The Viziers of Bassora
(A Romantic Comedy)
Act III
Bassora.
Scene 1
Ibn Sawy’s house. A room in the outer apartments decorated
for a banquet.
Doonya, Anice, Balkis.
DOONYA
Lord, how they pillage! Even the furniture
Cannot escape these Djinns. Ogre Ghaneem
Picks up that costly chair between his teeth
And off to his castle; devil Ayoob drops
That table of mosaic in his pocket;
Zeb sweeps off rugs and couches in a whirlwind.
What purse will long put up with such ill-treatment?
BALKIS
It must be checked.
DOONYA
’Tis much that he has kept
His promise to my uncle. Oh, he’s sound!
These villains spoil him. Anice, you’re to blame.
However you complain, yourself are quite
As reckless.
ANICE
I?
DOONYA
Yes, you. Is there a bright
Unnecessary jewel you have seen
And have not bought? a dress that took your fancy
And was not in a moment yours? Or have you lost
A tiny chance of laughter, song and wine,
Since you were with him?
ANICE
A few rings and chains,
Some silks and cottons I have bought at times.
DOONYA
What did these trifles cost?
ANICE
I do not know.
DOONYA
Of course you do not. Come, it’s gone too far;
Restrain him, curb yourself.
BALKIS
Next time he calls you
To sing among his wild companions, send
Cold answers, do not go.
ANICE
To break the jest,
The flow of good companionship, drive out
Sweet friendly looks with anger, be a kill-joy
And frowner in this bright and merry world!
Oh, all the sins that human brows grow wrinkled
With frowning at, could never equal this!
DOONYA
But if the skies grew darker?
ANICE
If they should!
It was a bright and merry world. To see him
Happy and gay and kind was all I cared for;
There my horizon stopped. But if the skies
Did darken! Doonya, it shall cease today.
Enter Azeem.
Well, Azeem.
AZEEM
Madam, half the creditors,
And that means half the shops in Bassora,
Hold session in the outer hall and swear
It shall be permanent till they get money.
ANICE
Where is your master? Call him here. A moment!
Have you the bills?
AZEEM
All of them, long as pillars
And crammed from head to foot with monstrous sums.
ANICE
Call him.
AZEEM
He’s here.
Enter Nureddene.
NUREDDENE
What, cousin Doonya! Balkis!
Did you steal down to see the decorations?
Are they not pretty?
DOONYA
Like a painted tombstone
Sculptured and arabesqued, but death’s inside
And bones, my brother, bones.
NUREDDENE
And there are bones
In this fair pleasing outside called dear Doonya,
But let us only think of rosy cheeks,
Sweet eyes and laughing lips and not the bones.
DOONYA
You have boned my metaphor and quite disboned it,
Until there’s nothing firm inside; ’tis pulpy.
ANICE
The creditors besiege you, Nureddene;
You’ll pay them.
NUREDDENE
Serious, Anice?
ANICE
Till you do,
I will not smile again. Azeem, the bills!
NUREDDENE
Is this your doing, Doonya?
DOONYA
Yours, cousin, yours.
NUREDDENE
Is’t so? Anice?
ANICE
I’ve told you.
NUREDDENE
Show me the bills.
Go in, you three.
ANICE
Ah, he is grieved and angry!
His eyes are clouded; let me speak to him.
BALKIS
Now you’ll spoil all; drag her off, Doonya.
DOONYA
Come.
Exit drawing away Anice, Balkis behind.
NUREDDENE
Well, sir, where are these bills?
AZEEM
You will see the bills?
NUREDDENE
Thesums, thesums!
AZEEM
To tailor Mardouc twenty-four thousand pieces, namely, for
caftans, robes, shawls, turbans, Damascus silks, —
NUREDDENE
Leave the inventory.
AZEEM
To tailor Labkan, another twenty thousand; to the baker, two
thousand; to the confectioner, as much; to the Bagdad curio-
merchant twenty-four thousand; to the same from Ispahan, sixteen thousand;
to the jeweller on account of necklaces, bracelets,
waist-ornaments, anklets, rings, pendents and all manner of
trinkets for the slavegirl Anice-aljalice, ninety thousand only;
to the upholsterer —
NUREDDENE
Hold, hold! Why, what are all these monstrous sums?
