Act Two SCENE 1 Park of the King's palace in Pratisthana. — In the background the wings of a great building, near it the gates of the park, near the bounds of the park an arbour and a small artificial hill to the side. Manavaka enters. MANAVAKA Houp! Houp! I feel like a Brahmin who has had an invitation to dinner; he thinks dinner, talks dinner, looks dinner, his very sneeze has the music of the dinner-bell in it. I am simply bursting with the King's secret. I shall never manage to hold my tongue in that crowd. Solitude's my only safety. So until my friend gets up from the session of affairs, I will wait for him in this precinct o

Act Five Bassora and Bagdad. SCENE I A room in Almuene's house. Almuene, Farced. FAREED You'll give me money, dad ? ALMUENE You spend too much. We'll talk of it another time. Now leave me. FAREED You'll give me money ? ALMUENE Go; I'm out of temper. FAREED (dancing round him) Give money, money, money, give me money. ALMUENE You boil, do you too grow upon me ? There, (strikes him.) FAREED You have struck me! ALMUENE Why, you would have it. Go. You shall have money. FAREED How much? Page – 706

SCENE III Ismenia's chamber. ISMENIA Brigida lingers. O he has denied me And therefore she is loth to come, for she Knows she will bring me death. It is not so. He has detained her to return an answer. Yet I asked none. I am full of fear, O heart, I have staked thee upon a desperate cast, Which if I win not, I am miserable. 'Tis she. O that my hope could give her wings Or lift her through the window bodily To shorten this age of waiting. I could not Discern her look. Her steps sound hopefully. Enter Brigida. Dearest Brigida! at last! What says Antonio? Tell me quickly. Heavens! you look mela

SCENE VI The palace at Bassora. Alzayni, Salar. ALZAYNI So it is written here. Hot interchange And high defiance have already passed Between our Caliph and the daring Roman. Europe and Asia are at grips once more. To inspect the southward armies unawares Haroun himself is coming. SALAR Alfazzal then Returns to us, unless the European, After their barbarous fashion, seize on him. ALZAYNI 'Tis strange, he sends no tidings of the motion I made to Egypt. SALAR 'Tis too dangerous To write of, as indeed 'twas ill-advised To make the approach. ALZAYNI Great dangers j

SCENE II The same. Anice-Aljalice, Nureddene. ANICE-ALJALICE And they all left? NUREDDENE Cafoor crept down and heard The clamorous creditors; and they all left. Ghaneem's dear mother's sick; for my sweet love Only he came, leaving her sad bedside; Friend Ayoob's uncle leaves today for Mecca: In Cafoor's house there is a burial toward; Zeb's father, Omar's brother, Hussan's wife Are piteously struck down. There never was So sudden an epidemic witnessed yet In Bassora, and all with various ailments. ANICE-ALJALICE This is their friendship! NUREDDENE We will not judge so har

SCENE II A room in Almuene's house. Almuene, Khatoon. KHATOON You have indulged the boy till he has lost The likeness even of manhood. God's great stamp And heavenly image on his mint's defaced, Rubbed out, and only the brute metal left Which never shall find currency again Among his angels. ALMUENE Oh always clamour, clamour! I had been happier bedded with a slave, Whom I could beat to sense when she was froward. KHATOON Oh, you'ld have done no less by me, I know, Although my rank's as far above your birth As some white star in heaven o'erpeers the muck Of foulest stables, had I

SCENE V Bagdad. A room in the Caliph's harem. Anice-Aljalice with many slave-girls attending on her. ANICE-ALJALICE Girls, is he passing ? A SLAVE-GIRL He is passing. ANICE-ALJALICE Quick, my lute! Song The Emperor of Roum is great; The Caliph has a mighty State; But One is greater, to Whom all prayers take wing; And I, a poor and weeping slave, When the world rises from its grave, Shall stand up the accuser of my King. Girls, is he coming up ? A SLAVE-GIRL The Caliph enters. Enter Haroun and Jaafar. HAROUN AL RASHEED

SCENE V Ismenia's antechamber. ISMENIA waiting It is too dark. I can see nothing. Hark! Surely it was the door that fastened then. My heart, control thyself! Thou beat'st too quickly And wilt break in the arms of happiness. Brigida. BRIGIDA Here. Enter, my lord, and take her. ANTONIO Ismenia! ISMENIA Antonio! Oh Antonio! ANTONIO My heart's dearest! BRIGIDA Bring your wit this way. Sir. It is not needed. Exit with Basil. ISMENIA O not thus! You shame me. This is my place, dear, at your feet; and then

SCENE VII Ibn Sawy's house. Nureddene, Anice-Aljalice. NUREDDENE 'Tis Sunjar warns us, he who always loved Our father. ANICE-ALJALICE Oh, my lord, make haste and flee. NUREDDENE Whither and how? But come. Enter Ajebe. AJEBE Quick, Nureddene. I have a ship all ready for Bagdad, Sails bellying with fair wind, the pilot's hand Upon the wheel, the captain on the deck, You only wanting. Flee then to Bagdad And at the mighty Haroun's hand require Justice upon these tyrants. Oh, delay not. NUREDDENE O friend! But do me one more service, Ajebe. Pay the few creditors

SCENE II The road through the valley to Dongurh. Toraman, Canaca, Hooshka and Scythians. TORAMAN I know not what impelled these mountain-boars To worry Death with their blunt tusks. This insult I will revenge in kind at first, then take A bloody reckoning. CANACA Fegh! it was a trick even beyond my wits. To put a servant-girl on the throne of Cashmere! All Asia would have been one grin had the jest prospered. TORAMAN They take us for barbarians And thought such gross imposture good enough To puzzle Scythian brains. But I'll so shame The witty clowns, they shall hang down their waggish heads While the