wise.
Ichtharion:
We are three men and you are alone with us. Will the gods save you if we want to put you to death and slip away with your body into the jungle?
Voice-of-the-Gods:
If you should do this thing the gods have willed it. If they have not willed it you cannot.
Ichtharion:
We do not wish to do it. Nevertheless you will make this prophecy—you will go before the King and you will say that the gods have spoken and that within three days’ time, for the sake of vengeance upon some unknown man who is in this city, they will overthrow all Thek unless every man is departed.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
I will not do it, for the gods cannot lie.
Ichtharion:
Has it not been the custom since unremembered time for a prophet to have two wives?
Voice-of-the-Gods:
Most certainly. It is the law.
[Ichtharion holds up three fingers.]
What!
Ichtharion:
Three.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
Do not betray me. It was long ago.
Ichtharion:
You will be allowed to serve the gods no more if men know this. The gods will not protect you in this matter for you have offended also against the gods.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
It is worse that the gods should lie. Do not betray me.
Ichtharion:
I go to tell the others what I know.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
I will make the false prophecy.
Ichtharion:
Ah. You have chosen wisely.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
When the gods punish me who make them lie, they will know what punishment to give to you.
Ichtharion:
The gods will not punish us. It is long ago that the gods used to punish men.
Voice-of-the-Gods:
The gods will punish us.