Hast thou no word but thousands in thy belly,
Exorbitant fellow?
AZEEM
Why, sir, ’tis in the bills; my belly’s empty enough.
NUREDDENE
Nothing but thousands!
AZEEM
Here’s one for seven hundred, twelve dirhams and some odd
fractions from Husayn cook.
NUREDDENE
The sordid, dingy rogue! Will he dun me so brutally for a base
seven hundred?
AZEEM
The fruiterer —
NUREDDENE
Away! bring bags.
AZEEM
Bags, sir?
NUREDDENE
Of money, fool. Call Harkoos and all the slaves. Bring half my
treasury.
Exit Azeem.
She frown on me! look cold! for sums, for debts!
For money, the poor paltry stuff we dig
By shovels from base mire. Grows love so beggarly
That it must think of piastres? O my heart!
Enter Azeem, Harkoos and Slaves
with bags of money.
Heap them about the room. Go, Azeem, call
That hungry pack; they shall be fed.
Exit Azeem.
Harkoos,
Open two bags there. Have you broken the seals?
Enter Azeem ushering in the creditors.
Who asks for money?
COOK
I, sir. Seven hundred denars, twelve dirhams and three fourths
of a dirham, that is my amount.
NUREDDENE
Take thy amount, thou dingy-hearted rogue.
Throws a bag towards him.
You there, take yours.
JEWELLER
Sir, this is not a hundredth part of your debt to me.
NUREDDENE
Give him two hundred bags.
HARKOOS
Bags, sir?
NUREDDENE
Do you grin, rogue, and loiter? Take that! (strikes him)
HARKOOS
Exactly. Your peg’s loose, beat Harkoos. Old master or young,
’tis all one to Harkoos. Stick or leather! cuff or kick! these are
all the houses of my horoscope.
NUREDDENE
I am sorry I struck thee; there’s gold. Give them all the money;
all, I say. Porter that home, you rascals, and count your sums.
What’s over, cram your throats with it; or, if you will, throw it
in the gutter.
CREDITORS (scrambling and quarrelling for the bags)
That’s mine! that’s mine! no, mine! Leave go, you robber. Whom
do you call robber, thief?
NUREDDENE
Cudgel them from the room.
Exeunt Creditors snatching bags
and pursued by the slaves.
AZEEM
’Tis madness, sir.
Nureddene motions him away. Exit Azeem.
NUREDDENE
If she were clothed in rags
And beggary her price, I’ld follow her
From here to China. She to frown on me
For money!
Enter Anice.
ANICE
Nureddene, what have you done?
NUREDDENE
You bade me pay the fellows: I have paid them.
ANICE
You are angry with me? I did not think you could
Be angry with me for so slight a cause.
NUREDDENE
I did not think that you could frown on me
Formoney, foramatterofmoney!
ANICE
You
Believe that? Is it so you know me? Dear,
While for my sake you ruined yourself, must I
Look smiling on? Nay, ruin then yourself
And try me.
NUREDDENE
Dear Anice, it was with myself
I was angry, but the coward in me turned
On you to avenge its pain. Let me forget
All else and only think of you and love.
ANICE
Shall I sing to you?
NUREDDENE
Do, Anice.
ANICE
There’s a song —
Song
Love keep terms with tears and sorrow?
He’s too bright.
Born today, he may tomorrow
Say goodnight.
Love is gone ere grief can find him;
But his way
Tears that, falling, lag behind him
Still betray.
I cannot sing.
NUREDDENE
Tears, Anice? O my love,
What worst calamity do they portend
For him who caused them?
ANICE
None, none! or only showers
The sunlight soon o’ertakes. Away with grief!
What is it after all but money lost?
Beggars are happier, are they not, my lord?
NUREDDENE
Much happier, Anice.
ANICE
Let us be beggars, then.
Oh, we shall wander blissfully about
In careless rags. And I shall take my lute
And buy you honey-crusts with my sweet voice.
For is not my voice sweet, my master?
NUREDDENE
Sweet
As Gabriel’s when he sings before the Lord
And Heaven listens.
