Also there was a robin whose grandmother had escaped from the forest just before the slumber-spell fell on it!
Mentor.
[With his mouth full.] Fudge! Stuff and nonsense!
The Prince.
And in my nursery there is a tiger-skin rug, you remember! Well, one day it whispered to me—
Mentor.
Gammon and spinach! I beg your pardon, my dear Prince, but really, when you talk this way—Why, the thesis on which I took my doctor’s degree is a refutation of the tissue of lies—very poetic ones, I grant you—which form the myth of the Sleeping Beauty! [He takes a drink.] There’s a presentation copy in the Royal library! The trouble is that the poetic myth is a best seller, while the leaves of the presentation-copy-refutation remain uncut!
The Prince.
But, my dear Mentor, how do you account for the disappearance of King Johannes Johann Ivor Ivan Ian Giovanni Juan Jean John? The sudden mysterious disappearance with all his court that caused my royal ancestors to annex the kingdom to their own! It’s an historical fact, you know!