Inside the pavilion.
Nureddene, Anice-Aljalice, Shaikh Ibrahim.

NUREDDENE

Shaikh Ibrahim, verily thou art drunk.

IBRAHIM

Alas, alas, my dear son, my own young friend! I am damned, verily, verily, I am damned. Ah, my sweet lovely young father! Ah, my pious learned white-bearded mother! That they could see their son now, their pretty little son! But they are in their graves; they are in their cold, cold graves.

NUREDDENE

Oh, thou art most pathetically drunk. Sing, Anice.

OUTSIDE

Fish! fish! sweet fried fish!

ANICE-ALJALICE

Fish! Shaikh Ibrahim, Shaikh Ibrahim! hearest thou? We have a craving for fish.

IBRAHIM

Tis Satan in thy little stomach who calleth hungrily for sweet fish. Silence, thou preposterous devil!

ANICE-ALJALICE

Fie, Shaikh, is my stomach outside me, under the window ? Call him in.

IBRAHIM

Ho! ho! come in, Satan! come in, thou brimstone fisherman. Let us see thy long tail.

Enter Haroun.

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ANICE-ALJALICE

What fish have you, good fisherman ?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

I have very honest good fish, my sweet lady, and I have fried them for you with my own hand. These fish, — why, all I can say of them is, they are fish. But they are well fried.

NUREDDENE

Set them on a plate. What wilt thou have for them ?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Why, for such faces as you have, I will honestly ask nothing.

NUREDDENE

Then wilt thou dishonestly ask for a trifle more than they are worth ? Swallow me these denars.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Now Allah give thee a beard! for thou art a generous youth.

ANICE-ALJALICE

Fie, fisherman, what a losing blessing is this, to kill the thing for which thou blessest him! If Allah give him a beard, he will be no
longer a youth, and for the generosity, it will be Allah's.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Art thou as witty as beautiful ?

ANICE-ALJALICE

By Allah, that am I. I tell thee very modestly that there is not my equal from China to Frangistan.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Thou sayest no more than truth.

NUREDDENE

What is your name, fisherman ?

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HAROUN AL RASHEED

I call myself Kareem, and in all honesty when I fish, 'tis for the Caliph.

IBRAHIM

Who talks of the Caliph? Dost thou speak of the Caliph Haroun or the Caliph Ibrahim?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

I speak of the Caliph, Haroun the Just, the great and only Caliph.

IBRAHIM

Oh, Haroun ? He is fit only to be a gardener, a poor witless fellow without brains to dress himself with, yet Allah hath made him Caliph. While there are others — but 'tis no use talking. A very profligate tyrant, this Haroun! He has debauched half the women in Bagdad and will debauch the other half, if they let him live. Besides, he cuts off a man's head when the nose on it does not please him. A very pestilence of a tyrant!

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Now Allah save him!

IBRAHIM

Nay, let Allah save his soul if He will and if 'tis worth saving, but I fear me 'twill be a tough job for Allah. If it were not for my constant rebukes and admonitions and predications and pestrigiddi — prestigidgide — what the plague! prestidigitations, and some slaps and cuffs of which I pray you speak very low, he would be worse even than he is. Well, well, even Allah blunders;  verily, verily!

ANICE-ALJALICE

Wilt thou be Caliph, Shaikh Ibrahim?

IBRAHIM

Yes, my jewel, and thou shalt be my Zobeidah. And we will

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tipple, beauty, we will tipple.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

And Haroun?

IBRAHIM

I will be generous and make him my under-kitchen-gardener's second vice-sub-under-assistant. I would gladly give him a higher post, but, verily, he is not fit.

HAROUN AL RASHEED (laughing)

What an old treasonous rogue art thou, Shaikh Ibrahim!

IBRAHIM

What? who? Thou art not Satan, but Kareem the fisherman? Didst thou say I was drunk, thou supplier of naughty houses ? Verily, I will tug thee by the beard, for thou liest. Verily, verily!

NUREDDENE

Shaikh Ibrahim! Shaikh Ibrahim!

