ACT II
from The Blue Monster
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2016
Summary
Throne room in the royal palace at Nanking. King FANFÙR, very old and decrepit, is seated on the throne. PANTALONE and TARTAGLIA, as his Ministers of State, stand at his right and left hand. The MAGNATES of the Realm are seated in two rows below.
In the middle of the stage is an urn, with a small boy sitting near it. There is also a rostrum from which the name drawn from the urn is called out.
SCENE 1
Fanfùr. My lords and gentlemen, all too well I know
How little reverence or love you bear
To your decrepit, palsied, useless King.
But oh, could you but look inside my heart,
You would not hate me. I have lost my son,
My only son Taèr, into whose hands
My crown and sceptre I might have delivered
To govern wisely this distracted realm.
Old as I am, I took a second wife,
But all in vain; the kingdom has no heir.
And now a Monster devastates my lands,
A Giant Knight in armour holds my tower
And massacres my citizens, a Hydra
Poisons the air with pestilential breath,
And every day requires a virgin maid
To satisfy its hunger. What have I done
To be afflicted by such fell disasters?
My lords, if there be any one amongst you
Who covets this my throne of tears and grief,
Most thankfully to him will I resign it.
Read me today's report. What last excesses
Have Monster, Giant, Hydra, now committed?
Pantalone. Your Majesty, I most deeply regret to state that wine this year will be in very short supply. This morning at day-break that accursed Monster destroyed more than ten thousand of our vineyards. Your Majesty might think it impossible, but that abominable creature then proceeded to amuse himself by flaying all the sheep and oxen in the suburbs, and throwing them into the river. In fact, this year there will not be a single hair of wool either for the mattress-makers or the weavers, unless we shear our own bodies, nor a single drop of wine. My lords and gentlemen, that's the long and short of it.
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- Information
- The Blue Monster (Il Mostro Turchino)A Fairy Play in Five Acts, pp. 17 - 31Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013