(Getting up.) Forward, brother, do not let us miss the beggars' fair. Fortune only offers us her hand once a year!
(Exeunt.)
Scene Three.
(Night. The gallows looms in the background. Forward, to the left, is a gigantic boulder, beneath a gnarled oak, which serves the performers as a stage. In front of it flickers a huge bonfire, about which are gathered the spectators, men, women and children, in fantastic raiment.)
(Chorus)
Both in town and country beds,
With their windows tightly fastened, honest folk are
drowsing.
Those with no home for their heads
Dance with merry spectres 'neath the gallows tree carousing.
Exiles from the sun's bright light,
Fortune's tracks we still can follow in the dark obscurely,
And are lords in our own sight
While in heaven the friendly stars twinkle quite demurely.