King Hunger
By Leonid Andreyev
(Russian novelist and dramatist of social protest; born 1871. In this grim symbolical drama is voiced the despair of Russia’s intellectuals after the tragic failure of the Revolution. In the first scene King Hunger is shown inciting the starving factory-slaves to revolt; in the second, he presides over a gathering of the outcasts of society, who meet in a cellar to discuss projects of ferocious vengeance upon the idlers in the ball-room over their heads, but break up in a drunken brawl instead. In the present scene, King Hunger turns traitor to his victims, and presides as a judge passing sentence upon them. The leisure class attend as spectators in the court-room, the women in evening gowns and jewels, “the men in dress coats and surtouts, carefully shaven and dressed at the wig-makers”)
King Hunger:—Show in the first starveling.
(The first starveling, a ragged old man with lacerated feet, is conducted into the court-room. A wire muzzle encases his face.)
King Hunger:—Take the muzzle off the starveling. What’s your offense, Starveling?
Old Man (speaking in a broken voice):—Theft.
King Hunger:—How much did you steal?
Old Man:—I stole a five-pound loaf, but it was wrested from me. I had only time to bite a small piece of it. Forgive me, I will never again——