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ACT I
- SCENE
- The East. Outside a city wall; three beggars seated on the
ground.
OOGNO These days are bad for beggary.
THAHN They are bad.
ULF (an older beggar but not grey) Some evil has befallen the rich
ones of this city. They take no joy any longer in benevolence, but are
become sour and miserly at heart. Alas for them! I sometimes sigh for
them when I think of this.
OOGNO Alas for them. A miserly heart must be a sore affliction.
THAHN A sore affliction indeed, and bad for our calling.
OOGNO (reflectively) They have been thus for many months. What thing
has befallen them?
THAHN Some evil thing.
ULF There has been a comet come near to the earth of late and the
earth has been parched and sultry so that the gods are drowsy and all
those things that are divine in man, such as benevolence, drunkenness,
extravagance and song, have faded and died and have not been
replenished by the gods.
OOGNO It has indeed been sultry.
THAHN I have seen the comet o' nights.
ULF The gods are drowsy.
OOGNO If they awake not soon and make this city worthy again of our
order, I for one shall forsake the calling and buy a shop and sit at
ease in the shade and barter for gain.
THAHN You will keep a shop? (Enter Agmar and Slag. Agmar, though
poorly dressed, is tall, imperious, and older than Ulf. Slag follows
behind him.)
AGMAR Is this a beggar who speaks?
OOGNO Yes, master, a poor beggar.
AGMAR How long has the calling of beggary existed?
OOGNO Since the building of the first city, Master.
AGMAR And when has a beggar ever followed a trade? When has he ever
haggled and bartered and sat in a shop?
OOGNO Why, he has never done so.
AGMAR Are you he that shall be first to forsake the calling?
OOGNO Times are bad for the calling here.
THAHN They are bad.
AGMAR So you would forsake the calling.
OOGNO The city is unworthy of our calling. The gods are drowsy, and
all that is divine in man is dead. (To third Beggar) Are not the gods
drowsy?
ULF They are drowsy in their mountains away at Marma. The seven green
idols are drowsy. Who is this that rebukes us?
THAHN Are you some great merchant, Master? Perhaps you will help a
poor man that is starving.
SLAG My Master a Merchant! No, no. He is no merchant. My Master is no
merchant.
OOGNO I perceive that he is some lord in disguise. The gods have woken
and have sent him to save us.
SLAG No, no. You do not know my Master. You do not know him.
THAHN Is he the Soldan's self that has come to rebuke us?
AGMAR (with great pride) I am a beggar, and an old beggar.
SLAG There is none like my Master. No traveller has met with cunning
like to his, not even those that come from Aethiopia.
ULF We make you welcome to our town, upon which an evil has fallen,
the days being bad for beggary.
AGMAR Let none that has known the mystery of roads, or has felt the
wind arising new in the morning, or who has called forth out of the
souls of men divine benevolence, ever speak any more of any trade or
of the miserable gains of shops and the trading men.
OOGNO I but spoke hastily, the times being bad.
AGMAR I will put right the times.
SLAG There is nothing that my Master cannot do.
AGMAR (to Slag) Be silent and attend to me. I do not know this city, I
have travelled from far, having somewhat exhausted the city of Ackara.
SLAG My Master was three times knocked down and injured by carriages
there, once he was killed and seven times beaten and robbed, and every
time he was generously compensated. He had nine diseases, many of them
mortal....
AGMAR Be silent, Slag.... Have you any thieves among the calling here?
ULF We have a few that we call thieves here, Master, but they would
scarcely seem thieves to you. They are not good thieves.
AGMAR I shall need the best thief you have.
(Enter two citizens richly clad, Illanaun and Oorander)
ILLANAUN Therefore we will send galleons to Ardaspes.
OORANDER Right to Ardaspes through the silver gates.
(Agmar transfers the thick handle of his long staff to his left
armpit, he droops on to it and it supports his weight, he is upright
no longer. His right arm hangs limp and useless. He hobbles up to the
citizens imploring alms.)
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