ANICE
We shall reach Bagdad
Someday and meet the Caliph in the streets,
The mighty Caliph Haroun Alrasheed,
Disguised, a beggar too, give him our crusts
And find ourselves all suddenly the friends
Of the world’s master. Shall we not, my lord?
NUREDDENE
Anice, we shall.
ANICE
Let us be beggars then,
Rich happy paupers singing through the world.
Ah, but you have a father and a mother!
Come, sit down there and I will stand before you
And tell a story.
NUREDDENE
Sit by me and tell it.
ANICE
No, no. I’ll stand.
NUREDDENE
Well, wilful. Now, your tale.
ANICE
I have forgotten it. It was about
A man who had a gem earth could not buy.
NUREDDENE
As I have you.
ANICE
Be silent, sir. He kept it
With ordinary jewels which he took
Each day and threw into the street, and said,
“I’ll show this earth that all the gems it has,
Together match not this I’ll solely keep.”
NUREDDENE
As I’ll keep you.
ANICE
Ah, but he did not know
What slender thread bound to a common pearl
That wonder. When he threw that out, alas!
His jewel followed, and though he sought earth through,
He never could again get back his gem.
NUREDDENE (after a pause)
Tomorrow I will stop this empty life,
Cut down expense and only live for you.
Tonight there is the banquet. It must stand,
My word being given. Azeem!
Enter Azeem.
What money still
Is in the treasury? What debts outstand?
AZEEM
More now than you can meet. But for today’s folly, all would
have been well, — your lordly folly! Oh, beat me! I must speak.
NUREDDENE
Realize all the estate, the house only excepted; satisfy the creditors. For what’s left, entreat delay.
AZEEM
They will not be entreated. They have smelt the carrion and are
all winging up, beak outstretched and talons ready.
NUREDDENE
Carrion indeed and vile! Wherefore gave God
Reason to his best creatures, if they suffer
The rebel blood to o’ercrow that tranquil wise
And perfect minister? Do what thou canst.
I have good friends to help me in my need.
Exit.
AZEEM
Good friends? good bloodsuckers, good thieves! Much help his
need will have out of them!
ANICE
There’s always Ajebe.
AZEEM
Will you trust him? He is the Vizier’s nephew.
Exeunt.
***
Scene 2
The same.
Anice, Nureddene.
ANICE
And they all left?
NUREDDENE
Cafoor crept down and heard
The clamorous creditors; and they all left.
Ghaneem’s dear mother’s sick; for my sweet love
Only he came, leaving her sad bedside;
Friend Ayoob’s uncle leaves today for Mecca:
In Cafoor’s house there is a burial toward;
Zeb’s father, Omar’s brother, Hussan’s wife
Are piteously struck down. There never was
So sudden an epidemic witnessed yet
In Bassora, and all with various ailments.
ANICE
This is their friendship!
NUREDDENE
We will not judge so harshly.
It may be that a generous kindly shame
Or half-remorseful delicacy had pricked them.
I’ve sent Harkoos to each of them in turn
For loans to help me. We shall see. Who’s here?
Enter Ajebe.
Ajebe, you have come back, you only? Yes,
You were my friend and checked me always. Man
Is not ignoble, but has angel soarings,
Howe’er the nether devil plucks him down.
Still we have souls nor is the mould quite broken
Of that original and faultless plan
Which Adam spoilt.
AJEBE
I am your ruin’s author.
If you have still a sword, use it upon me.
NUREDDENE
What’s this?
AJEBE
Incited by the Vizier, promised
Greatness, I in my turn incited these
To hurry you to ruin. Will you slay me?
NUREDDENE (after a silence)
Return and tell the Vizier that work’s done.
Be great with him.
AJEBE
Are you entirely ruined?
NUREDDENE
Doubt not your work’s well done; you can assure
The uncle. Came you back for that?
AJEBE
If all I have, —
NUREDDENE
No more! return alive.
AJEBE
You punish home.
Exit.
NUREDDENE
The eunuch lingers.
Enter Harkoos.
Well, sir, your success?
HARKOOS
I went first to Ayoob. He has had losses, very suddenly, and is
dolorous that he cannot help you.
NUREDDENE
Ghaneem?
