CHANTECLER [_Coming forward again._] What? THE PHEASANT-HEN [_With an ironical curtsey._] Nothing! [_Carelessly._] Let us go to roost! [CHANTECLER _goes to the back and is preparing to rise to a branch. The_ PHEASANT-HEN _aside._] He does not know that when the Nightingale sings one listens, supposing it to be a minute, and lo! the whole night has been spent listening, even as happens in the enchanted forest of a German legend. CHANTECLER [_As she does not join him, returns to her._] What are you saying? THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Laughing in his face._] Nothing! A VOICE [_Outside._] The illustrious Cock? CHANTECLER [_Looking around him._] I am wanted? THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Who has gone in the direction from whence came the voice._] There, in the grass! [_Jumping back._] Mercy upon us! They are the--[_With a movement of insuperable disgust._] They are the--[_With a spring she conceals herself in the hollow tree, calling back to_ CHANTECLER.] Be civil to them! SCENE FIFTH CHANTECLER, _the_ PHEASANT-HEN, _hidden in the tree, and the_ TOADS. A BIG TOAD [_Rearing himself in the grass._] We have come--[_Other_ TOADS _become visible behind him._] CHANTECLER Ye gods, how ugly they are! THE BIG TOAD [_Obsequiously._]--in behalf of all the thinking contingency of the Forest, to the author of so many songs--[_He places his hand on his heart._] CHANTECLER [_With disgust._] Oh, that hand spread over his paunch! THE BIG TOAD [_With a hop toward_ CHANTECLER.]--at once novel,-- ANOTHER TOAD [_Same business._] Pellucid! ANOTHER [_Same business._] Succinct! ANOTHER [_Same business._] Vital! ANOTHER [_Same business._] Pure! ANOTHER [_Same business._] Great! CHANTECLER Gentlemen, pray be seated. [_They seat themselves around a large toadstool._] THE BIG TOAD True, we are ugly-- CHANTECLER [_Politely._] You have fine eyes. THE BIG TOAD [_Raising himself by bearing with both hands upon the rim of the toadstool._] But, Knights of this fungoid Round Table, we desire to do homage to the Parsifal who has given to the world a sublime song-- SECOND TOAD A true song! THE BIG TOAD And a celestial! THIRD TOAD And a no less terrestrial! THE BIG TOAD [_With authority._] A song by comparison with which the song of the Nightingale sinks into insignificance! CHANTECLER [_Astonished._] The Nightingale’s song? SECOND TOAD [_In a tone of finality._] Is not a circumstance to yours! THE BIG TOAD [_With a hop._] It was high time that a new singer-- ANOTHER [_Same business._] And a new song-- FIFTH TOAD [_Quickly, to his neighbour._] And a song by a stranger-- THE BIG TOAD Came to change conditions here. CHANTECLER Ah, I shall change conditions? ALL Glory to the Cock! CHANTECLER I do not see that the forest thinks so poorly of me after all! THE BIG TOAD Played out, the Nightingale! CHANTECLER [_More and more surprised._] Really? SECOND TOAD More and more his song confesses itself effete-- THE BIG TOAD Mawkish!