ACT TWO SCENE
ONE
The same. Vulpes
crossing back to his house
Vulpes
His money, money!
Oh, his sainted money!
Forever rings his
tiresome chatter like
Some pompous parrot
in a gilded cage.
The twisted,
black-souled enemy of man
Take him and all his
false, greed-gotten gains!
(with a laugh)
As if I'd any coins
to bless my name.
So short of money is
he? Times are hard?
What gabbling
rubbish! Times aren't tough for him.
The dull-eyed,
thin-faced ghost of poverty
Has not been sitting
at his table. No,
My plump and
purse-proud friend, if you arrive
To sponge on our
sparse victuals you'll leave
A very hungry guest.
Ah, Marguerite,
I have returned.
About those honest-worn
And wholly
hole-blessed clothes of ours...
(Marguerite
enters and Vulpes hides the cloth behind his back)
Marguerite
Oh,
yes.
And what wild
weavings have you schemed for them?
Vulpes
I merely thought,
my dear, you might be moved
To take a sharing in
my shopping raid.
How's this for fine
and useful cloth?
(Vulpes produces
the cloth)
Marguerite
(feeling
the cloth)
Most
fine,
Most useful, as you
say. But what poor fool
Was promptly parted
from his property?
If I know you, you
haven't paid a penny.
Vulpes
No, not a single
hard-won coin of mine
Has gone to gain
this splendid cloth.
Marguerite
So
husband,
You sly,
word-spinning, swindling prankster,
Who was the victim
of your fluency?
Vulpes
Oh, just that
Jasper. Tight-fisted fool he is.
Marguerite
What tricks and
falsities have won his trust?
He's such a shifty
and coin-counting crow.
Vulpes
I almost drowned him
in delusive praise.
I told him of my
friendship with his fine
And great-souled
father, then remarked upon
The real resemblance
that his aspect shows
To his most generous
progenitor.
Jove knows though,
really he's the ugliest rat
That fortune's
shipwreck ever washed ashore.
"Ah, good
friend, Jasper," then quoth I,
"How
pater-paired in pattern, form and feature!"
Which is part true:
his dearest father was
A rodent-faced
rapscallion as well.
In short, I plied
him with such flattery
And then dropped
hints of interest in his cloth.
And in the end he
almost pushed it on me.
Marguerite
Trust you to talk
with double tongue. So when
Are we to reimburse?
Vulpes
To
reimburse?
I'd pay the fiend's
black entourage back first.
Marguerite
So like old Æsop's
fabled, foolish crow
Your fox-sly
flattery just made him drop
The tasty prize into
your waiting paws?
Vulpes
And soon he will
arrive to taste some fowl
To find himself the
only goose around.
So when he starts to
clamour for his fee
This is my present
plan. I shall be abed
As if in
life-endangering, fierce illness.
And when he raps
upon my bolted door,
In greatest
melancholy you must beg
Respectful silence
for the nearly dead.
If he then claims a
past propinquity…
Marguerite
More plainly put!
For you are not defending
Yourself before a
judge… at least, not yet.
Vulpes
That is, he says he
saw me just this morning.
Marguerite
Yes, certain as star
show brings glow of dawning,
He’s bound to
claim so, boldly confident.
Vulpes
Then you must say:
"He's been bed-bound for weeks."
To which he shouts:
"A joke, a cunning hoax.
Don't try to blind
me with your lying talk!"
To which, indignant,
you reply: "Is this
The moment for your
joking tales, the time
To exercise your
jesting tongue!" Then I
Shall all at once
appear and do the rest.
Marguerite
(thoughtfully)
It reasons quite a
reasonable result,
Providing we
convince with false conviction,
And furthermore I do
not like at all
That pompous
draper’s cheating rule. So be it!
So I shall play my
part with some perfection;
But if it sours and
he drags us to court,
We'll really catch a
whack of stinging trouble!
Vulpes
No, no. My plan's in
perfect place! I know
The maddened measure
of my masquerade!
Marguerite
In perfect place!
Just like that Saturday
You spent last year
in patient meditation
On your misdeeds
behind hard, perfect bars.
Vulpes
O that!
A foolish matter that, no more.
A minor, brief
misunderstanding, dear.
Indeed, a mere
mistake! Back to this present!
Now he will soon be
here to feast on air,
His eager palm
outstretched for promised gold,
And we've no coins
to greet his legal price.
I'll be in bed.
Marguerite
Then
go, dear dying double-dealer.
Vulpes
Take care to curb
all cackling cachinnation!
Marguerite
What's that in
words?
Vulpes
Just
see that you don't laugh.
Marguerite
No, I shall weep
like sudden summer showers.
Vulpes
So sail on straight
as if your course were true,
No stalling of your
resolute intent.
The faintest puff of
falsehood and we founder.
Remember he'll be
certain it’s a trick!
Marguerite
Go on. You be the
dead, I'll be the quick.
(Vulpes enters
the bedroom by front as if a door. He hides the cloth
under the bed,
then lies on the bed groaning and turning. Marguerite goes within and
starts practising gentle sobbing)
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