ISHAK
Ah, you may well shiver, poor captives: it is draughty among your rags.
HERALD
Hassan ben Hassan al Bagdadi, the Caliph's friend.
SOLDIERS Long live Hassan and the shadow of Hassan and the friend of Hassan ben Hassan al Bagdadi!
ISHAK (Drawing HASSAN aside) Come hither, friend of the Caliph; do not forget that you are the man with the broken lute.
HASSAN
What is a friend?
ISHAK
Are you not in favour? Has not the Caliph taught you?
You have a royal friend.
HASSAN
He is generous: he is gracious: he is intimate. He has leant on
my arm, he has embraced me, he has called me by that name "friend".
But I tremble before his eyes.
ISHAK
You have found out. No man can ever be his friend.
HASSAN
Alas, that is because he is exalted far above mankind!
ISHAK Alas, no: but because he uses that supremacy to play the artist with the lives of men.