2nd Prince:  I’d sooner stay in my old way!

Jester: 

  Never mind, never mind! 
  The truth is hard to find! 
  Keep steady.  Are you ready?

1st Wrenboy:  I’ll be ashamed if I am blamed.

2nd Wrenboy:  I have no grace or lovely face!

Jester:  (To Princes.) Too late, too late!  Go out the gate!

(The Princes have taken up fife and drum.  They march out playing.)

CURTAIN

ACT II

ACT II

SCENE I

(A front scene.  A poor hut or tent, the Princes are coming in slowly, some limping.  They are in Wrenboys’ clothes and the masks are in their hands.)

1st Prince:  This should be the hut where the Wrenboys told us to come.

2nd Prince:  It is a poor looking place.

3d Prince:  It is good to have any place to sit down in for a while.  My back is aching.

4th Prince:  My feet are all scratched and torn.  There are blisters rising.

5th Prince: I thought we would never come to the end of the road.  The stones by the lake were so hard and so sharp.

1st Prince:  It was a root of a tree I fell over that made these bruises on my knees.  I was watching a hawk that was still and quiet up in the air, and when it made a swoop all of a sudden I stumbled and fell.

2nd Prince:  It was in slipping where the rocks are high I gave this twist to my arm.  I can hardly move it.

3rd Prince:  But wasn’t the sight of the sunset splendid over the lake?  And the hills so blue!

4th Prince:  I like the tall trees best.  I tried to climb up one of them, but it was so smooth I did but slip and fall.

1st Prince:  I would wish to walk as far as the hills, and to have a view of the ocean that is beyond.

5th Prince:  I am hungry.  I wonder where we will get our supper.

4th Prince:  Not in this place, anyway, it must be making ready in some big guesthouse.

3rd, Prince:  What will they give us, I wonder?

2nd Prince:  I wish we had in our hand what they have ready for us at home.

1st Prince:  What use would it be to us?  Do you remember what we asked to be given, some jellies and a few grapes?  It is not that much would satisfy me now.

2nd Prince:  Indeed it would not.  I never felt so sharp a hunger in my longest memory.

3rd Prince:  It is roasted meat I would wish for.

4th Prince:  There were pigeons in the tall trees.  They will maybe give us a pigeon pie.

5th Prince:  I would be content with a plate of minced turkey with poached eggs.

1st Prince:  I would sooner have a roasted chicken, with bread sauce.