SCENE II
(See ACT I, last Scene)
Again, the street outside the house—the Street of the Fountain, with the balcony of RAFI and the balcony of YASMIN opposite. Cold light before dawn.
(On the steps of the Fountain, two tired MENDICANTS asleep.
One slowly rubs his eyes and looks round him.
A paper comes floating down. One tired MAN lazily catches it.)
FIRST LOITERER
Here comes a new chapter of the Koran falling down from heaven.
SECOND LOITERER
Is it written, Abdu?
ABDU
It is written, Ali.
ALI
Read what is written, Abdu.
ABDU
I cannot read. Am I schoolmaster?
(Folds paper, puts it in his belt, and prepares to sleep again.
Several interesting ORIENTALS pass by.)
ALI
Abdu!
ABDU
I sleep.
ALI
I can read: give me the paper.
ABDU
I am asleep: get up and take it from my belt if you want it,
Ya Ali, I am heavy with a great sleep, like a tortoise in November.
ALI
Ya Abdu, I am too languishing to move. It is a paper and it is written.
It does not matter. To-morrow or the next day it will be read.
ABDU
To-morrow or the next day I shall wake and pass it to you.
(Interval: more interesting ORIENTALS go by.)
ALI
(With sudden inspiration) Blow me the paper, Abdu.
ABDU
Alas, Allah sent thee to trouble the world!
(ABDU blows the paper over. ALI with infinite difficulty spells it out, murmuring:)
ALI Ha, alif, alif, re wow wow 'ain jeem—ah, ye blessed ones in Paradise, is it thus ye write a jeem? Nun—but art thou a nun, O letter, or a drunkard's qaf? Verily an ape has written this with his tail: I have the second line. (With a start) Ho, Abdu, whence came this? Do not pretend to sleep. Answer me.
ABDU
From the sky: how do I know?
ALI
Let me look at the sky. (Rolls on his back and stares upward)
I tell you, Abdu, a mighty joker has flung this from the balcony.
ABDU
Allah plague him and his pen and thee! Is there no peace in the world?
ALI Here it is written, and do thou listen, O Abdu, for this is the strangest of the strange writings that are strange: "Whoever findeth this paper, know that the Caliph is in the house above, a prisoner, and his friends prisoners, and in the extremity of danger, he and they, with all Bagdad. Let the rescue be swift and sudden, but above all secret. The iron walls must be lifted from beneath. And send a man at once to the Guard, O fortunate discoverer, to warn them to protect the palace against the Beggars of Bagdad, and thou shalt be made Governor of Three Provinces. Signed, Jafar, the Vizier." (Bursting into laughter) Three Provinces, well I know their Three Provinces! Some rich young reveller hopes to play a game with poor old Ali, even as a game was played on the son of Abdullah, whom they dressed as a woman and placed in the Grand Vizier's Harem, and his reward came hailing down on his toes. (In a lower voice.) And I tell you, Abdu, what if the Caliph were in the house and his friends? What if this were true? Who would believe me? Who am I to rescue the Caliph? I never meddle in politics.
ABDU May the great gripes settle on thee and on the Caliph and the mother of the Caliph. Shall I not sleep? And now there comes a disturbance down the road. Ya, Jehannum, the Police!
(CHIEF OF POLICE with ISHAK)
ISHAK I tell you, I do not know precisely where I left them. It was somewhere in this quarter. It may have been this balcony they went to or that, but there are a thousand balconies. It was above a fountain, but there are a million fountains. I tell you they always come back. Have you not already twenty such scares as these for the safety of the Caliph?
CHIEF OF POLICE
Never and on no preceding occasion has his exalted name
been so long delayed in his return to the palace.
The day is dawning.
ISHAK I tell you, if you do find him you will get no thanks, O man of arms. Will you dare to unstick the Ruler of the Moslem World from the embrace of his latest slave girl or dash the cup of pleasure from his reluctant hand?
CHIEF OF POLICE
I tell you, if you do not find him, man of letters, I will have you
impaled upon a monstrous pen.
