REFINEMENTS AND PASTIMES
are open! The cripple's jumping around! The mute's singing! Oh, you rascals! Oh, you robbers! Hi! Hi!
The Three Men. Ugh! He's back. What shall we do! (The Mute shuts his eyes tightly and cries for pardon; the Cripple springs up and throws himself on his knees, mumbling, "Wa-a-a!" the Blindman begins to crawl around.)
Householder (to Cripple). You were a cripple and now you're a mute. Robber! Villain! I sha'n't let you off.
Cripple. Oh, forgive me. Sir! There! I'm a cripple again!
Householder (to Mute). You were a mute and now you're a chattering blindman?
Mute. Wa-a-a!
Householder. At it again, are you? Thief! I'll give it to you (beating him).
Mute. Oh! Ah! Let us off, let us off!
Householder. I sha'n't! I sha'n't![1]
The old pastime of competitive verse-making continued to be practised in this era, but owing in part to the comparative illiteracy of the military men, who now formed a prominent element of society, and in part to the general decay of classical learning, the quality of a composition ceased to be of prime importance, and people preferred to amuse themselves capping verses. One person gave an opening line, a competition then followed as to who should first discover a suitable sequel. The "linked poems" (renka) thus produced had little literary merit, and were sometimes carried to extravagant length, as many
- ↑ See Appendix, note 22.
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