Page:The Dial (Volume 73).djvu/576
SECOND MAN: I would not have my wife find out for the world.
SEPTIMUS (sitting up): Carry me, support me, drag me, roll me, pull me or sidle me along, but bring me where I may sleep in comfort. Bring me to a stable—my Saviour was content with a stable.
FIRST MAN: Who are you? I don't know your face.
SEPTIMUS: I am Septimus, a player, a playwright, and the most famous poet in the world.
SECOND MAN: That name, sir, is unknown to me.
SEPTIMUS: Unknown?
SECOND MAN: But my name will not be unknown to you. I am called Peter of the Purple Pelican, after the best-known of my poems, and my friend is called Happy Tom. He also is a poet.
SEPTIMUS: Bad, popular poets.
SECOND MAN: You would be a popular poet if you could.
SEPTIMUS: Bad, popular poets.
FIRST MAN: Lie where you are if you can't be civil.
SEPTIMUS: What do I care for any one now except Venus and Adonis and the other planets of heaven!
SECOND MAN: You can enjoy their company by yourself.
(The Two Men go out.)
SEPTIMUS: Robbed, so to speak; naked, so to speak—bleeding, so to speak—and they pass by on the other side of the street.
(A crowd of citizens and countrymen enter. At first only a few and then more and more till the stage is filled by an excited crowd)
FIRST CITIZEN: There is a man lying here.
SECOND CITIZEN: Roll him over.
FIRST CITIZEN: He is one of those players who are housed at the Castle. They arrived yesterday.
SECOND CITIZEN: Drunk, I suppose. He'll be killed or maimed by the first milk-cart.
THIRD CITIZEN: Better roll him into the corner. If we are in for a bloody day's business, there is no need for him to be killed—an unnecessary death might bring a curse upon us.
FIRST CITIZEN: Give me a hand here. (They begin rolling Septimus.)
SEPTIMUS (muttering): Not allowed to sleep! Rolled off the street! Shoved into a stony place! Unchristian town!
(Septimus is left lying at the foot of the wall to one side of the stage.)
THIRD CITIZEN: Are we all friends here, are we all agreed?
FIRST CITIZEN: These men are from the country. They came in last night. They know little of the business. They won't be against the people, but they want to know more.
FIRST COUNTRYMAN: Yes, that is it. We are with the people, but we want to know more.
SECOND COUNTRYMAN: We want to know all, but we are with the people.
(Other voices take up the words: "We want to know all, but we are with the people" et cetera. There is a murmur of voices together.)
THIRD CITIZEN: Have you ever seen the Queen, countryman?
FIRST COUNTRYMAN: No.
THIRD CITIZEN: Our Queen is a witch, a bad evil-living witch, and we will have her no longer for Queen.