Act II

An inner chamber in Executioner’s House. Door leading to Hareem.

[This is the same hall as at the end of Act I, only that curtains are drawn to hide the courtyard.]

Hajji. Executioner.
Scribe.
[Coffee and smoking suppressed, as both were found to be anachronisms.]

[This altered. Eastern men do not speak of their wives to strangers.] Executioner and Scribe seated on a platform drinking coffee and smoking.
Hajji seated below them entertaining them with amorous stories.
They are all laughing.
Hajji finishes a story.
Executioner says it reminds him of his principal wife.
A slight pause.
The Executioner gives Scribe a look as if to say “To business.”
He says to Hajji—
How would Hajji like to become a great power in the state?
He broaches plan of assassinating the Sultan.
Hajji hesitates.
Executioner unfolds scheme.
There is an audience in half an hour.
Hajji can come as a Fakir.

[See play. All of this scene was split in half, and Mansur does not now suggest the assassination till at the end of the second half. The reason is clear: Hajj could not have a love scene (as he does now) if he were brooding about the assassination. This was altered in rehearsal at the suggestion of Mr. Grimwood, who played Mansur in England.] Has told Executioner he could juggle—used to play tricks at his corner when begging.
Hajji could get close to Sultan and kill him.
No danger to Hajji.
As the Guards are under command of Executioner.
Executioner will be there.
But, of course, Hajji must under no condition recognize the Executioner.
Hajji feels doubts.
Executioner fills him full of promises.
Executioner will be made Sultan.
Hajji shall become Executioner.
Executioner off to put on his armour for audience.
Scribe goes with him.
Executioner: “Think it over. If you don’t like it—there is always room for a strangled body in the river.”

[Hajji (Alone).] “So this is why I was pardoned this morning?
Oh, Hajji! What a fool you are!
And you thought your personal charm did it all.”

Hajji.
Old Woman No II.
[Changed to young slave Miskah. The note becomes a message, with dialogue between Hajji and Miskah] Door of Hareem opens. Old Woman No. II appears with a note, gives it to Hajji.
Hajji reads it, smiles and nods.
Old Woman disappears.

Hajji (Alone). “After all I cannot be so utterly without charm, if this can happen to me.”
He twirls his moustaches up and looks at himself in the blade of his sword.

Old Woman No. II reenters with veiled woman (Executioner’s Wife). Old Woman stands guard.

Hajji.
Wife. The Wife has seen him from her window.
As he crossed the courtyard at noon, she lost her heart to him.
Her husband neglects her.
She comes to Hajji for sympathy.
Hajji makes love to her.
She refuses to unveil,—at least, at once.
She makes appointment with him.
To meet him in the Executioner’s Bath at moonrise.
All the women bathe then.
She will leave a little screen unlatched that leads to the furnaces under the baths.
These furnaces reached also from men’s quarters through the door in the Court.
(She points it out to him.)
He can come and see her there in Bath, when the other women are back in the Hareem.
The Executioner never returns from the Sultan till after supper.
They hear a noise.
She withdraws.
Hajji struts about in great glee.
He hears Executioner coming.
He throws himself on his knees and prays.

Executioner.
Hajji.
Scribe. Executioner returns armed.
What has Hajji decided?
Hajji says he has been wrestling in prayer.
He cannot make up his mind to kill Sultan, a descendant of the Prophet.
Executioner says he also is a descendant of Prophet.
Hajji is accused of cowardice.
He denies it.
He says he has ties that bind him.
The risk is too great because of his daughter, his daughter, Zira.
He tells about her.
Finally he consents to kill Sultan on one condition.
No matter what happens to him the Executioner must marry the daughter.
The Executioner consents.
Hajji is overjoyed.
He quite forgets his own danger when he thinks his daughter will be the Sultana.
He will hurry off to his daughter’s house,
And have her conveyed to Executioner’s house after sun-down.
Too beautiful to pass through the streets at day time.
Begs for a guard to convey her.
Once he has arranged with her he will come on to young Sultan’s palace,—
“The Sultan who will be dead. Who is dead!”
He hurries off in great exultation.

[When the play was written, the mid-afternoon call to prayer was introduced here as a Curtain.] Curtain

SCENE 2

Zira’s home. Same scene as Scene 3, Act I. Small courtyard.

Zira sits with her guitar singing a love song.

Zira.
Old Woman.
[Cut when play was written.] Zira tries to get the Old Woman to go out that night.
Old woman suspicious.
Zira calms her fears.
Coaxes her, pets her.

Hajji arrives.

Hajji.
Zira.
Old Woman. Hajji has come to break news to Zira.
Great news!
He is going to give her to Executioner as wife.
Zira dumb with horror.
Violent scene of cursing and cajoling.
Finally she rebels.
The Old Woman agrees with Hajji whenever he appeals to her.
He finally calls in the Guard, and makes them guard door.

