Chapter 8Scene 3

Ibn Sawy’s house. The upper chambers of the women’s apartments. Doonya, sleeping on a couch. Enter Nureddene and Anice. NUREDDENE I told you ’twas the morning. ANICE 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 leave the skies. Is it your sister Peri? ANICE 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 patently 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.

Act II, Scene 3 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. 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 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)

The Viziers of Bassora 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. ANICE They will be angry. NUREDDENE Oh, with two smiles I’ll buy an easy pardon. ANICE 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 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 lore. Doonya returns. DOONYA I have told Nuzhath to call mother here. There will be such a gentle storm. Enter Ameena at the door.

Act II, Scene 3 AMEENA Harkoos! Sleeping? HARKOOS Gmn — mmn — 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.

The Viziers of Bassora 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. 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!

Act II, Scene 3 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. 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 breathings 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!

The Viziers of Bassora 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 Lady, Remember my condition. Can a slave Forbid or order? We are only trained 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 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.

Act II, Scene 3 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. Be- cause my young master would climb through the wrong window and mistake a rope-ladder for the staircase, my back must ache. Was the windowsill 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!

The Viziers of Bassora 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. 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.

Act II, Scene 3 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 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.

The Viziers of Bassora 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! 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 Ahh, 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.

Act II, Scene 3 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 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 (looking in) They are in angry talk. Oh, kill me rather! NUREDDENE Waste not your terrors, sweetheart. We are rehearsing an old comedy, “The tyrant father and his graceless son”.

The Viziers of Bassora 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. 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.

Act II, Scene 3 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 slavegirl then, but swear Never hereafter mistress, slave or wife Lies in your arms but only she; neither, 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 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 Haroun I spoke with you, and my long year of absence, —

The Viziers of Bassora 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. 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,

Act II, Scene 3 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. 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.