IBRAHIM

Nay, if thou art the angel Gabriel and forbiddest me, let be, but I hate lying and liars.

NUREDDENE

Fisherman, is thy need here over?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

I pray you, let me hear this young lady sing; for indeed 'twas the sweet voice of her made me fry fish for you.

NUREDDENE

Oblige the good fellow, Anice; he has a royal face for his fishing.

IBRAHIM

Sing! 'tis I will sing: there is no voice like mine in Bagdad.

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(sings)

When I was a young man,

I'd a very good plan;

Every maid that I met,

In my lap I would set,

What mattered her age or her colour ?

But now I am old

And the girls they grow cold

And my heartstrings, they ache

At the faces they make,

And my dancing is turned into dolour.

A very sweet song! a very sad song! Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Tis just, 'tis just. Ah me! well-a-day! Verily, verily!

ANICE-ALJALICE

I pray you. Shaikh Ibrahim, be quiet. I would sing.

IBRAHIM

Sing, my jewel, sing, my gazelle, sing, my lady of kisses. Verily, I would rise up and buss thee, could I but find my legs. I know not why they have taken them from me. 

ANICE-ALJALICE (sings)

Song
Heart of mine, O heart impatient,

Thou must learn to wait and weep.

Wherefore wouldst thou go on beating

When I bade thee hush and sleep ?

Thou who wert of life so fain,
Didst thou know not, life was pain ?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

O voice of angels! Who art thou, young man,

And who this sweet-voiced wonder ? Let me hear;

Tell me thy story.

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NUREDDENE

I am a man chastised
For my own errors, yet unjustly. Justice
I seek from the great Caliph. Leave us, fisherman.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Tell me thy story. Walk apart with me.
It may be I can help thee.

NUREDDENE

Leave us, I pray thee.
Thou, a poor fisherman!

HAROUN AL RASHEED

I vow I'll help thee.

NUREDDENE

Art thou the Caliph?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

If I were, by chance ?

NUREDDENE

If thou art as pressing with the fish as me,
There's a good angler.

Exit with Haroun.

ANICE-ALJALICE

Will you not have some of this fish, Shaikh Ibrahim ? 'Tis a sweet fish.

IBRAHIM

Indeed thou art a sweet fish, but somewhat overdone. Thou hast four lovely eyes and two noses wonderfully fine with just the right little curve at the end; 'tis a hook to hang my heart upon. But, verily there are two of them and I know not what to do with the other. I have only one heart, beauty. O, Allah, Thou hast 

Page – 699

darkened my brain with wine, and wilt Thou damn me afterwards ?

ANICE-ALJALICE

Nay, if thou wilt misuse my nose for a peg, I have done with thee.
My heart misgives me strangely. .

Enter Nureddene.

NUREDDENE

He's writing out a letter.

ANICE-ALJALICE

Surely, my lord,
This is no ordinary fisherman.
If't were the Caliph?

NUREDDENE

The old drunkard knew him
For Kareem and a fisherman. Dear Anice,
Let not our dreams delude us. Life is harsh,
Dull-tinted, not so kindly as our wishes,
Nor half so beautiful.

Enter Haroun.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

He is not fit
To be a King.

NUREDDENE

Nor ever was. 'Tis late.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Givest thou no gift at parting ?

NUREDDENE

You're a fisher! (opens his purse)  

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HAROUN AL RASHEED

Nothing more valuable ?

ANICE-ALJALICE

Wilt take this ring?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

No; give me what I ask.

NUREDDENE

Yes, by the Prophet,
Because thou hast a face!

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Give me thy slave-girl.

{There is a silence.)

NUREDDENE

Thou hast entrapped me, fisherman.

ANICE-ALJALICE

Is it a jest?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Thou sworest by the Prophet, youth.

NUREDDENE

Tell me,
Is it for ransom ? I have nothing left
In all the world but her and these few pieces.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

She pleases me.

ANICE-ALJALICE

O wretch!

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NUREDDENE

Another time
I would have slain thee. But now I feel 'tis God
Has snared my feet with dire calamities,
And have no courage. 

