Chapter 9Scene 4

A room in Ajebe’s house. Ajebe. AJEBE Balkis, do come, my heart. Enter Balkis. BALKIS Your will? AJEBE My will! When had I any will since you came here, You rigorous tyrant? BALKIS Was it for abuse You called me? AJEBE Bring your lute and sing to me. BALKIS I am not in the mood. AJEBE Sing, I entreat you. I am hungry for your voice of pure delight. BALKIS I am no kabob, nor my voice a curry.

Act II, Scene 4 Hungry, forsooth! Exit. AJEBE Oh, Balkis, Balkis! hear me. Enter Mymoona. MYMOONA It’s useless calling; she is in her moods. And there’s your Vizier getting down from horse In the doorway. AJEBE I will go and bring him up. Mymoona, coax her for me, will you, girl? Exit. MYMOONA It is as good to meet a mangy dog As this same uncle of ours. He seldom comes. She conceals herself behind a curtain. Reenter Ajebe with Almuene. ALMUENE He goes tomorrow? Well. And Nureddene The scapegrace holds his wealth in hand? Much better. I always said he was a fool. (to himself ) Easily I might confound him with this flagrant lapse About the slavegirl. But wait! wait! He gone, His memory waned, his riches squandered quite, I’ll ruin his son, ruin the insolent Turk He has preferred to my Fareed. His Doonya And Anice slavegirls to my lusty boy, His wife — but she escapes. It is enough. They come back to a desolate house. Oh, let Their forlorn wrinkles hug an empty nest In life’s cold leafless winter! Meanwhile I set

The Viziers of Bassora My seal on every room in the King’s heart; He finds no chamber open when he comes. AJEBE Uncle, you ponder things of weight? ALMUENE No, Ajebe; Trifles, mere trifles. You’re a friend, I think, Of Ibn Sawy’s son? AJEBE We drink together. ALMUENE Right, right! Would you have place, power, honours, gold, Or is your narrow soul content with ease? AJEBE Why, uncle! ALMUENE Do you dread death? furious disgrace? Or beggary that’s worse than either? Do you? AJEBE All men desire those blessings, fear these ills. ALMUENE They shall be yours in overflowing measure, Good, if you serve me, ill, if you refuse. AJEBE What service? ALMUENE Ruin wanton Nureddene.

Act II, Scene 4 Gorge him with riot and excess; rob him Under a friendly guise; force him to spend Till he’s a beggar. Most, delude him on To prone extremity of drunken shame Which he shall feel, yet have no power to check. Drench all his senses in vile profligacy, Not mere light gallantries, but gutter filth, Though you have to share it. Do this and you’re made; But this undone, you are yourself undone. Eight months I give you. No, attend me not. Exit. AJEBE Mymoona! girl, where are you? MYMOONA Here, here, behind you. AJEBE A Satan out of hell has come to me. MYMOONA A Satan, truly, and he’ld make you one, Damning you down into the deepest hell of all. AJEBE What shall I do? MYMOONA Not what he tells you to. AJEBE Yet if I do not, I am gone. No man In Bassora could bear his heavy wrath. On the other side —

The Viziers of Bassora MYMOONA Leave the other side. ’Tis true, The dog will keep his word in evil; for good, ’Tis brittle, brittle. But you cannot do it; Our Balkis loves his Anice so completely. AJEBE Girl, girl, my life and goods are on the die. MYMOONA Do one thing. AJEBE I will do what you shall bid me. MYMOONA He has some vile companions, has he not? AJEBE Cafoor and Ayoob and the rest; a gang Of pleasant roisterers without heart or mind. MYMOONA Whisper the thing to them; yourself do nothing. Check him at times. Whatever else you do, Take not his gifts; they are the price of shame. If he is ruined, as without their urging Is likely, Satan’s satisfied; if not, We’ll flee from Bassora when there’s no help. AJEBE You have a brain. Yet if I must be vile, A bolder vileness best becomes a man. MYMOONA And Balkis?

Act II, Scene 4 AJEBE True. MYMOONA Be safe, be safe. The rest Is doubtful, but one truth is sadly sure, That dead men cannot love. AJEBE I’ll think of it. Mymoona, leave me; send your sister here. Exit Mymoona. The thing’s too vile! and yet — honours and place, And to set Balkis on a kingdom’s crest Breaking and making men with her small hands The lute’s too large for! But the way is foul. Enter Balkis. BALKIS What’s your command? AJEBE Bring me your lute and sing. I’m sad and troubled. Cross me not, my girl; My temper’s wry. BALKIS Oh, threats? AJEBE Remember still You are a slave, however by my love Pampered, and sometimes think upon the scourge. BALKIS Do, do! Yes, beat me! Or why beat me only? Kill me, as you have killed my heart already

The Viziers of Bassora With your harsh words. I knew, I knew what all Your love would end in. Oh! oh! oh! (weeps) AJEBE Forgive me, O sweetest heart. I swear I did not mean it. BALKIS Because in play I sometimes speak a little — O scourge me, kill me! AJEBE ’Twas a jest, a jest! Tear not my heart with sobs. Look, Balkis, love, You shall have necklaces worth many thousands, Pearls, rubies, if you only will not weep. BALKIS I am a slave and only fit for scourging, Not pearls and rubies. Mymoona! oh, Mymoona! Bring him a scourge and me a cup of poison. Exit. AJEBE She plays upon me as upon her lute. I’m as inert, as helpless, as completely Ruled by her moods, as dumbly pleasureless By her light hands untouched. How to appease her? Mymoona! oh, Mymoona! Exit.