Chantecler
The real Swan’s shadow does no less! [Thrusting the Swan aside to hop up on a bench whence, through a gap in the hedge, he can see the distant meadows.] Let me climb up on this bench. I need to make sure that Nature still exists—though so far away! Ah, yes! The grass is green, a cow is grazing, a calf sucking—And Heaven be praised, the calf has a single head! [Coming down again beside the Pheasant-hen.]
The Pheasant-hen
Oh, come away to the innocent woods, sincere and dewy, where we will love each other!
The Blackbird
[Pointing at Chantecler and the Pheasant-hen, who are standing close and talking low.] We are getting on!
The Guinea-hen
[Intensely interested.] Do you think so? [She spreads her wings to screen them.] Oh, I am so fond of helping along a clandestine love affair!
The Blackbird
[Sticking his bill under the Guinea-hen’s wing so as to keep the pair in sight.] I believe she has thoughts of annexing his comb.
The Pheasant-hen
[To Chantecler.] Come, dearest, come away!
Chantecler
[Resisting.] No, I must sing where Destiny placed me. I am useful here, I am beloved—
The Pheasant-hen
[Remembering what she overheard the night before in the farmyard.] Are you so sure?—Come away to the woods, where we shall hear real pigeons cooing tenderly to each other!
The Turkey
[At the back.] Ladies, the great Peacock—
The Peacock
[Modestly.] The Super-peacock—who supervenes, and supersedes—