Read Ebook: Plays of Near & Far by Dunsany Lord

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THE COMPROMISE OF THE KING OF THE GOLDEN ISLES 1 THE FLIGHT OF THE QUEEN 21 CHEEZO 65 A GOOD BARGAIN 103 IF SHAKESPEARE LIVED TO-DAY 117 FAME AND THE POET 135

THE COMPROMISE OF THE KING OF THE GOLDEN ISLES

THE KING OF THE GOLDEN ISLES: KING HAMARAN. THE KING'S POLITICIAN. THE AMBASSADOR OF THE EMPEROR. THE EMPEROR'S SEEKER. TWO PRIESTS OF THE ORDER OF THE SUN. THE KING'S QUESTIONERS. THE AMBASSADOR'S NUBIAN. THE HERALD OF THE AMBASSADOR. THE EMPEROR'S DWARF. THE DEPUTY CUP-BEARER. THE KING'S DOOM-BEARER.

THE KING'S POLITICIAN: A man has fled from the Emperor, and has taken refuge in your Majesty's Court in that part of it called holy.

THE KING: We must give him up to the Emperor.

POLITICIAN: To-day a spearsman came running from Eng-Bathai seeking the man who fled. He carries the barbed spear of one of the Emperor's seekers.

KING: We must give him up.

POLITICIAN: Moreover he has an edict from the Emperor demanding that the head of the man who fled be sent back to Eng-Bathai.

KING: Let it be sent.

POLITICIAN: Yet your Majesty is no vassal of the Emperor, who dwells at Eng-Bathai.

KING: We may not disobey the Imperial edict.

KING: None hath dared to do it.

POLITICIAN: It is so long since any dared to do it that the Emperor mocks at kings. If your Majesty disobeyed him the Emperor would tremble.

KING: Ah.

POLITICIAN: The Emperor would say, "There is a great king. He defies me." And he would tremble strangely.

POLITICIAN: The Emperor would fear you.

POLITICIAN: You would win honour in his eyes.

KING: Yet is the Emperor terrible in his wrath. He was terrible in his wrath in the olden time.

POLITICIAN: The Emperor is old.

KING: This is a great affront that he places upon a king, to demand a man who has come to sanctuary in that part of my Court called holy.

POLITICIAN: It is a great affront.

Hither, the Doom-Bearer; take the black ivory spear, the wand of banishment, that lies on the left of my throne, and point it at the man that shelters in the holy place of my Court. Then show him the privy door behind the horns of the altar, so that he go safely hence and meet not the Emperor's seeker.

who reigns in Eng-Bathai, the reward of obedience to his edict, a goblet of inestimable wine.

and wishes you farewell.

KING: Farewell, you say?

AMBASSADOR: Farewell.

KING: What have you in the goblet?

AMBASSADOR: It is no common poison, but a thing so strange and deadly that the serpents of Lebutharna go in fear of it. Yea travellers there hold high a goblet of this poison, at arm's length as they go. The serpents hide their heads for fear of it. Even so the travellers pass the desert safely, and come to Eng-Bathai.

KING: I have not sheltered this man.

AMBASSADOR: There is no need then for this Imperial gift.

The Emperor bids you choose his gift and drink.

KING: The Emperor has poisoned the cups!

AMBASSADOR: You greatly wrong the Emperor. Only one cup is poisoned.

KING: You say that one is poisoned?

AMBASSADOR: Only one, O King! Who may say which?

KING: And what if I refuse to do this thing?

AMBASSADOR: There are tortures that the Emperor never names. They are not spoken of where the Emperor is. Yet the Emperor makes a sign and they are accomplished. He makes the sign with a certain one of his fingers.

KING : How wonderfully they have the look of wine.

AMBASSADOR: One is a wine scarcely less rare, scarcely less jubilant in the wits of man, than that which alas is lost.

There it stands yet with its green emeralds winking.

He's walking with Mr. Splurge. They're coming in now. Come along, Ermyntrude, we mustn't disturb him to-day. He has some great idea, some great idea.

ERMYNTRUDE: How splendid, mother! What do you think it is?

MRS. SLADDER: Ah. I could never explain it to you, even if I knew. It is business, child, business. It isn't everybody that can understand business.

ERMYNTRUDE: I hear them coming, mother.

MRS. SLADDER: There must be things we can never understand: things too deep for us like. And business is the most wonderful of them all.

meanings of words or any nonsense of that sort, but I think clandestine's about the word for it.

HIPPANTHIGH: It's a hard word, Mr. Sladder.

SLADDER: May be. And who began using hard words? You came here and made me out a pickpocket, just because I use a few tasty little posters which sell my goods, and all the while you're trying on the sly to take a poor old man's daughter away from him. Well, Mr. Hippanthigh?

HIPPANTHIGH: I--I never looked at it in that light before, Mr. Sladder. I never thought of it in that way. You have made me feel ashamed , ashamed.

SLADDER: Aha! Aha! I thought I would. Now you know what it's like when you make people ashamed of themselves. You don't like it when they do it to you. Aha!

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