THE FIRST ACT OF KING ARGIMENES AND THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR King Argimenes Zarb (a slave born of slaves) An Old Slave Slaves of King Darniak A Young Slave Slaves King Darniak The King's Overseer A Prophet The Idol-Guard The Servant of the King's Dog Queen Otharlia Queen Oxara Queen Cahafra Queens of King Darniak Queen Thragolind Guards and Attendants ACT I Time: A long time ago. SCENE: The dinner-hour on the slave-fields of King Darniak. (The Curtain rises upon King Argimenes, sitting upon the ground, bowed, ragged, and dirty, gnawing a bone. He has uncouth hair and a dishevelled beard. A battered spade lies near him. Two or three slaves sit at back of stage eating raw cabbage-leaves. The tear-song, the chaunt of the low-born, rises at intervals, monotonous and mournful, coming from distant slave-fields.) KING ARGIMENES This is a good bone; there is juice in this bone. ZARB I wish I were you, Argimenes. KING ARGIMENES I am not to be envied any longer. I have eaten up my bone. ZARB I wish I were you, because you have been a King. Because men have prostrated themselves before your feet. Because you have ridden a horse and worn a crown and have been called Majesty. KING ARGIMENES When I remember that I have been a king it is very terrible. ZARB But you are lucky to have such things in your memory as you have. I have nothing in my memory--Once I went for a year without being flogged, and I remember my cleverness in contriving it--I have nothing else to remember. KING ARGIMENES It is very terrible to have been a king. ZARB But we have nothing who have no good memories in the past. It is not easy for us to hope for the future here. KING ARGIMENES Have you any god? ZARB We may not have a god because he might make us brave and we might kill our guards. He might make a miracle and give us swords. KING ARGIMENES Ah, you have no hope then. ZARB I have a little hope. Hush, and I will tell you a secret--The King's great dog is ill and like to die. They will throw him to us. We shall have beautiful bones then. KING ARGIMENES Ah! Bones. ZARB Yes. That is what _I_ hope for. And have _you_ no other hope? Do you not hope that your nation will arise some day and rescue you and cast off the king and hang him up by his thumbs from the palace gateway? KING ARGIMENES No. I have no other hope, for my god was cast down in the temple and broken into three pieces on the day that they surprised us and took me sleeping. But will they throw him to us? Will so honourable a brute as the King's dog be thrown to us? ZARB When he is dead his honours are taken away. Even the King when he is dead is given to the worms. Then why should not his dog be thrown to us? KING ARGIMENES We are not worms!