HARKOOS
Has broken his leg for the present and cannot see anyone for a
long fortnight.
NUREDDENE
Cafoor?
HARKOOS
Has gone into the country — upstairs.
NUREDDENE
Zeb?
HARKOOS
Wept sobbingly. Every time I mentioned money, he drowned the
subject in tears. I might have reached his purse at last, but I
cannot swim.
NUREDDENE
Omar?
HARKOOS
Will burn his books sooner than lend you money.
NUREDDENE
Did all fail me?
HARKOOS
Some had dry eyes and some wet, but none a purse.
NUREDDENE
Go.
Exit Harkoos.
What next? Shall I, like him of Athens, change
And hate my kind? Then should I hate myself,
Who ne’er had known their faults, if my own sins
Pursued me not like most unnatural hounds
Into their screened and evil parts of nature.
God made them; what He made, is doubtless good.
ANICE
You still have me.
NUREDDENE
That’s much.
ANICE
No, everything.
NUREDDENE
’Tis true and I shall feel it soon.
ANICE
My jewels
And dresses will fill up quite half the void.
NUREDDENE
Shall I take back my gifts?
ANICE
If they are mine,
I choose to sell them.
NUREDDENE
Do it. I forgot;
Let Cafoor have the vase I promised him.
Come, Anice. I will ask Murad for help.
Exeunt.
***
Scene 3
A room in Ajebe’s house.
Balkis, Mymoona.
BALKIS
Did he not ask after me? I’m sick, Mymoona.
MYMOONA
Sick? I think both of you are dying of a galloping consumption.
Such colour in the cheeks was never a good symptom.
BALKIS
Tell him I am very, very ill; tell him I am dying. Pray be pathetic.
MYMOONA
Put saffron on your cheeks and look nicely yellow; he will melt.
BALKIS
I think my heart will break.
MYMOONA
Let it do so quickly; it will mend the sooner.
BALKIS (in tears)
How can you be so harsh to me, Mymoona?
MYMOONA
You foolish child! Why did you strain your power
To such a breaking tightness? There’s a rhythm
Will shatter hardest stone; each thing in nature
Has its own point where it has done with patience
And starts in pieces; below that point play on it,
Nor overpitch the music. Look, he’s coming.
BALKIS
I’ll go.
MYMOONA (holding her)
You shall not.
Enter Ajebe.
AJEBE
I thought you were alone,
Mymoona. I am not cheap to thrust myself
Where I’m not wanted.
BALKIS
I would be gone, Mymoona.
In truth, I thought it was the barber’s woman;
Therefore I stayed.
AJEBE
There are such hearts, Mymoona,
As think so little of adoring love,
They make it only a pedestal for pride,
A whipping-stock for their vain tyrannies.
BALKIS
Mymoona, there are men so weak in love,
They cannot bear more than an ass’s load;
So high in their conceit, the tenderest
Kindest rebuke turns all their sweetness sour.
AJEBE
Some have strange ways of tenderness, Mymoona.
BALKIS
Mymoona, some think all control a tyranny.
MYMOONA
O you two children! Come, an end of this!
Give me your hand.
AJEBE
My hand? Wherefore my hand?
MYMOONA
Give it. I join two hands that much desire
And would have met ere this but for their owners,
Who have less sense than they.
BALKIS
She’s stronger than me,
Or I’ld not touch you.
AJEBE
I would not hurt Mymoona;
Therefore I take your hand.
MYMOONA
Oh, is it so?
Then by your foolish necks! Make your arms meet
About her waist.
AJEBE
Only to satisfy you,
Whom only I care for.
MYMOONA
Yours here on his neck.
BALKIS
I was about to yawn, therefore I raised them.
MYMOONA
I go to fetch a cane. Look that I find you
Much better friends. If you will not agree,
Your bones at least shall sympathise and ruefully.
Exit.
AJEBE
How could you be so harsh to my great love?
BALKIS
How could you be so cruel and so wicked?
AJEBE
I kiss you, but ’tis only your red lips
So soft, not you who are more hard than stone.
BALKIS
I kiss you back, but only ’tis because
Ihatetobeindebt.
AJEBE
Will you be kinder?
BALKIS
Will you be more obedient and renounce
Your hateful uncle?
