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Page 41
(Exit. She reappears on the footbridge, and exit once more.)
STRANGER (entering). Has a lady in a coat and skirt crossed the
brook? (The SMITH and MILLER'S WIFE shake their heads.) Will you
give me some bread? I'll pay for it. (The MILLER'S WIFE refuses the
money.) No charity!
ECHO (imitating his voice from afar). Charity.
(The SMITH and the MILLER'S WIFE laugh so loudly and so long that,
at length, ECHO replies.)
STRANGER. Good! An eye for an eye--a tooth for a tooth. It helps to
lighten my conscience! (He enters the ravine.)
SCENE XIII
ON THE ROAD
[The same landscape as before; but autumn. The BEGGAR is sitting
outside a chapel with a lime twig and a bird cage, in which is a
starling. The STRANGER enters wearing the same clothes as in the
preceding scene.]
STRANGER. Beggar! Have you seen a lady in a coat and skirt pass
this way?
BEGGAR. I've seen five hundred. But, seriously, I must ask you not
to call me beggar now. I've found work!
STRANGER. Oh! So it's you!
BEGGAR. Ille ego qui quondam. ...
STRANGER. What kind of work have you?
BEGGAR. I've a starling, that whistles and sings.
STRANGER. You mean, _he_ does the work?
BEGGAR. Yes. I'm my own master now.
STRANGER. Do you catch birds?
BEGGAR. No. The lime twig's merely for appearances.
STRANGER. So you still cling to such things?
BEGGAR. What else should I cling to? What's within us is nothing
but pure ... nonsense.
STRANGER. Is that the final conclusion of your whole philosophy of
life?
BEGGAR. My complete metaphysic. The view mad be rather out of date,
but ...
STRANGER. Can you be serious for a moment? Tell me about your past.
BEGGAR. Why unravel that old skein? Twist it up rather. Twist it
up. Do you think I'm always so merry? Only when I meet you: you're
so damnably funny!
STRANGER. How can you laugh, with a wrecked life behind you?
BEGGAR. Now he's getting personal! (Pause.) If you can't laugh at
adversity, not even that of others, you're begging of life itself.
Listen! If you follow this wheel track you'll come, at last, to the
ocean, and there the path will stop. If you sit down there and
rest, you'll begin to take another view of things. Here there are
so many accidents, religious themes, disagreeable memories that
hinder thought as it flies to the 'rose' room. Only follow the
track! If it's muddy here and there, spread your wings and flutter.
And talking of fluttering: I once heard a bird that sang of
Polycrates and his ring; how he'd become possessed of all the
marvels of this world, but didn't know what to do with them. So he
sent tidings east and west of the great Nothing he'd helped to
fashion from the empty universe. I wouldn't assert you were the
man, unless I believed it so firmly I could take my oath on it.
Once I asked you whether you knew who I was, and you said it didn't
interest you. In return I offered you my friendship, but you
refused it rudely. However, I'm not sensitive or resentful, so I'll
give you good advice on your way. Follow the track!
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