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Ibn Sawy’s house. The upper chambers of the women’s apartments,
Doonya, sleeping on a couch. Enter Nureddene and Anice-Aljalice.
NUREDDENE
I told you ’twas the morning.
ANICE-ALJALICE
Morning so early?
This moment ’twas the evening star; is that
The matin lustre ?
NUREDDENE
There is a star at watch beside the moon
Waiting to see you ere it leaves the skies.
Is it your sister Peri ?
ANICE-ALJALICE
It is our star
And guards us both.
NUREDDENE
It is the star of Anice,
The star of Anice-Aljalice who came
From Persia guided by its silver beams
Into these arms of vagrant Nureddene
Which keep her till the end. Sweet, I possess you!
Till now I could not potently believe it.
Strange, strange that I who nothing have deserved,
Should win what all would covet! We are fools
Who reach at baubles taking them for stars.
O wiser woman who come straight to Heaven!
But I have wandered by the way and staled
The freshness of delight with gadding pleasures,
Anticipated Love’s perfect fruit with sour
And random berries void of real savour.
Page – 607
Oh fool! had I but known! What can I say
But once more that I have deserved you not,
Who yet must take you, knowing my undesert,
Whatever come hereafter ?
ANICE-ALJALICE
The house is stirring.
NUREDDENE
Who is this sleeping here ? My cousin Doonya!
DOONYA (waking)
Is morning come ? My blessing on you, children.
Be good and kind, dears; love each other, darlings.
NUREDDENE
Dame Mischief, thanks; thanks. Mother Madcap.
DOONYA
Now, whither?
NUREDDENE
To earth from Paradise.
DOONYA
Wait, wait! You must not
Walk off the stage before your part is done.
The situation now with open eyes
And lifted hands and chidings. You’ll be whipped,
Anice, and Nureddene packed off to Mecca
On penitential legs: I shall be married.
(opening the door)
Oh, our fell Ethiopian snoozing here ?
Snore, noble ogre, snore louder than nature
To excuse your gloomy skin from worse than thwacks.
Wait for me, Nureddene.
Exit.
Page – 608
ANICE-ALJALICE
They will be angry.
NUREDDENE
Oh, with two smiles I’ll buy an easy pardon.
ANICE-ALJALICE
Whatever comes, we are each other’s now.
NUREDDENE
Nothing will come to us but happy days,
You, my surpassing jewel, on my neck
Closer to me than my own heartbeats.
ANICE-ALJALICE
Yes,
Closer than kisses, closer than delight,
Close only as love whom sorrow and delight
Cannot diminish, nor long absence change
Nor daily prodigality of joy
Expend immortal love.
NUREDDENE
You have the love.
Doonya returns.
DOONYA
I have told Nuzhath to call mother here.
There will be such a gentle storm.
Enter Ameena at the door.
AMEENA
Harkoos!
Sleeping!
HARKOOS
Gmm — Mmm
Page – 609
DOONYA
Grunted almost like nature,
Thou excellent giant.
AMEENA
Harkoos, dost thou sleep?
HARKOOS
Sleep! I! I was only pondering a text of Koran with closed eyes,
lady. You give us slaves pitiful small time for our devotions;
but ’twill all be accounted for hereafter.
AMEENA
And canst thou meditate beneath the lash?
For there thou’lt shortly be.
HARKOOS
Stick or leather, ’tis all one to Harkoos. I will not be cudgelled
out of my straight road to Paradise.
AMEENA
My mind misgives me.
(enters the room.)
Was this well done, my child?
NUREDDENE
Dear, think the chiding given; do not pain
Your forehead with a frown.
AMEENA
You, Doonya, too
Were part of this ?
DOONYA
Part! you shall not abate
My glory; I am its artificer,
The auxiliary and supplement of Fate.
Page – 610
AMEENA
Quite shameless in your disobedience, Doonya ?
Your father’s anger will embrace us all.
NUREDDENE
And nothing worse than the embrace which ends
A chiding and a smile, our fault deserves.
You had a gift for me in your sweet hands
Concealed behind you; I have but reached round
And taken it ere you knew.
AMEENA
For you, my son ?
She was not for you, she was for the King.
This was your worst fault, child; all others venial
Beside it.
NUREDDENE
For the King! You told me, Doonya,
That she was bought for me, a kind surprise
Intended?
DOONYA
I did, exact!
AMEENA
Such falsehood, Doonya!
DOONYA
No falsehood, none. Purchased she was for him,
For he has got her. And surprise! Well, mother,
Are you not quite surprised ? And uncle will be
Most woefully. My cousin and Anice too
Are both caught napping, — all except great Doonya.
No falsehood, mere excess of truth, a bold
Anticipation of the future, mother.
Page – 611
NUREDDENE
I did not know of this. Yet blame not Doonya;
For had I known, I would have run with haste
More breathless to demand my own from Fate.
AMEENA
What will your father think? I am afraid.
He was most urgent; grave beyond his wont.
