Part 12 (2/2)

OLD WOMAN.

There was a guileless youth Who heard the people's wail; Lawgivers sat in the square And gaily quaffed their ale.

The youth to the people said: ”I would make your pathway fair!”

”There's trouble,” the rulers cried, ”Sedition breeds in the air.”

Still they sat in the square, And still they quaffed their ale; They talked of the people's good, But heard not the people's wail.

The youth in the pillory stood, For there he'd been given his place; In the wag'nmaker's hen-coop the c.o.c.k crew As of yore in Caiphas' palace.

The great respect the law, Their own renown they buy With statues and tombs and gold To praise them when they die.

The people pa.s.s under the yoke, They wail through the vigils of night, And wait till the c.o.c.k shall crow To herald an era of light.

[Shoemaker's company make wry faces and pretend not to be listening; the people are interested and drop pennies into the old woman's bank. The women are moved to tears and wipe their eyes now and then.]

RELATIVE. [To shoemaker.] Have you many orders now-a-days?

SHOEMAKER. Oh, so-so--

OLD WOMAN. Give the old blind woman a coin?

CHIROPODIST. Begging is prohibited, don't you know that?

ONE OF THE PEOPLE. She's not begging; she asks remuneration.

SHOEMAKER. What kind of rot is he talking?

ONE OF THE PEOPLE. The Schulze Society is paid to sing for the statue yonder, but the men pocket the coins and stay away. This morning only three were there.

SHOEMAKER. [To his guests.] Think, they know all that goes on, the villains!

OLD WOMAN. Give the blind old woman a coin!

RELATIVE. One must pay, to boot, for her croaking?

ONE OF THE PEOPLE. She sings better than the shoemaker sang this morning, when we stood round the corner listening to him. He certainly does not sing ideally about carnations and roses, but a true word spoken at the right moment is also ideal!

RELATIVE. If you don't go, old hag, you'll be locked up!

[Thunder and lightning, wind, rain, commotion.]

SHOEMAKER. Egad! it's raining again. Step inside, gentlemen. [They break up.]

OLD WOMAN. Must that poor wretch in the pillory stand out in the rain?

RELATIVE. If my kinsman, who is so great a personage, can stand outside, then that fellow may as well stay where he is.

<script>