[Altered during rehearsal. The guard,—eunuchs of Mansur—take the daughter away at once. Hajji remains on the scene, smiling in a self-satisfied fashion.] At sundown they are to take the girl to Executioner’s house.
Ungrateful child!
Zira in tears. Hajji off.

Curtain

SCENE 3

The Sultan’s Audience Hall (The Caliph’s Diwan). (Large set.)

Sultan seated on a Divan.

His Vizier by his side.

Dances of Women.

Sultan melancholy. He says to Vizier that all these dances are nothing to the faded rose in his hand.

Hour for audience strikes.

The women dismissed.

The gates are opened to the crowd.

The various dignitaries enter.

The Executioner and the Guard come and kneel to the Sultan.

Different cases for trial called.

First of all the old Sheikh is called.

His whereabouts have been ascertained through the Guide.

The Sheikh is carried in on his litter and with greatest difficulty descends to do obeisance to the Sultan.

Sultan.
Sheikh.
Executioner.
Crowd, etc. Sultan asks him how he, an exile, dare enter the city, defying the decree of his late uncle.
Sheikh says he came on peaceful mission, not to rob.
He is old; one of many robbers. No longer of consequence.
Came to pray at shrine and give alms, the shrine where he had prayed in his youth.
Invokes protection of High Priest.
Sultan says Sheikh must be imprisoned.
If High Priest proves that Sheikh came to give alms and to repent, he shall be released forthwith.
Meanwhile, for his many sins, a short repentance in prison will not be harmful to his soul.

The Goaler comes forward and with two guards drags the lame man off. The Sheikh goes, blessing the Sultan for his wisdom and justice. The Sultan says: “Send to the High Priest at once to see if this old man spoke true.”

Sultan.
A Peasant with Two Wives.
[This scene was cut at rehearsal, as having nothing to do with the story. Instead of which, Hajj was introduced by a speech of Mansur’s. See play.] This should be some comic trial with a difficult question to solve, Such as: “Should a man honour his first wife more—who is old and ugly, but devoted—or his second wife whom he mistrusts but adores for her beauty?” Or something of the kind drawn from Arabian Nights.

The Sultan is puzzled
He has no answer.
Who can solve the riddle?

Hajji, pushing through the crowd,—“Let me, oh Sire!”—throws himself before Sultan.

Hajji.
Sultan.
Others Hajji decides in a witty, whimsical way.
The Sultan amused by him. Who is he?
Hajji says he is a Fakir.
He plays some tricks.

[Cut:] While doing one, addresses the Executioner as a slave, asking him to bring a table.
Pretends not to know who Executioner is, and begs his pardon when he is told of his rank.

He then gets near the Sultan.
Does a trick with a sword.
Tries suddenly to stab the Sultan.
The Sultan wears a coat of mail.
The assassination has failed.
Hajji is surrounded at once.
He is to be cut to pieces.
The Sultan says “Stay!
This man shall be made an example of.
I have heard there are rumours of sedition, and conspiracies against my person.
Therefore I wear this coat of mail.
I shall have this man burnt in my pleasure gardens tomorrow and the public shall be admitted to the spectacle.
This shall show conspirators I am in earnest; mean to uphold my uncle’s policy.
Take this man away.”
Hajji appeals, he turns to the Executioner.
The Executioner says he does not know him.
Hajji says he does.
He can prove it. He was in the house of the Executioner. In his pay.
Executioner: “The man is mad.”
The Sultan fixes Executioner with his eye.
Sultan says he will sift matter to bottom.
Hajji shall be tortured.
The truth shall be wrung from him.

[Hajj is gagged here:] “At once?” asks the Gaoler.
Sultan: “No—let him starve the night first.”
Tonight (smelling the rose) Sultan has other affairs of import to tend to.
Tomorrow (with a meaning look) he expects the Executioner to carry out the tortures himself.
The Executioner bows.
(To Goaler) “Take the man away!”
Hajji is dragged off, screaming.
The Sultan to his Vizier: “Oh Mesrur!
Mesrur! (Abu Bakr) When does the sun set?”
“Another half an hour, sire.”
“Half an hour! Oh, would it were that now?
Why can I not make the sun set—I—the Sultan?
Bring forward the next case.”

Curtain.

SCENE 4

A Dungeon. A massive door at the back leads to an endless flight of shallow steps. It is dark: Hardly any light except from one barred window high up: through this come the rays of the setting sun.

The Sheikh is alone in one corner saying his prayers. He then lies down and goes to sleep.

The Gaoler opens the door.
Hajji is thrown in and chained.

