Normandy 1912.

  W. B. Yeats.

THE GODS OF THE MOUNTAIN

ACT I

Scene:  The East.  Outside a city wall; three beggars seated on the ground.

OOGNO These days are bad for beggary.

Thahn They are bad.

Ulf (an older beggar but not grey) Some evil has befallen the rich ones of this city.  They take no joy any longer in benevolence, but are become sour and miserly at heart.  Alas for them!  I sometimes sigh for them when I think of this.

OOGNO Alas for them.  A miserly heart must be a sore affliction.

Thahn A sore affliction indeed, and bad for our calling.

OOGNO (reflectively) They have been thus for many months.  What thing has befallen them?

Thahn Some evil thing.

Ulf There has been a comet come near to the earth of late and the earth has been parched and sultry so that the gods are drowsy and all those things that are divine in man, such as benevolence, drunkenness, extravagance and song, have faded and died and have not been replenished by the gods.

OOGNO It has indeed been sultry.

Thahn I have seen the comet o’ nights.

Ulf The gods are drowsy.

OOGNO If they awake not soon and make this city worthy again of our order, I for one shall forsake the calling and buy a shop and sit at ease in the shade and barter for gain.

Thahn You will keep a shop? (Enter Agmar and Slag.  Agmar, though poorly dressed, is tall, imperious, and older than Ulf.  Slag follows behind him.)

Agmar Is this a beggar who speaks?

OOGNO Yes, master, a poor beggar.

Agmar How long has the calling of beggary existed?

OOGNO Since the building of the first city, Master.

Agmar And when has a beggar ever followed a trade?  When has he ever haggled and bartered and sat in a shop?

OOGNO Why, he has never done so.

Agmar Are you he that shall be first to forsake the calling?

OOGNO Times are bad for the calling here.

Thahn They are bad.

Agmar So you would forsake the calling.

OOGNO The city is unworthy of our calling.  The gods are drowsy, and all that is divine in man is dead. (To third Beggar) Are not the gods drowsy?

Ulf They are drowsy in their mountains away at Marma.  The seven green idols are drowsy.  Who is this that rebukes us?

Thahn Are you some great merchant, Master?  Perhaps you will help a poor man that is starving.

Slag My Master a Merchant!  No, no.  He is no merchant.  My Master is no merchant.

OOGNO I perceive that he is some lord in disguise.  The gods have woken and have sent him to save us.

Slag No, no.  You do not know my Master.  You do not know him.