Absent yourself awhile and let me bear
The first keen breathing of his anger.
NUREDDENE
The King!
And if he were the Caliph of the world,
He should not have my love. Come, fellow-culprit.
Exit with Doonya.
AMEENA
Harkoos, go fetch your master here; and stiffen
The muscles of your back. Negligent servant!
HARKOOS
‘Tis all one to Harkoos. Stick or leather! leather or stick! ‘Tis
the way of this wicked and weary world.
Exit.
AMEENA
Yet, Anice, tell me, is’t too late? Alas!
Your cheeks and lowered eyes confess the fault.
I fear your nature and your nurture, child,
Are not so beautiful as is your face.
Could you not have forbidden this ?
ANICE-ALJALICE
Lady,
Remember my condition. Can a slave
Forbid or order ? We are only trained
Page – 612
To meek and quick obedience; and what’s virtue
In freemen is in us a deep offence.
Do you command your passions, not on us
Impose that service ’tis not in our part.
AMEENA
You have a clever brain and a quick tongue.
And yet this speech was hardly like a slave’s!
I will not blame you.
ANICE-ALJALICE
I deny not, lady,
My heart consented to this fault.
AMEENA
I know
Who ’twas besieged you, girl, and do not blame
Your heart for yielding where it had no choice.
Go in.
Exit Anice. Enter Harkoos and Ibn Sawy.
IBN
SAWY
I hope, I hope that has not chanced
Which I have striven to prevent. This slave
Grins only and mutters gibberish to my questions.
AMEENA
The worst.
IBN
SAWY
Why so! the folly was my own
And I must bear its heavy consequence.
Sir, you shall have your wage for what has happened.
HARKOOS
The way of the world. Whose peg’s loose? Beat Harkoos.
Because my young master would climb through the wrong window
Page – 613
and mistake a rope-ladder for the staircase, my back must
ache. Was the window-sill my post ? Have I wings to stand upon
air or a Djinn’s eye to see through wood? How bitter is injustice!
IBN
SAWY
You shall be thrashed for your poor gift of lying.
AMEENA
Blame none; it was unalterable fate.
IBN
SAWY
That name by which we put our sins on God,
Yet shall not so escape. ‘Twas our indulgence
Moulded the boy and made him fit for sin;
Which now, by our past mildness hampered quite,
We cannot punish without tyranny.
Offences we have winked at, when they knocked
At foreign doors, how shall we look at close
When they come striking home ?
AMEENA
What will you do?
IBN
SAWY
The offence here merits death, but not the offender.
Easy solution if the sin could die
And leave the sinner living!
AMEENA
Vizier, you are perplexed, to talk like this
Because a little’s broken, break not more.
Let Nureddene have Anice-Aljalice,
As Fate intended. Buy another slave
Fairer than she is for great Alzayni’s bed,
Return his money to the treasury
And cover up this fault.
Page – 614
IBN
SAWY
With lies?
AMEENA
With silence.
IBN
SAWY
Will God be silent ? Will my enemies ?
The son of Khakan silent ? Ameena,
My children have conspired my shame and death.
AMEENA
Face not the thing so mournfully. Vizier, you want
A woman’s wit beside you in the Court.
Muene may speak; will you be dumb ? Whom then
Will the King trust ? Collect your wits, be bold,
Be subtle; guard yourself, protect your child.
IBN
SAWY
You urge me on a road my weaker heart
Chooses, not reason. But consider, dame,
If we excuse such gross and violent fault
Done in our house, what hope to save our boy, —
Oh, not his body, but the soul within ?
‘Twill petrify in vice and grow encrusted
With evil as with a leprosy.
AMEENA
Do this.
Show a fierce anger, have a gleaming knife
Close at his throat, let him be terrified.
Then I’ll come in with tears and seem to save him
On pledge of fairer conduct.
IBN
SAWY
This has a promise.
Give me a knife and let me try to frame
Page – 615
My looks to anger.
AMEENA
Harkoos, a dagger here!
Harkoos gives his dagger.
IBN
SAWY
But see, you come not in too early anxious
And mar the game.
AMEENA
Trust me.
IBN
SAWY
Go, call my son,
Harkoos; let him not know that I am here.
Exit Harkoos.
Go, Ameena.
Exit Ameena.
Plays oft have serious fruit,
‘Tis seen; then why not this ? ’tis worth the trial.
Prosper or fail, I must do something quickly
Before I go upon the Caliph’s work
To Roum the mighty. But I hear him come.
Enter Nureddene and Harkoos.
NUREDDENE
You’re sure of it? You shall have gold for this
Kind treason.
HARKOOS
Trust Harkoos; and if he beats me,
Why, sticks are sticks and leather is but leather.
NUREDDENE
Father!
Page – 616
IBN
SAWY
O rascal, traitor, villain, imp!
He throws him down on a couch and
holds him under his dagger.
I’ll father you. Prepare, prepare your soul,
Your black and crime-encrusted soul for hell.