AJEBE
Him and all his works,
If you will only smile on me.
BALKIS
I’ll laugh
Like any horse. No, I surrender. Clasp me,
I am your slave.
AJEBE
My queen of love.
BALKIS
Both, both.
AJEBE
Why were you so long froward?
BALKIS
Do you remember
I had to woo you in the market? how you
Hesitated a moment?
AJEBE
Vindictive shrew!
BALKIS
This time had I not reason to be angry?
AJEBE
Oh, too much reason! I feel so vile until
I find a means to wash this uncle stain from me.
Enter Mymoona.
MYMOONA
That’s well. But we must now to Nureddene’s.
For hard pressed as he is, he’ll sell his Anice.
BALKIS
Never!
MYMOONA
He must.
AJEBE
I’ll lend him thrice her value.
MYMOONA
Do not propose it. The wound you gave’s too recent.
BALKIS
Then let me keep her as a dear deposit,
The sweet security of Ajebe’s loan,
Till he redeems her.
MYMOONA
He will take no favours.
No, let him sell her in the open market;
Ajebe will overtop all bids. Till he
Get means, she’s safe with us and waiting for him.
BALKIS
Oh, let us go at once.
MYMOONA
I’ll order litters.
Exit.
AJEBE
Will you be like this always?
BALKIS
If you are good,
I will be. If not, I will outshrew Xantippe.
AJEBE
With such a heaven and hell in view, I’ll be
An angel.
BALKIS
Of what colour?
AJEBE
Black beside you,
But fair as seraphs to what I have been.
Exeunt.
***
Scene 4
Ibn Sawy’s house.
Anice, alone.
ANICE
If Murad fails him, what is left? He has
No other thing to sell but only me.
A thought of horror! Is my love then strong
Only for joy, only to share his heaven?
Can it not enter Hell for his dear sake?
How shall I follow him then after death,
If Heaven reject him? For the path’s so narrow
Footing that judgment blade, to slip’s so easy.
Avert the need, O Heaven.
Enter Nureddene.
Has Murad failed him?
NUREDDENE
Murad refuses. This load of debt’s a torture!
ANICE
The dresses and the gems you made me keep —
NUREDDENE
Keep them; they are your own.
ANICE
I am your slavegirl.
My body and what it wears, all I am, all I have,
Are only for your use.
NUREDDENE
Girl, would you have me strip you then quite bare?
ANICE
What does it matter? The coarsest rag ten dirhams
Might buy, would be enough, if you’ld still love me.
NUREDDENE
These would not meet one half of what I owe.
ANICE
Master, you bought me for ten thousand pieces.
NUREDDENE
Be silent.
ANICE
Has my value lessened since?
NUREDDENE
No more! You’ll make me hate you.
ANICE
If you do,
’Tis better; it will help my heart to break.
NUREDDENE
Have you the heart to speak of this?
ANICE
Had I
Less heart, less love, I would not speak of it.
NUREDDENE
I swore to my father that I would not sell you.
ANICE
But there was a condition.
NUREDDENE
If you desired it!
ANICE
Do I not ask you?
NUREDDENE
Speak truth! do you desire it?
Truth, in the name of God who sees your heart!
Ah, you are silent.
ANICE (weeping)
How could I desire it?
Ajebe is here. Be friends with him, dear love;
Forgive his fault.
NUREDDENE
Anice, my own sins are
So heavy, not to forgive his lesser vileness
Would leave me without hope of heavenly pardon.
ANICE
I’ll call him then.
Exit.
NUREDDENE
Let me absolve these debts,
Then straight with Anice to Bagdad the splendid.
There is the home for hearts and brains and hands,
Not in this petty centre. Core of Islam,
Bagdad, the flood to which all brooks converge.
Anice returns with Ajebe, Balkis, Mymoona.
AJEBE
Am I forgiven?
NUREDDENE
Ajebe, let the past
Have never been.
AJEBE
You are Ibn Sawy’s son.
NUREDDENE
Give me your counsel, Ajebe. I have nothing
But the mere house which is not saleable.
My father must not find a homeless Bassora,
Returning.
MYMOONA
Nothing else?
ANICE
Only myself
Whom he’ll not sell.
