CALIPH
He shall end in his time.
(To KING OF THE BEGGARS) Thy impudence will not redound to thy advantage,
Rafi! Wherefore dost thou not bite the tongue of insolence
with the tooth of discretion?
RAFI
I am a man in the presence of death.
CALIPH There a thousand paths to the delectable tavern of death, and some run straight and some run crooked.
RAFI Cut, scourge, burn, rack thy uttermost. The nobler the aim the baser the failure. Do not I deserve to feel every separate pain of those whom my folly has sent to cruel death?
CHINESE PHILOSOPHER I am a hundred and ten years old, and I have never heard a remark in more exquisite taste.
CALIPH It is well. But before I send thee to a death so cruel that thy conscience will be fully satisfied in this world and the next, answer me this: Hast thou forgotten that unparalleled lady whom the zeal of my servants ravished from thy embrace?
RAFI Thou devil of Eblis! Have I forgotten? Have I not prayed thou shouldst forget?
CALIPH
Shall a gallant man forget the name of a beautiful woman?
We will look on her, for whom thou didst attempt to raze
the central fort of Islam.
(To ATTENDANTS) Bring in this lady, Pervaneh.
RAFI
(In supplication) O Master of the World! O Master of the World!
CALIPH
Thou changest tone abruptly but late.