SHUMAKIM: [Balancing himself in front of them and chuckling.]
Wrong, my lords, very wrong! This is not last night's wine, but a draught the King's physician gave me this morning for a cure. It sobers me amazingly! I know you all, my lords: any fool would know you. You, master, are a statesman; and you are a politician; and you are a patriot.
RAKHAZ:
Am I a statesman? I felt something of the kind about me. But what is a statesman?
SHUMAKIM:
A politician that is stuffed with big words; a fat man in a mask; one that plays a solemn tune on a sackbut full o' wind.
HAZAEL:
And what is a politician?
SHUMAKIM:
A statesman that has dropped his mask and cracked his sackbut. Men trust him for what he is, and he never deceives them, because he always lies.