MYMOONA
He must.
NUREDDENE
Never, Mymoona.
MYMOONA
Fear not the sale which shall be in name alone.
’Tis only Balkis borrowing her from you
Who pawns her value. She will stay with me
Serving our Balkis, safe from every storm.
But if you ask, why then the mart and auction?
We must have public evidence of sale
To meet an uncle’s questions.
ANICE
O now there’s light.
Blessed Mymoona!
NUREDDENE
It must not be. My oath!
ANICE
But I desire it now, yes, I desire it.
NUREDDENE
And is my pride then nothing? Shall I sell her
To be a slavegirl’s slavegirl? Pardon, Balkis.
MYMOONA
Too fine, too fine!
ANICE
To serve awhile my sister!
For that she is in heart.
BALKIS
Serve only in name.
MYMOONA
She will be safe while you rebuild your fortunes.
NUREDDENE
I do not like it.
MYMOONA
Nor does anyone
As in itself, but only as a refuge
From greater evils.
NUREDDENE
Oh, you’re wrong, Mymoona.
To quibble with an oath! it will not prosper.
Straight dealing’s best.
MYMOONA
You look at it too finely.
NUREDDENE
Have it your way, then.
MYMOONA
Call the broker here.
A quiet sale! The uncle must not hear of it.
AJEBE
’Twould be the plague.
NUREDDENE
I fear it will not prosper.
Exeunt.
***
Scene 5
The slave-market.
Muazzim with Anice exposed for sale; Ajebe, Aziz, Abdullah
and Merchants.
MUAZZIM
Who bids?
AZIZ
Four thousand.
MUAZZIM
She went for ten when she was here first. Will you not raise your
bid nearer her value?
AZIZ
She was new then and untouched. ’Tis the way with goods,
broker; they lose value by time and purchase, use and soiling.
MUAZZIM
Oh, sir, the kissed mouth has always honey. But this is a Peri
and immortal lips have an immortal sweetness.
AJEBE
Five hundred to that bid.
Enter Almuene with Slaves.
ALMUENE (to himself )
Ah, it is true! All things come round at last
With the full wheel of Fate; it is my hour.
Fareed shall have her. She shall be well handled
To plague her lover’s heart before he dies.
(aloud)
Broker, who sells the girl and what’s her rate?
AJEBE
All’s lost.
MUAZZIM
Nureddene bin Alfazzal bin Sawy sells her and your nephew has
bid for her four thousand and five hundred.
ALMUENE
My nephew bids for me. Who bids against?
AJEBE
Uncle —
ALMUENE
Go, find out other slavegirls, Ajebe.
Do well until the end.
Exit Ajebe.
Who bids against me?
She’s mine then. Come.
ANICE
I’ll not be sold to you.
ALMUENE
What, dar’st thou speak, young harlot? Fear the whip.
ANICE
Vizier, I fear you not; there’s law in Islam.
My master will deny the sale.
ALMUENE
Thy master
Shall be a kitchen negro, who shall use thee.
ANICE
Had I a whip, you should not say it twice.
MUAZZIM
Vizier, Vizier, by law the owner’s acceptance only is final for the
sale.
ALMUENE
It is a form, but get it. I am impatient
Until I have this strumpet in my grip.
MUAZZIM
Well, here he comes.
Enter Nureddene and Ajebe.
AMERCHANT
Shall we go, shall we go?
ABDULLAH
Stand by! ’Tis noble Ibn Sawy’s son.
We must protect him even at our own peril.
MUAZZIM
She goes for a trifle, sir; and even that little you will not get. You
will weary your feet with journeyings, only to be put off by his
villains, and when you grow clamorous they will demand your
order and tear it before your eyes. That’s your payment.
NUREDDENE
That’s nothing. The wolf’s cub, hunchback Fareed!
The sale is off.
MUAZZIM
Be advised by me. Catch the girl by the hair and cuff her soundly,
abusing her with the harshest terms your heart can consent to,
then off with her quickly as if you had brought her to market
only to execute an oath made in anger. So he loses his hold on her.
NUREDDENE
I’ll tell the lie. One fine, pure-seeming falsehood,
Admitted, opens door to all his naked
And leprous family; in, in, they throng
And breed the house quite full.
