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.