no harper will pluck a string for us.
SECOND GIRL.
I cannot sleep with thinking of his face.
FIRST GIRL.
And I love dancing more than anything.
SECOND GIRL.
Do not be hard on us; but yesterday
A woman in the road threw stones at me.
You would not have me stoned?
FIRST GIRL.
May I not dance?
SOLDIER.
I will do nothing. You have put him out,
And now that he is out—well, leave him out.
FIRST GIRL.
Do it for my sake, Peter.
SECOND GIRL.
And for mine.
[Each girl as she speaks takes PETER’S hand with her right hand, stroking down his arm with her left. While SECOND GIRL is stroking his arm, FIRST GIRL leaves go and gives him the dish.
SOLDIER.
Well, well; but not your way. [To SEANCHAN.] Here’s meat for you.
It has been carried from too good a table
For men like you, and I am offering it
Because these women have made a fool of me.
[A pause.
You mean to starve? You will have none of it?
I’ll leave it there, where you can sniff the savour.
Snuff it, old hedgehog, and unroll yourself!
But if I were the King, I’d make you do it
With wisps of lighted straw.
SEANCHAN.
You have rightly named me.
I lie rolled up under the ragged thorns
That are upon the edge of those great waters
Where all things vanish away, and I have heard
Murmurs that are the ending of all sound.
I am out of life; I am rolled up, and yet,
Hedgehog although I am, I’ll not unroll
For you, King’s dog! Go to the King, your master.
Crouch down and wag your tail, for it may be
He has nothing now against you, and I think
The stripes of your last beating are all healed.
[The SOLDIER has drawn his sword.
CHAMBERLAIN.
[Striking up sword.]
Put up your sword, sir; put it up, I say!
The common sort would tear you into pieces
If you but touched him.
SOLDIER.
If he’s to be flattered,
Petted, cajoled, and dandled into humour,
We might as well have left him at the table.
[Goes to one side sheathing sword.
SEANCHAN.
You must need keep your patience yet awhile,
For I have some few mouthfuls of sweet air
To swallow before I have grown to be as civil
As any other dust.
CHAMBERLAIN.
You wrong us, Seanchan.
There is none here but holds you in respect;
And if you’d only eat out of this dish,
The King would show how much he honours you.
[Bowing and smiling.
Who could imagine you’d so take to heart
Being put from the high table? I am certain
That you, if you will only think it over,
Will understand that it is men of law,
Leaders of the King’s armies, and the like,
That should sit there.
SEANCHAN.
Somebody has deceived you,
Or maybe it was your own eyes that lied,
In making it appear that I was driven
From the King’s table. You have driven away
The images of them that weave a dance
By the four rivers in the mountain garden.
CHAMBERLAIN.
You mean we have driven poetry away.
But that’s not altogether true, for I,
As you should know, have written poetry.
And often when the table has been cleared,
And candles lighted, the King calls for me,
And I repeat it him. My poetry
Is not to be compared with yours; but still,
Where I am honoured, poetry is honoured—
In some measure.
SEANCHAN.
If you are a poet,
Cry out that the King’s money would not buy,
Nor the high circle consecrate his head,
If poets had never christened gold, and even
The moon’s poor daughter, that most whey-faced metal,
Precious;