(Seizes him.)
ISHAK Thou beastly, blood-drinking brute and bloated bully, take off thy stable-reeking hands.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Yallah, these poets. They talk in rhyme.
ALI
(Who has risen and salaamed, advancing) I pray you, Sirs,…
CHIEF OF POLICE
O thou maggot! Darest thou address us?
ALI
I pray you only regard…
CHIEF OF POLICE
I pray you only remove, or I will split you from the top.
ISHAK
Do you not see that he has a paper, and that his manners are superior
to yours, O Captain of Police? Let me look at thy paper….
Ah—ah. Whence came this, O virtuous wanderer?
ALI
From that balcony, may thy slaves be forgiven!
CHIEF OF POLICE
This is a very important clue. Let us break in the door.
ISHAK
There is no door. But first of all send word to the Palace Guard.
CHIEF OF POLICE
(To a soldier) Ali
(To the other ALI, who runs and says: Excellence, I hear and obey)
Not thou, fool. Did Allah make the name Ali for thee alone?
Who art thou that I should address thee? Are there not ten thousand Alis
in Bagdad, and wilt thou lift up thy head, O worm, when I say Ali?
(To POLICEMAN) Here is my ring. Take this paper,
and run with all thy might and show it to the Captain of the Palace Guard.
POLICEMAN
I hear and obey. (Starts off.)
ISHAK
(Stopping him) Wait!
CHIEF OF POLICE What right have you to stop my man, you bastard son of a quill-bearing barn-fowl?
ISHAK Since when had a bludgeoning policeman the practical good sense of a thought-breathing poet? Tell them, Ali, to send a few men with levers and ladders.
CHIEF OF POLICE
It is well ordered: run, run, Ali!
ISHAK
You other Ali, who brought the paper…
ALI
Master?
ISHAK
How long is it since any paper was thrown from the balcony?
ALI
How do I know time? The time to go to market and buy a melon.
CHIEF OF POLICE By the great pit of torment, this swine-faced has had the paper a good hour! By the red blaze of damnation, thou maggot, why didst thou not run with this at once to the Palace Guard?
ALI
I had a great fear, and I thought it was a jest.
CHIEF OF POLICE
A jest! Rivers of blood, a jest! The life of the Caliph of Bagdad, a jest?
The safety of the Empire a jest! I knew thee a traitor from thy face.
I will teach thee jesting. I will teach thee fear.
Ho, Mahmud, Zia, Rustem, down with his head and up with his heels.
ALI (As his feet are looped into the pole to receive the bastinado) Ya, Abdu, you had the letter first, it is yours. Will you not claim it and the reward. Alas, that the Governor of Three Provinces should be treated thus!
ABDU
Do I meddle in politics? Hit him hard, O Executioner,
for he is a great disturber of peaceful citizens.
But as for me, O Ali, lest my sleep be troubled by thy groaning,
I will make my way a little further on. (Exit)
(The EXECUTIONERS proceed with their work, but stop on entrance of CAPTAIN OF THE MILITARY with SOLDIERS.)
(On the balcony opposite house where CALIPH is imprisoned appears YASMIN.)
YASMIN
Look, look, Selim! there's a man being beaten.
SELIM Come in quick! this is a riot or some trouble; come in quick, and shut the shutters fast.
YASMIN You are a valiant protection indeed for frail-as-a-rose ladies in danger's hour.
(They remain at window.)
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
(To CHIEF OF POLICE) Sir.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Sir.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
(Saluting) Captain of the Victorious Army, at your service.
CHIEF OF POLICE
(Saluting) Chief of the August Police, at yours.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
(Bowing) I am honoured.
CHIEF OF POLICE
(Bowing) I am overwhelmed.
ISHAK Come, Sirs, brush away, I implore you, the cobwebs of ceremony with the broom of expedition.
CHIEF OF POLICE
Sir, when men of action meet, the place of the man of letters
is inside his pencase.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
A moment! Ere we proceed, Chief of Police, may I ask why this man
is undergoing punishment?