Hajji alone. Repentance.
Curses every one.
Raves.
If only he hadn’t received money that morning, he would not have been tempted to steal.
If he had not stolen, he would not have been taken to the Executioner.
If he hadn’t been taken to the Executioner, he would not have been driven to kill the Sultan.
The Sheikh is the cause of all his misfortunes.
He stole his wife.
He killed his son.
Now he is killing him.
Cursed be the Sheikh!

The Sheikh from the corner: “Who uses my name in vain?”

Hajji.
Sheikh. Hajji recognizes him.
What is he doing there?
Sheikh says he is condemned to prison by Sultan.
Hajji delighted.
Says this is his only consolation in his trouble.
Never a sorrow without a grain of joy.
Joy to see his enemy suffer.
He could almost feel friendly towards
Sheikh, when he thinks how they will be executed together.

[Sheikh’s story of the broken coin and his lost son introduced here. See play.
Allusions to wife were cut as unnecessary to the story.] How strangely their lives have been interwoven.
They talk of the dead woman they have shared.
She is dead now.
Better so. She would have been old and ugly now.
Sheikh says: “She developed a bad temper.”
Hajji furiously: “That was your fault.
She was the sweetest tempered creature when she was mine. You ruined her, body and soul.
You fiend you—but no matter. You will be tortured tomorrow.”
He shrieks with delight.

Gaoler reënters with a decree and a soldier carrying some instruments of torture.

Gaoler.
Sheikh.
Hajji.
Soldier. Gaoler says that it has been found that Sheikh did come on a pilgrimage.
The High Priest has testified in his favor.
Therefore the Sultan forgives him.
He is free, but must leave the city at once and never return.
Sheikh asks Gaoler to thank Sultan.
Would go—but his limbs are too weak.
Could Gaoler send for his litter?
Gaoler says he fears Sheikh’s litter gone, but could procure him a chair out of Sultan’s palace used to convey the lesser women of the Hareem when Sultan travels.

[Changed to a stretcher to “carry away the dead.” Alteration made when play was written.]

[The torture was cut as too long and too ugly. Altered during rehearsal.] Sheikh gives Gaoler money.
Gaoler now turns to Hajji.
Says he is to come to him.
Makes him kneel down.
Hajji: “I am free too, am I?”
Gaoler: “Free? Here! (turns to Soldier and takes a casket from him and is about to put it on Hajji’s head). Sometimes these head screws and thumb screws don’t fit. There must be no hitch in the performance tomorrow.”
“Head screw?” says Hajji, trembling.
Gaoler tears off Hajji’s turban and tries on the torture helmet.
Gaoler: “Does it feel comfortable?”

[All this cut. Instead of which, the Gaoler strikes Hajji with his key which makes Hajji faint.] Hajji: “Comfortable!”
Gaoler: “It ought to. It’s just as if it had been made for your Highness.”
(Takes it off, laughing loudly; the soldier joins politely.)
Gaoler (to Sheikh): “I’ll see to your Excellency’s chair.”
Gaoler and Soldier off with instruments.
Hajji is on the floor, more dead than alive.

Hajji.
Sheikh. Hajji bemoans his fate.
Why should he have to suffer, and Sheikh be pardoned, when Sheikh is the cause of all of Hajji’s woe?
Here is Sheikh, an old robber chief, forgiven.
Here is Hajji, a simple, honest beggar, to be tortured and burnt.
Who is dependent on the Sheikh?
He has lost his son—has never found
him again—he may be dead.
No one dependent on Sheikh.
But Hajji has a daughter dependent on him.
A daughter! And the sun is setting.
And at this hour she is being taken to the Executioner!
The Executioner who has so cruelly forsaken Hajji.
His daughter going to him, with Hajji powerless—and the Sheikh to live.
It is unjust, cruel, not to be borne.
“It shan’t be borne—it—”

[When the play was written, the breaking of the chains was introduced here.] He gives the Sheikh an awful look.
The Sheikh realizes his thoughts and draws his knife.
Hajji springs at him, overpowers him, and cuts his throat.
The Sheikh’s last words: “My son! My son!”
A moment’s thought—then Hajji wipes the knife on his own turban (torn off by Gaoler).
Quickly he exchanges clothes with the dead man.
Puts on his turban.
Then rifles pockets.
Finds round the dead man’s throat a chain with the broken half of a coin.
Slips it over his own neck.
He puts the dead body into the corner where he (Hajji) lay when the Gaoler left the dungeon.
He hears the tread on the steps.
He assumes the old man’s attitude.
The sunlight has died out: the scene grows quite dark.

The Gaoler reenters with the Soldier and a chair borne by two porters. They lift Hajji into the chair. Then take up the chair and carry it up the broad stone stairs.

Gaoler. (Turning to the dead body.) “Why not laugh tonight, Hajji? Tomorrow morning will be time enough to weep, when you are tortured in the Pleasure Gardens of the Prophet’s descendant.” (He kicks the body, then goes out laughing, and locks the door.)

Curtain.