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Dost thou give her-to me ?

NUREDDENE

Take her, if Heaven will let thee. Angel of God,

Avenging angel, wert thou lying in wait for me

In Bagdad?

ANICE-ALJALICE

Leave me not, O leave me not.
It is a jest, it must, it shall be a jest.
God will not suffer it.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

I mean thee well.

ANICE-ALJALICE

Thy doing's damnable. O man, O man,

Art thou a devil straight from Hell, or art thou

A tool of Almuene's to torture us ?

Will you leave me, my lord, and never kiss ?

NUREDDENE

Thou art his; I cannot touch thee.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Kiss her once.

NUREDDENE

Tempt me not; if my lips grow near to hers,
Thou canst not live. Farewell.

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HAROUN AL RASHEED

Where art thou bound ?

NUREDDENE

To Bassora.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

That is, to death?

NUREDDENE

Even so.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Yet take this letter with thee to the Sultan.

NUREDDENE

Man, what have I to do with thee or letters ?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Hear me, fair youth. Thy love is sacred to me

And will be safe as in her father's house.

Take thou this letter. Though I seem a fisherman,

I was the Caliph's friend and schoolfellow,

His cousin of Bassora's too, and it may help thee.

NUREDDENE

I know not who thou art, nor if this scrap

Of paper has the power thou babblest of,

And do not greatly care. Life without her

Is not to be thought of. Yet thou giv'st me something

I'ld once have dared call hope. She will be safe ?

HAROUN AL RASHEED

As my own child, or as the Caliph's.

NUREDDENE

I'll go play

Page – 703

At pitch-and-toss with death in Bassora.

Exit.

IBRAHIM

Kareem, thou evil fisherman, thou unjust seller, thou dishonest dicer, thou beastly womanizer! hast thou given me stinking fish not worth a dirham and thinkest to take away my slave-girl ? Verily, I will tug thy beard for her. 

He seizes Haroun by the beard.

HAROUN AL RASHEED (throwing him off)

Out! Hither to me, Vizier Jaafar. (Enter Jaafar). Hast thou my robe?

He changes his dress.

JAAFAR

How dost thou, Shaikh Ibrahim ? Fie, thou smellest of that evil thing, even the accursed creature, wine.

IBRAHIM

O Satan, Satan, dost thou come to me in the guise of Jaafar, the Persian, the Shiah, the accursed favourer of Gnosticism and heresies, the evil and bibulous Vizier? Avaunt, and return not save with a less damnable face. O thou inconsiderate fiend! 

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Damsel, lift up thy head. I am the Caliph.

ANICE-ALJALICE

What does it matter who you are ? My heart, my heart!

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Thou art bewildered. Rise! I am the Caliph
Men call the Just. Thou art as safe with me
As my own daughter. I have sent thy lord
To be a king in Bassora, and thee
I will send after him with precious robes,

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Fair slave-girls, noble gifts. Possess thy heart
Once more, be glad.

ANICE-ALJALICE

O just and mighty Caliph!

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Shaikh Ibrahim.

IBRAHIM

Verily, I think thou art the Caliph, and verily, I think I am drunk.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Verily, thou hast told the truth, twice, and it is a wonder. But verily, verily, verily, thou shalt be punished. Thou hast been kind to the boy and his sweetheart, therefore I will not take from thee thy life or thy post in the gardens, and I will forgive thee for tugging the beard of the Lord's Anointed. But thy hypocrisies and blasphemies are too rank to be forgiven. Jaafar, have a man with him constantly and wine before his eyes; but if he drink so much as a thimbleful, let it be poured by gallons into his stomach. Have in beautiful women constantly before him and if he once raise his eyes above their anklets, shave him clean and sell him into the most severe and Puritan house in Bagdad. Nay, I will reform thee, old sinner.

IBRAHIM

Oh, her lips! her sweet lips!

JAAFAR

You speak to a drunken man, my lord.

HAROUN AL RASHEED

Tomorrow bring him before me when he's sober.

Exeunt.

Curtain  

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