CHIEF OF POLICE
Since your excellency deigns to enquire, for urgent reasons of police.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY They must have been very urgent indeed before you would permit such an inopportune disturbance outside the very house where our Lord the Caliph is imprisoned. You have seriously impaired our chances of a speedy and effective rescue.
CHIEF OF POLICE (Drawing his sword and whirling it about) Thou melon head, thou, thou dung pig, thou brother of disaster, get thee hence with thy knock-kneed band of fatherless brigands, ere I have thee arrested for unnatural crime.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
Out with thy sword, thou big-bellied snatcher up of burglars,
thou manacler of little boys, thou terror of the peaceful market,
I will teach thee to insult the slaughterers of the infidel host.
ISHAK
(Interrupting the COMBATANTS) Is this a time for indecent brawling?
Quick, where are the ladders?
A SOLDIER
(Pompously) In the rear, Sir, in the rear.
(The ladders are brought along.)
CHIEF OF POLICE
(To POLICEMAN) Place a ladder.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
(To SOLDIERS) Place a ladder.
(Each goes up his ladder at the same time: bang at wall and are answered: shout for levers which are procured, and assistance which speedily arrives. The iron wall is lifted up, and CALIPH and the REST disclosed seated peaceably awaiting their deliverance, the lamp still burning.)
CHIEF OF POLICE
My royal master!
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
August Lord.
CHIEF AND CAPTAIN
(Together) I have saved thee, Master.
(Each attempts to seize the CALIPH.)
CHIEF OF POLICE
Honourable Police!…
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
Honourable Military!…
CHIEF OF POLICE It has been the high privilege of this grovelling slave to rescue the Lamp of the World! I shall carry him down.
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY Permit me to observe, O fire-spitting Battle Cleaver, that I was the first up this ladder, and though I tremble to obscure the Sun's Brilliance with my dirty little hand, yet it is I who have the prior claim.
(MASRUR pushes them aside, and assists the CALIPH down the ladder.
JAFAR and HASSAN follow. Shouts of "Long live the Caliph" from all
the people gathered in the street. The SOLDIERS salute.
The CALIPH raises his hand. Silence.)
CALIPH
Is my Palace safe?
MASRUR
O Lord and Master, we pray so.
CALIPH
And my people?
JAFAR
Around thee, O Lord and Master.
YASMIN
(From her balcony) By the Prophet, here is Hassan with the Caliph!
CALIPH
Are we all saved?
MASRUR
All, by the providence of Allah.
JAFAR
And the wisdom of Hassan.
CALIPH
And the Guard warned?
CAPTAIN OF MILITARY
All warned and at their posts, my Lord.
CALIPH
Allah, deliver our enemies into their hands. Let Hassan come to me.
HASSAN
(Prostrating himself) Master!
CALIPH (Raising him) Rise, Hassan. This Hassan, yesterday a stranger, has to-night by his skill and invention, saved my life and rescued this city from a greater peril than my death.
CROWD
May it be far!
CALIPH Therefore here and now, in the presence of all, I nominate Hassan to my court, to hold rank among my subjects second to none save to Jafar, my Grand Vizier.
YASMIN
(Who has been at her balcony with SELIM) O Allah!
CROWD
Honour to Hassan. Honour to Hassan.
HASSAN
Master, I sold confectionary in the market.
JAFAR
Thou shalt now confection the sweets of prosperity.
ISHAK
(To HASSAN) Why, Hassan. You are the man with the broken lute.
CALIPH
Is that the voice of Ishak?
ISHAK
It is the voice of Ishak that has often sung to you.
CALIPH
Why did you abandon me, Ishak, and flee into the night? I do not know
I shall forgive you.
ISHAK
I was weary of you, Haroun-ar-Raschid.
CALIPH
And if I weary of you?
ISHAK
You will one day or another, and you will have me slain.
CALIPH
And what of this day that dawns?
