THE BLACKBIRD The subway, what else? THE GRAND-DUKE [_To his neighbor._] Is that the Blackbird? THE BLACKBIRD [_Coming forward._] Yes, your Grace. And the two agate balls over there are the Cat. THE GRAND-DUKE I can hear him licking his paws. THE SCREECH-OWL [_Resuming._] Brethren of the Night! Inasmuch as everybody here--and we plume ourselves upon it!--is possessed of the evil eye-- ALL THE BIRDS [_Chuckling and rocking in their peculiarly disgusting and characteristic fashion._] Ha, ha! THE GRAND-DUKE [_Spreading his wings to demand silence._] Hush! [_All return to their appalling stillness._] THE BLACKBIRD My eye is merely roguish. I am here to look on, you know, without taking sides,--in the artist spirit, that’s all. AN OWL If you are not taking sides, then you are siding with us! THE BLACKBIRD Oh, I say, what a primitive notion! THE SCREECH-OWL [_Completing his sentence._] Let us express ourselves with simple and direct malevolence: the Cock is a robber! ALL A robber! He robs us! THE BLACKBIRD Now, what the--Robs you of what? THE GRAND-DUKE Of health! Gladness! THE BLACKBIRD How is that? THE SCREECH-OWL By his crowing! THE GRAND-DUKE His crowing brings on enlargement of the spleen and pericarditis! For it heralds-- THE BLACKBIRD [_Hopping about._] Oh, I see--The light! [_All make a violent motion in his direction; the_ BLACKBIRD _frightened, hides among the fagots._] THE GRAND-DUKE [_Emphatically._] Never speak that word! When that word is spoken, Night at the horizon feels a crawling discomfort, a titillation underneath her wing. THE BLACKBIRD [_Cautiously correcting himself._] The brightness of--[_General start of dismay repeated; the_ BLACKBIRD _again dodges behind the fagots._] AN OWL [_Hurriedly._] Never utter that horrible grating word, which so hatefully suggests the scratching of a match! THE SCREECH-OWL You should express yourself: The Cock heralds the folding back of the pall-- THE BLACKBIRD But the day--[_Start and threatening gesture from all._] ALL [_In voices of unspeakable anguish._] Not that word! THE GRAND-DUKE You must refer to it as “that which will be!” THE BLACKBIRD What difference does it make whether or not he heralds the-- ALL [_Stopping him._] Ha! THE BLACKBIRD --the folding back of the pall, since that which will be--will be! THE GRAND-DUKE [_In tones of despair._] Simple torture it is to hear a brazen throat forever reminding you of what you know to be only too true! ALL [_Writhing in pain._] Too true! Too true! THE GRAND-DUKE He begins while the night is still pleasant and cool-- CRIES ON ALL SIDES He is a robber, a thief! THE GRAND-DUKE He cheats us! ALL THE OWLS He cheats us! Cheats us! THE GRAND-DUKE Of the good bit of night there still is left. AN OWLET He compels us to leave our posts beside the warrens-- THE SCREECH-OWL Our feasts of steaming flesh! THE WOOD-OWL The witches’ routs where we ride perched on the fist of a hag!