"Dunsany, Lord - Five Plays" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

The First Act

{Outside a city wall. Three beggars are seated upon the
ground.}

Oogno:
These days are bad for beggary.

Thahn:
They are bad.

Ulf: {an older beggar but not gray}
Some evil has befallen the rich ones of this city.
They take no joy any longer in benevolence, but are
become sour and miserly at heart. Alas for them! I
sometimes sigh for them when I think of this.

Oogno:
Alas for them! A miserly heart must be a sore
affliction.

Thahn:
A sore affliction indeed, and bad for our calling.

Oogno: {reflectively}
They have been thus for many months. What thing has
befallen them?

Thahn:
Some evil thing.

Ulf:
There has been a comet come near to the earth of late
and the earth has been parched and sultry so that the
gods are drowsy and all those things that are divine in
man, such as benevolence, drunkenness, extravagance,
and song, have faded and died and have not been
replenished by the gods.

Oogno:
It has indeed been sultry.

Thahn:
I have seen the comet o' nights.