MUAZZIM
The Vizier wants her.
He bids four thousand pieces and five hundred.
NUREDDENE
’Tis nothing. Girl, I keep my oath. Suffice it
You’re bidden for and priced in open market here.
Come home! Be now less dainty, meeker of tongue,
Or you shall have more feeling punishments.
Do I need to sell thee? Home! my oath is kept.
ALMUENE
This is a trick to cheat the law. Thou ruffian!
Cheap profligate! What hast thou left to sell
But thy own sensual filth and drunken body, —
If any out of charity would spend
Some dirhams to reform thee with a scourge?
Vile son of a bland hypocrite!
He draws his scimitar.
ABDULLAH
Pause, Vizier.
AZIZ
Be patient, Nureddene.
ALMUENE
I yet shall kill him.
Hence, harlot, foot before me to my kitchen.
ANICE
He has abused me filthily, my lord,
Before these merchants.
ALMUENE
Abuse thee, rag? Hast thou
An use? To be abused is thy utility.
Thou shalt be used and common.
NUREDDENE
Stand by, you merchants; let none interfere
On peril of his life. Thou foul-mouthed tyrant,
Into the mire and dirt, where thou wert gendered!
ALMUENE
Help, help! Hew him in pieces.
The slaves are rushing forward.
ABDULLAH
What do you, fellows?
This is a Vizier and a Vizier’s son.
Shall common men step in? You’ll get the blows
For only thanks.
ALMUENE
Oh! oh! Will you then kill me?
NUREDDENE
If thou wouldst live, crave pardon of the star
Thou hast spat on. I would make thee lick her feet
But that thy lips would foul their purity.
ALMUENE
Pardon, oh, pardon!
NUREDDENE (throwing him away)
Live then, in thy gutter.
Exit with Anice.
ABDULLAH
Go, slaves, lift up your master, lead him off.
Exeunt Slaves with Almuene.
He is well punished.
AZIZ
What will come of this?
ABDULLAH
No good to Nureddene. Let’s go and warn him;
He’s bold and proud, may think to face it out,
Which were mere waiting death.
AZIZ
Iprayonus
This falls not.
Exeunt Merchants.
MUAZZIM
Here was ill-luck!
AJEBE
Nor ends with this.
I’ll have a ship wide-sailed and well-provisioned
For their escape. Bassora will not hold them.
Exeunt.
***
Scene 6
The Palace at Bassora.
Alzayni, Salar.
ALZAYNI
So it is written here. Hot interchange
And high defiance have already passed
Between our Caliph and the daring Roman.
Europe and Asia are at grips once more.
To inspect the southward armies unawares
Haroun himself is coming.
SALAR
Alfazzal then
Returns to us, unless the European,
After their barbarous fashion, seize on him.
ALZAYNI
’Tis strange, he sends no tidings of the motion
I made to Egypt.
SALAR
’Tis too dangerous
To write of, as indeed ’twas ill-advised
To make the approach.
ALZAYNI
Great dangers justify
The smaller. Caliph Alrasheed conceives
On trifling counts a dumb displeasure towards me
Which any day may speak; ’tis whispered of
In Bagdad. Alkhasib, the Egyptian Vizier,
Is in like plight. It is mere policy,
Salar, to build out of a common peril
A common safety.
SALAR
Haroun Alrasheed
Could break each one of you between two fingers,
Stretching his left arm out to Bassora,
His right to Egypt. Sultan, wilt thou strive
Against the single giant of the world?
ALZAYNI
Giants are mortal, friend, be but our swords
As bold as sharp. Call Murad here to me.
Exit Salar.
My state is desperate, if Haroun lives;
He’s sudden and deadly, when his anger bursts.
But let me be more sudden, yet more deadly.
Enter Murad.
Murad, the time draws near. The Caliph comes
To Bassora; let him not thence return.
MURAD
My blade is sharp and what I do is sudden.
ALZAYNI
My gallant Turk! Thou shalt rise high, believe it.
For I need men like thee.
MURAD (to himself )
But Kings like thee
Earth needs not.
VOICE WITHOUT
Justice! justice! justice, King!
King of the Age, I am a man much wronged.
