MAN You were all green, Master, all green in the gloaming, all of rock again as you used to be in the mountains. Master, we can bear to see you in flesh like men, but when we see rock walking it is terrible, it is terrible.
AGMAR That is how we appeared to you?
MAN Yes, Master. Rock should not walk. When children see it they do not understand. Rock should not walk in the evening.
AGMAR There have been doubters of late. Are they satisfied?
MAN Master, they are terrified. Spare us, Master.
AGMAR It is wrong to doubt. Go, and be faithful. (Exit Man.)
SLAG What have they seen, Master?
AGMAR They have seen their own fears dancing in the desert. They have seen something green after the light was gone, and some child has told them a tale that it was us. I do not know what they have seen. What should they have seen?
ULF Something was coming this way from the desert, he said.
SLAG What should come from the desert?
AGMAR They are a foolish people.
ULF That man's white face has seen some frightful thing.
SLAG A frightful thing?
ULF That man's face has been near to some frightful thing.
AGMAR It is only we that have frightened them, and their fears have made them foolish. (Enter an attendant with a torch or lantern which he places in a receptacle. Exit.)
THAHN Now we shall see the faces of the girls when they come to the banquet.
MLAN Never had beggars such a time.
AGMAR Hark! They are coming. I hear footsteps.
THAHN The dancing girls. They are coming.
THIEF There is no sound of flutes; they said they would come with music.
OOGNO What heavy boots they have, they sound like feet of stone.
THAHN I do not like to hear their heavy tread; those that would dance to us must be light of foot.
AGMAR I shall not smile at them if they are not airy.
MLAN They are coming very slowly. They should come nimbly to us.
THAHN They should dance as they come. But the footfall is like the footfall of heavy crabs.
ULF (in a loud voice, almost chaunting) I have a fear, an old fear and a boding. We have done ill in the sight of the seven gods; beggars we were and beggars we should have remained; we have given up our calling and come in sight of our doom: I will no longer let my fear be silent: it shall run about and cry: it shall go from me crying, like a dog from out of a doomed city; for my fear has seen calamity and has known an evil thing.
SLAG (hoarsely) Master!
AGMAR (rising) Come, come! (They listen. No one speaks. The stony boots come on. Enter in single file a procession of seven green men, even hands and faces are green; they wear greenstone sandals, they walk with knees extremely wide apart, as having sat cross-legged for centuries, their right arms and right forefingers point upwards, right elbows resting on left hands: they stoop grotesquely: halfway to the footlights they wheel left. They pass in front of the seven beggars, now in terrified attitudes and six of them sit down in the attitude described, with their backs to the audience. The leader stands, still stooping. Just as they wheel left, OOGNO cries out.) The gods of the mountain!
AGMAR (hoarsely) Be still. They are dazzled by the light, they may not see us. (The leading green thing points his forefinger at the lantern, the flame turns green. When the six are seated the leader points one by one at each of the seven beggars, shooting out his forefinger at them. As he does this each beggar in his turn gathers himself back on to his throne and crosses his legs, his right arm goes stiffly upwards with forefinger erect, and a staring look of horror comes into his eyes. In this attitude the beggars sit motionless while a green light falls upon their faces. The gods go out.
Presently enter the Citizens, some with victuals and fruit. One touches a beggar's arm and then another's.)
CITIZEN They are cold; they have turned to stone. (All abase themselves foreheads to the floor.)
ONE We have doubted them. We have doubted them. They have turned to stone because we have doubted them.
ANOTHER They were the true gods.
ALL They were the true gods.
THE FIRST ACT OF KING ARGIMENES AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR
King Argimenes
Zarb (a slave born of slaves)
An Old Slave Slaves of King Darniak
A Young Slave
Slaves
King Darniak
The King's Overseer
A Prophet
The Idol-Guard
The Servant of the King's Dog
Queen Otharlia
Queen Oxara
Queen Cahafra Queens of King Darniak
Queen Thragolind
Guards and Attendants
ACT I
Time: A long time ago. SCENE: The dinner-hour on the slave-fields of King Darniak.
(The Curtain rises upon King Argimenes, sitting upon the ground, bowed, ragged, and dirty, gnawing a bone. He has uncouth hair and a dishevelled beard. A battered spade lies near him. Two or three slaves sit at back of stage eating raw cabbage-leaves. The tear-song, the chaunt of the low-born, rises at intervals, monotonous and mournful, coming from distant slave-fields.)
KING ARGIMENES This is a good bone; there is juice in this bone.
ZARB I wish I were you, Argimenes.
KING ARGIMENES I am not to be envied any longer. I have eaten up my bone.
ZARB I wish I were you, because you have been a King. Because men have prostrated themselves before your feet. Because you have ridden a horse and worn a crown and have been called Majesty.
KING ARGIMENES When I remember that I have been a king it is very terrible.
ZARB But you are lucky to have such things in your memory as you have. I have nothing in my memory-Once I went for a year without being flogged, and I remember my cleverness in contriving it-I have nothing else to remember.
KING ARGIMENES It is very terrible to have been a king.
ZARB But we have nothing who have no good memories in the past. It is not easy for us to hope for the future here.
KING ARGIMENES Have you any god?
ZARB We may not have a god because he might make us brave and we might kill our guards. He might make a miracle and give us swords.
KING ARGIMENES Ah, you have no hope then.
ZARB I have a little hope. Hush, and I will tell you a secret-The King's great dog is ill and like to die. They will throw him to us. We shall have beautiful bones then.
KING ARGIMENES Ah! Bones.
ZARB Yes. That is what I hope for. And have you no other hope? Do you not hope that your nation will arise some day and rescue you and cast off the king and hang him up by his thumbs from the palace gateway?
KING ARGIMENES No. I have no other hope, for my god was cast down in the temple and broken into three pieces on the day that they surprised us and took me sleeping. But will they throw him to us? Will so honourable a brute as the King's dog be thrown to us?
ZARB When he is dead his honours are taken away. Even the King when he is dead is given to the worms. Then why should not his dog be thrown to us?
KING ARGIMENES We are not worms!
ZARB You do not understand, Argimenes. The worms are little and free, while we are big and enslaved. I did not say we were worms, but we are like worms, and if they have the King when he is dead, why then-
KING ARGIMENES Tell me more of the King's dog. Are there big bones on him?
ZARB Ay, he is a big dog-a high, big, black one.
KING ARGIMENES You know him then?
ZARB O yes, I know him. I know him well. I was beaten once because of him, twenty-five strokes from the treble whips, two men beating me.
KING ARGIMENES How did they beat you because of the King's dog?
ZARB They beat me because I spoke to him without making obeisance. He was coming dancing alone over the slave-fields and I spoke to him. He was a friendly great dog, and I spoke to him and patted his head, and did not make obeisance.
KING ARGIMENES And they saw you do it?
ZARB Yes, the slave-guard saw me. They came and seized me at once and bound my arms. The great dog wanted me to speak to him again, but I was hurried away.