Androcles and the Lion

by Bernard Shaw

FERROVIUS.
(sternly) Pray, man, pray.

SPINTHO.
What’s the good of praying? If we’re martyred we shall go to heaven, shan’t we, whether we pray or not?

FERROVIUS.
What’s that? Not pray! (Seizing him again) Pray this instant, you dog, you rotten hound, you slimy snake, you beastly goat, or—

SPINTHO.
Yes: beat me: kick me. I forgive you: mind that.

FERROVIUS.
(spurning him with loathing) Yah! (Spintho reels away and falls in front of Ferrovius).

ANDROCLES.
(reaching out and catching the skirt of Ferrovius’s tunic) Dear brother: if you wouldn’t mind—just for my sake—

FERROVIUS.
Well?

ANDROCLES.
Don’t call him by the names of the animals. We’ve no right to. I’ve had such friends in dogs. A pet snake is the best of company. I was nursed on goat’s milk. Is it fair to them to call the like of him a dog or a snake or a goat?

FERROVIUS.
I only meant that they have no souls.

ANDROCLES.
(anxiously protesting) Oh, believe me, they have. Just the same as you and me. I really don’t think I could consent to go to heaven if I thought there were to be no animals there. Think of what they suffer here.