Plays of Near Far | Page 3

a hundred years; and that the vineyards whence it came have been long since whelmed by war, and only live now in legend and this wine.
KING: A gift, you say, for obedience.
AMBASSADOR: A gift from the old wine-gardens of the sun.
KING: How knew the Emperor that I had thus obeyed him?
AMBASSADOR: It has not been men's wont to disobey the Emperor.
KING: Yet if I have sheltered this man in the holy place of my Court?
AMBASSADOR: If that be so the Emperor bids you drink out of this golden goblet. [He signs and it is brought on by a bent and ugly dwarf] 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.
[He throws the liquid out of the goblet through the doorway on to the marble. A great steam goes up.
KING: Neither have I ordered that his head be sent back to Eng-Bathai.
AMBASSADOR: Alas, for so rare a wine.
[He pours it away.
KING: I have banished him and he is safe. I have neither obeyed nor disobeyed.
AMBASSADOR: The Emperor therefore bids you choose the gift that he honours himself by sending to your Court.
[He signs. Enter a massive NUBIAN with two cups.
The Emperor bids you drink one of these cups.
[The huge NUBIAN moves up close to the KING holding up the two cups on a tray.
[The POLITICIAN slinks off. Exit L.
KING: The cups are strangely alike.
AMBASSADOR: Only one craftsman in the City of Smiths ever discerned a difference. The Emperor killed him, and now no one knows.
KING: The potions also are alike.
AMBASSADOR: Strangely alike. [The KING hesitates.] 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 (half to himself): 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.
[He glances towards the spot where he threw the other.
KING: And the other?
AMBASSADOR: Who may say? It is the most treasured secret that the Emperor's poisoners guard.
KING: I will send for my butlers that are wise in wine and they shall smell the cups.
AMBASSADOR: Alas, but the Emperor's poisoners have added so wine-like a flavour to their most secret draught, that no man may tell by this means which is their work and which that inestimable wine.
KING: I will send for my tasters and they shall taste of the cups.
AMBASSADOR: Alas, so great a risk may not be run.
KING: Risks are the duty of a king's tasters.
AMBASSADOR: If they chanced to taste of the treasure of the Emperor's poisoners--well. But if they, or any man of common birth, were to taste of the wine that the Emperor sends only to kings, and even to kings but rarely, that were an affront to the Emperor's ancient wine that could not be permitted.
KING: It is surely permitted that I send for my priests, who tell by divination, having burnt strange herbs to the gods that guard the Golden Isles.
AMBASSADOR: It is permitted.
KING: Send for the priests.
KING (mainly to himself): They shall discern. The priests shall make for me this dreadful choice. They shall burn herbs and discern it. (To AMBASSADOR.) My priests are very subtle. They worship the gods that guard the Golden Isles.
AMBASSADOR: The Emperor has other gods.
[Enter L. two priests of the Order of the Sun. Two acolytes follow. One carries a tripod and the other a gong.
[The priests abase themselves and the acolytes bow. The AMBASSADOR stands with almost Mongolian calm by the door from which he has not moved since he entered.
[The impassive NUBIAN stands motionless near the KING, holding up the cups on a tray.
KING: The Emperor has honoured me with these two cups of wine that I may drink one of them to the grandeur of his throne. I bid you importune the gods that they may surely tell me which it were well to drink.
FIRST PRIEST: We will importune the gods with the savour