University of Virginia Library

The Divan.
Soliman; the Vizir; Spectators; the Council. Morgiana at the door.
Morgiana
(to a drunken peasant).
Good gracious me! don't poke me in the ribs!
Wait till you're call'd, and don't come bouncing so
Against a frail old woman like myself!

Peasant.
What business have you here? Go, get along!
You can't speak with his Majesty to-day.
He only talks to people of my rank,
Who come to see him on important business.

Morgiana.
Important business? Marry and indeed!
And don't I come upon important business?
I come, if you must know it, to arrange
The marriage of his daughter with my son.

Soliman.
Nuschirwan, dost thou see there, by the door,
The woman who, last week, presented me
With yonder glorious treasure?

Vizir.
Impudence!
The guard shall instantly—

Soliman.
Hold, Vizir, hold!
Remember what beseems my dignity,
And what doth wrong it. In the flush of joy
A promise 'scaped my lips, which cannot now
Be kept, indeed; but which with violence
I will not break; for violence begets
Anger, and anger generates revenge:
Where by a momentary prudence this
Can be avoided, it behoves it should.

Vizir.
My Sultan's words do make me smile perforce.
Anger, revenge! Revenge and anger! What!
A tailor lad and Sultan Soliman!

Soliman.
And what of that? Be who he may, he is
My subject still, and am I not his prince?
My state demands that I should tend the flock
Entrusted to my charge with loving care.
To treat it with a brutelike recklessness,
Were but to prove myself a sorry shepherd.

Vizir.
Forgive, my Lord, the outburst of my wrath,
And unto me, too, let your grace extend:
The coldest nature shows a hasty spark,
When its green wounds are roughly touched; and mine—
Need I add more?

Soliman.
Well, well—I understand.
Yet these green wounds, which gall us both alike,
You promised me, Nuschirwan, not to touch.
Let me forget them, then; and tell me what
You think is best and fittest to be done.

Vizir.
If all you wish be to get rid, my Lord,
Of the old fool, and not to punish her,
'Tis but to ask her love-sick son, what he
Can by no possibility fulfil.
This will effectually conclude the matter.

Soliman.
You counsel sagely. Bring the woman in,
And let the others for to-day depart.

[The Vizir calls in Morgiana, who throws herself down before the throne. The others retire.
Soliman
(sternly).
I recognise you, know why you are here;
My promise also have I not forgotten.
I said to you, the man who could afford
Such gifts to our exchequer as the last,
Might, if the rest were equal to the first,
Conceive the hope to wed a prince's daughter.
What then I said, old woman, I say still;
For if your son in treasure be so rich,
As his last gift doth give us cause to hope,
To such a bride he fairly may aspire.
Then, to make sure of this—for it might be,
Mere chance had thrown that treasure in his way—
I now desire, that he send here to me,
To-morrow at this hour, forty large vases,
Curiously carved, and of the purest gold.
These also he must fill with precious stones,
Much better than the former; every vase
Must by a handsome negro slave be borne;
And forty more white slaves must follow these.
Let this be done, and by my word I stand,
And give my daughter to your son for bride.
But if this be not done, let me no more
Have word or sign from you. Remembering
The gift which late you brought me, I forgive
Your son's audacious insolence this once;
But let him dare no farther to offend
With his unblushing importunity.

[Rises, and exit with the Vizir.
Morgiana.
Ay, ay; just so, just so! Did I not say it?
Have I not warned him as a mother should?
Not said a thousand times, Boy, stretch your hand
No farther out than you can draw it back?
Red shoes alone wont make a body dance.
Need you be told, that rotten eggs must make
Unsavoury cakes—that wooden covers go
With wooden bowls? That he who has no cat
Must catch his mice with owls, or let them gnaw;
And he that lacks for lime must build with loam?
Why, then, the Princess?—why but her? If you
Have neither horse nor ox, boy, take an ass.
But 'twas mere preaching in a deaf man's ear.
A buckler's no defence against a noose.
He'd have his way, because he had this lamp,
And our good Sultan courteous is and kind.
But never wake a sleeping dog; nor pull
A donkey's girth too tight! Beware of cats
That lap before, and use their claws behind.
We tread upon the worm until it turns.
Now, what a howl he'll make! Why did he then
Lie down between the corner and the door?
Like yarn, like cloth;—laugh in the morning, cry
Before the night. An oaken cudgel is
The true fool's towel;—as you make your bed,
So you must lie in't;—as the clay, the pay!

[Exit.