Plays of Gods and Men | Page 4

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