ISHAK
Dawn is the hour when most men die.
CALIPH
Your death is granted you, Ishak; you have but to kneel.
(A red glow on the horizon.)
ISHAK (As he kneels calmly) Why have they pinned the carpet of execution on the sky?
MASRUR
It is the Caliph's dawn.
JAFAR
Thy dawn, O Master!
ISHAK
Thy dawn, O Master of the world, thy dawn;
The hour the lilies open on the lawn,
The hour the grey wings pass beyond the mountains,
The hour of silence, when we hear the fountains,
The hour that dreams are brighter and winds colder,
The hour that young love wakes on a white shoulder,
O Master of the world, the Persian Dawn.
That hour, O Master, shall be bright for thee:
Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea,
The braves who fight thy war unsheathe the sabre,
The slaves who work thy mines are lashed to labour,
For thee the waggons of the world are drawn—
The ebony of night, the red of dawn!
CALIPH
Sheathe thy sword, Masrur! Would you kill my friend?
MASRUR
I hear and obey.
CALIPH I must go swiftly to my palace. But to you, Ishak, I leave the care of this man you sent up to me in the basket, who proved the salvation of Bagdad. Teach him the ceremonies and regulations. Is my chair ready?
MASRUR
Ready, Lord and Master.
(Exit CALIPH in chair, and JAFAR and CROWD. ISHAK signs to those who would kiss HASSAN's feet to leave him.)
YASMIN
(On balcony opposite. Giving SELIM a great clout on the ear)
Go, leave my sight, you fool. I shall burst with fury.
You made me insult Hassan, and now he is going to court.
SELIM
(Astonished) Eh, Yasmin, Yasmin how could I know?
ISHAK
Ah, bismillah, I had not forgotten you, O man with the broken lute.
HASSAN
The broken lute? The broken lute?
ISHAK
Here you were lying, at this fountain, like one dead.
HASSAN
Was it here? Is that the balcony? Who are you? What do you know?
ISHAK
Quietly, friend, quietly, your head is weak with joy.
HASSAN
With joy? Do I know what is true or false? Do I know if the Caliph
is the Caliph? And if the Caliph is the Caliph may he not mock me too?
What is joy? Let me look at that balcony for joy. I dare not look,
I fear she is there. Ah. it is she.
(YASMIN takes the rose from her hair and flings it at HASSAN, then retires within.)
ISHAK
Are you fortunate in love as well as in life, O Hassan? But come away.
This conduct ill beseems a minister of state; you are not unobserved.
HASSAN
I am coming. The rose is poisoned.
ISHAK
O friend, is this talk for the ardent lover?
HASSAN
Are you my friend? You, Ishak, the glorious singer of Islam?
And if you are my friend, are you like those who were my friends before?
ISHAK Last night, I found you lying like a filthy corpse beneath this window, but I knew by your lute and your countenance that you were a poet, like myself, and I was sorry to think you dead.
HASSAN
A poet? I? I am a confectioner.
ISHAK
You are my friend, Hassan.
HASSAN Then consider this rose. This rose is more bitter than colocynth. For, look you, friend, had she not flung this rose, I would have said she hated me and loved another; it is well. She had the right to hate and love. She could hate and she could love. But now, ah, tell me, you who seem to be my friend, are all you poets liars?
ISHAK
Ya, Hassan, but we tell excellent lies.
HASSAN Why do you say that beauty has a meaning? Why do you not say that beauty is hollow as a drum? Why do you not say that it is sold?
ISHAK
All this disillusionment because a fair lady flung you a rose!
HASSAN
Last night I baked sugar and she flung me water:
this morning I bake gold and she flings me a rose.
Empty, empty, I tell you, friend, all the blue sky.
ISHAK Come, forget her and come away. I will instruct you in the pleasures of the court.
HASSAN Forget, forget? O rose of morning and O rose of evening, vainly for me shall you fade on domes of ebony or azure. This rose has faded, and this rose is bitter, and this rose is nothing but the world.