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We spent the watches that re to Dr Talos chaffer with various officials of the House Absolute, and in rehearsal Since I have already said so of what it was to act in Dr Talos's play, I propose to give an approximents of soiled paper we passed from hand to hand that afternoon, which often contained no ht have been recorded by soent clerk in the audience; and as it was, in fact, recorded by the demonic witness ells behind my eyes

But first you in has clied bats flit overhead, and a green quarter htest of valleys, a thousand paces or entlest turf-covered rolling hills There are doors in these hills, some no wider than the entrance to an ordinary private room, some as wide as the doors of a basilica These doors are open, and a ed paths wind doard the tiny arch of our proscenium; they are dotted with men and women in the fantastic costues, so that I, with noof history furnished nize one of the trays loaded with cups and tu meats and pastries Black seats of velvet and ebony, as delicate as crickets, face our stage, but hout our perforo without interruption,in the trees, the nightingales trill, and atop the hills the walking statues h many poses All the parts in the play are taken by Dr Talos, Baldanders, Dorcas, Jolenta, or me

Chapter 24

DR TALOS'S PLAY

ESCHATOLOGY AND GENESIS

Being a dramatization (as he claimed) of certain parts of the lost Book of the New Sun

Persons in the Play:

Gabriel

The Giant Nod

Meschia, the First Man

Meschiane, the First Woman

Jahi

The Autarch

The Contessa

Her Maid

Two Soldiers

A Statue

A Prophet

The Generalissiuised)

The Inquisitor

His Fas

The New Sun

The Old Sun

The Moon

The back of the stage is dark

GABRIEL appears bathed in golden light and carrying a crystal clarion

GABRIEL: Greetings I have come to set the scene for you - after all, that is ht before the first The Old Sun has set He will appear in the sky no s and I will greet hiht no one knows Everyone sleeps

Footsteps, heavy and slow Enter NOD

GABRIEL: Omniscience! Defend your servant!

NOD: Do you serve higests it

GABRIEL: You are of his household? How does he communicate with you?

NOD: To tell the truth, he doesn't I'uess at what he wishes me to do

GABRIEL: I was afraid of that

NOD: Have you seen Meschia's son?

GABRIEL: Have I seen hireat ninny, he isn't even born yet What do you ith him?

NOD: He is to coive hihters to wife

GABRIEL: You have the wrong creation, my friend - you're fifty million years too late

NOD: (Nods slowly, not understanding) If you should see him -

Enter MESCHIA and MESCHIANE, with JAHI following All are naked, but JAHI wears jewelry

MESCHIA: What a lovely place! Delightful! Flowers, fountains, and statues - isn't it wonderful?

MESCHIANE: (Tier than my hand What shall we call him?

MESCHIA: Whatever he wants (To GABRIEL:) Who owns this beautiful spot?

GABRIEL: The Autarch

MESCHIA: And he perracious of hi you, ) There's so the clarion that is his badge of office) Yes, He is behindto blow that horn to call help, you'd better do it now

GABRIEL: Why, how perceptive of you But the tiht fades, and GABRIEL vanishes fro on his club

MESCHIANE: I'll start a fire, and you had better begin to build us a house It rass is

MESCHIA: (Exa NOD) Why, it's only a statue No wonder he wasn't afraid of it

MESCHIANE: Itsons from stones

MESCHIA: Once! Why you were only born just now Yesterday, I think

MESCHIANE: Yesterday! I don't remember itI' until I walked out into the light and saw you talking to a sunbeam

MESCHIA: That wasn't a sunbeaht of a name for what it was yet

MESCHIANE: I fell in love with you then Enter the AUTARCH

AUTARCH: Who are you?

MESCHIA: As far as that goes, who are you?

AUTARCH: The owner of this garden

MESCHIA bows, and MESCHIANE curtsies, though she has no skirt to hold

MESCHIA: We were speaking to one of your servants only a o Now that I come to think of it, I aust Self Save that he wasah

AUTARCH: Younger?

MESCHIA: In appearance, at least

AUTARCH: Well, it is inevitable, I suppose Not that I ah it would be better to confine oneself to women nearer one's own station, still there are ti man, if you had ever been in irl, who can be wooed with a handful of silver or a bolt of velvet, and will not demand, at the most inconvenient moment, the death of some rival or an ambassadorship for her husbandWell, when a little person like that beco proposition

While the AUTARCH has been speaking, JAHI has been creeping up behind MESCHIA Now she lays a hand on his shoulder

JAHI: Now you see that he, whom you have esteemed your divinity, would countenance and advise all I have proposed of you Before the New Sun rises, let us

AUTARCH: Here's a lovely creature How is it, child, that I see the bright flames of candles reflected in each eye, while your sister there still puffs cold tinder?