THE PLAYER QUEEN
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Decima.
Septimus.
Nona.
The Queen.
The Prime Minister.
The Bishop.
The Stage Manager.
The Tapster.
An Old Beggar.
Old Men, Old Women, Citizens, Countrymen, Players, et Cetera.
SCENE I
An open space at the meeting of three streets. One can see for some way down one of these streets and at some little distance 1t turns, showing a bare piece of wall lighted by a hanging lamp. Against this lighted wall are silhouetted the heads and shoulders of two old men. They are leaning from the upper windows, one on either side of the street. They wear grotesque masks. A little to one side of the stage is a great stone for mounting a horse from. The houses have knockers.
FIRST oLD MAN: Can you see the Queen's Castle? You have better sight than I.
SECOND OLD MAN: I can just see it rising over the tops of the houses yonder on its great rocky hill.
FIRST OLD MAN: Is the dawn breaking? Is it touching the tower?
SECOND OLD MAN: It is beginning to break upon the tower, but these narrow streets will be dark for a long while. (A pause.) Do you hear anything? You have better hearing than I.
FIRST OLD MAN: No, all is quiet.
SECOND OLD MAN: At least fifty passed by an hour since, a crowd of fifty men walking rapidly.
FIRST OLD MAN: Last night was very quiet, not a sound, not a breath.
SECOND OLD MAN: And not a thing to be seen till the tapster's old dog came down the street upon this very hour from Cooper Malachi's ash-pit.
FIRST OLD MAN: Hush, I hear feet, many feet. Perhaps they are coming this way. (Pause.) No, they are going the other way, they are gone now.
SECOND OLD MAN: The young are at some mischief, the young and the middle-aged.
FIRST OLD MAN: Why can't they stay in their beds, and they can sleep too—seven hours, eight hours. I mind the time when I could sleep ten hours.
