OLD KING COLE
1 Exterior view of Royal Palace. Interior of same—Dining Hall, Piping Room, Bowling Alley, Fiddling Saloon. Queen Cole’s allotment. (Inset, a few vegetables grown by the Princess Anthracite.)
2 The King calls for his pipe. No reply. Boy in street is heard calling “Paiper.” Exit the King to buy one.
3 The King calls for his bowl. No reply. He takes from adjacent peg his bowler, which he dons.
4 The King calls for his three fiddlers. No reply. Eventually enter three fiddles with low bows. The King picks one up, and begins to play. Many dogs come about him, and sit around howling.
5 A crowd arrives, kneeling, and praying him to desist. Not having a crown on, the King borrows half-a-crown from each member of the congregation. This is apt to confound a fellow kneeling, so they rise.
6 The King thus assisting them to rise is hailed as King Borwick I., afterwards altered, on better acquaintance, to King Borrowit.
7 Having the fiddlers hanged on lamp-posts leads to misprision of trees on the green. But the King can do no wrong. He goes to write, and is left alone.