I’m death and not your father.
NUREDDENE
Mother, quick!
Help, mother!
Ameena comes hurrying in.
The poor dear old man is mad.
IBN
SAWY
Ah, woman! Wherefore do you come so soon ?
NUREDDENE
How his eyes roll! Satan, abandon him.
Take him off quickly.
IBN
SAWY
Take me off, you villain ?
NUREDDENE
Tickle him in the ribs, that’s the best way.
IBN
SAWY
Tickle me in the ribs! Impudent villain!
I’ll cut your throat.
AMEENA
(frightened)
Husband, what do you ? think,
He is your only son.
IBN
SAWY
And preferable
Page – 617
I had not him. Better no son than bad ones.
NUREDDENE
Is there no help then?
IBN
SAWY
None; prepare!
NUREDDENE
All right.
But let me lie a little easier first.
IBN
SAWY
Lie easier! Rogue, your impudence amazes.
You shall lie easier soon on coals of hell.
AMEENA
This goes no farther.
ANICE-ALJALICE
(looking in )
They are in angry talk.
Oh, kill me rather!
NUREDDENE
Waste not your terrors, sweet heart.
We are rehearsing an old comedy,
"The tyrant father and his graceless son".
Foolish old man!
IBN
SAWY
What! What!
NUREDDENE
See now the end
Of all your headstrong moods and wicked rages
You would indulge yourself in, though I warned you,
Against your gallant handsome virtuous son.
Page – 618
And now they have turned your brain! Vicious indulgence,
How bitter-dusty is thy fruit! Be warned
And put a rein on anger, curb in wrath,
That enemy of man. Oh, thou art grown
A sad example to all angry fathers!
IBN
SAWY
Someone had told you of this. (To Harkoos) Grinning villain!
HARKOOS
Oh yes, it is I, of course. Your peg’s loose; beat Harkoos.
IBN
SAWY
My peg, you rogue! I’ll loose your peg for you.
NUREDDENE
No, father, let him be, and hear me out.
I swear it was not out of light contempt
For your high dignity and valued life
More precious to me than my blood, if I
Transgressed your will in this. I knew not of it,
Nor that you meant my Anice for the King.
For me I thought her purchased, so was told,
And still believe religiously that Fate
Brought her to Bassora only for me.
IBN
SAWY
It was a fault, my child.
NUREDDENE
Which I cannot repent.
IBN
SAWY
You are my son, generous and true and bold
Though faulty. Take the slave-girl then, but swear
Never hereafter mistress, slave or wife
Lies in your arms but only she; neither,
Page – 619
Until herself desire it, mayst thou sell her.
Swear this and keep thy love.
NUREDDENE
I swear it.
IBN
SAWY
Leave us.
Exit Nureddene.
Anice, in care for thee I have required
This oath from him, which he, perhaps will keep.
Do thou requite it; be to him no less
Than a dear wife.
ANICE-ALJALICE
How noble is the nature
That prompts you to enforce on great offenders
Their dearest wishes!
IBN
SAWY
Go in, my child, go, Anice.
Exit Anice.
Last night of my departure hence to Roum
To parley with the Greek for great Haroon,
I spoke with you, and my long year of absence, —
AMEENA
It is a weary time.
IBN
SAWY
Wherein much evil
May chance; and therefore will I leave my children
As safe as God permits. Doonya to nuptials.
The son of Khakan wants her for his cub,
But shall not have her. One shall marry her
Who has the heart and hand to guard her well.
Page – 620
AMEENA
Who, husband?
IBN
SAWY
Murad, Captain of the City.
He rises daily in Alzayni’s favour.
AMEENA
He is a Turk. Our noble Arab branch
Were ill-engrafted on that savage stock.
IBN
SAWY
A prejudice. There is no stock in Islam
Except the Prophet. For our Nureddene,
I will divide my riches in two halves,
Leave one to him and one for you with Murad,
While you are with your kin or seem to be.
AMEENA
Oh wherefore this ?
IBN
SAWY
Tis likely that the boy,
Left here in sole command, will waste his wealth
And come to evil. If he’s sober, well;
If not, when he is bare as any rock,
Abandoned by his friends, spewed out by all,
It may be that in this sharp school and beaten
With savage scourges the wild blood in him
May learn sobriety and noble use:
Then rescue him, assist his better nature.
And we shall see too how the loves endure
Betwixt him and the Persian; whether she
Deserves her monarchy in his wild will,
Or, even deserving, keeps it.
Page – 621
AMEENA
But, dear husband,
Shall I not see my boy for a whole year ?
IBN
SAWY
No tears! Consider it the punishment
Of our too fond indulgent love, — happy
If that be worst. All will end well, I hope,
And I returning, glad, to Bassora
Embrace a son reformed, a happy niece
Nursing her babe, and you, the gentle mother,
Like the sweet kindly earth whose patient love
Embraces even our faults and sins. Grant it,
O Allah, if it be at all Thy will.
Exeunt.
Page – 622
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