ALZAYNI
Who cries beneath my window? Chamberlain!
Enter Sunjar.
SUNJAR
An Arab daubed with mud and dirt, all battered,
Unrecognizable, with broken lips cries out
For justice.
ALZAYNI
Bring him here.
Exit Sunjar.
It is some brawl.
Enter Sunjar with Almuene.
Thou, Vizier! Who has done this thing to thee?
ALMUENE
Mohamad, son of Sulyman! Sultan
Alzayni! Abbasside! how shalt thou long
Have friends, if the King’s enemies may slay
In daylight, here, in open Bassora
The King’s best friends because they love the King?
ALZAYNI
Name them at once and choose their punishment.
ALMUENE
Alfazzal’s son, that brutal profligate,
Has done this.
MURAD
Nureddene!
ALZAYNI
Upon what quarrel?
ALMUENE
A year ago Alfazzal bought a slavegirl
With the King’s money for the King, a gem
Of beauty, learning, mind, fit for a Caliph.
But seeing the open flower he thought perhaps
Your royal nose too base to smell at it,
So gave her to his royaller darling son
To soil and rumple. No man with a neck
Dared tell you of it, such your faith was in him.
ALZAYNI
Is’t so? our loved and trusted Ibn Sawy!
ALMUENE
This profligate squandering away his wealth
Brought her to market; there I saw her and bid
Her fair full price. Whereat he stormed at me
With words unholy; yet I answered mild,
“My son, not for myself, but the King’s service
I need her.” He with bold and furious looks,
“Dog, Vizier of a dog, I void on thee
And on thy Sultan.” With which blasphemy
He seized me, rolled in the mire, battered with blows,
Kicks, pullings of the beard, then dragged me back
And flung me at his slavegirl’s feet, who, proud
Of her bold lover, footed my grey head
Repeatedly and laughed, “This for thy King,
Thy dingy stingy King who with so little
Would buy a slavegirl sole in all the world.”
SUNJAR
Great Hasheem’s vein cords all the Sultan’s forehead.
MURAD
The dog has murdered both of them with lies.
ALZAYNI
Now by the Prophet, my forefather! Out,
Murad! drag here the fellow and his girl;
Trail them with ropes tied to their bleeding heels,
Their faces in the mire, with pinioned hands
Behind their backs, into my presence here.
Sack Sawy’s mansion, raze it to the ground.
What, am I grown so bare that by-lane dogs
Like these so loudly bay at me? They die!
MURAD
Sultan, —
ALZAYNI
He’s doomed who speaks a word for them.
Exit.
ALMUENE
Brother-in-law Murad, fetch your handsome brother.
Soon, lest the Sultan hear of it!
MURAD
Vizier,
I know my duty. Know your own and do it.
ALMUENE
I’ll wash, then forth in holiday attire
To see that pretty sport.
Exit.
SUNJAR
What will you do?
MURAD
Sunjar, a something swift and desperate.
I will not let them die.
SUNJAR
Run not on danger.
I’ll send a runner hotfoot to their house
To warn them.
Exit Sunjar.
MURAD
Do so. What will Doonya say
When she hears this? How will her laughing eyes
Be clouded and brim over! Till Haroun comes!
Exit.
***
Scene 7
Ibn Sawy’s house.
Nureddene, Anice.
NUREDDENE
’Tis Sunjar warns us, he who always loved
Our father.
ANICE
Oh, my lord, make haste and flee.
NUREDDENE
Whither and how? But come.
Enter Ajebe.
AJEBE
Quick, Nureddene.
I have a ship all ready for Bagdad,
Sails bellying with fair wind, the pilot’s hand
Upon the wheel, the captain on the deck,
You only wanting. Flee then to Bagdad
And at the mighty Haroun’s hand require
Justice upon these tyrants. Oh, delay not.
NUREDDENE
O friend! But do me one more service, Ajebe.
Pay the few creditors unsatisfied;
My father will absolvemewhenhecomes.
AJEBE
That’s early done. And take my purse. No fumbling,
I will not be denied.
NUREDDENE
Bagdad! (laughing) Why, Anice,
Our dream comes true; we hobnob with the Caliph!
Exeunt.
