If you fancy that you are men, and if your blood Boils at the badges of your servitude, Vent your pent rage! Oh cry, And end your infamy! Come! Let us set out! And I will march before you, holding the sword in my hand, and already there is blood upon its blade. SOMEONE: Tête-d'or, what can we do? TÊTE-D'OR: And I, I say to you, "Who will dare to dare, And, stamping the earth, cry 'I can' in the silence of Nothingness?" THE SAME: Will you dare, yourself? _(Silence._ TÊTE-D'OR: Time that moves and disposes all things Withdraws from us like the sea, And now on the solid earth there stands For the first time a king. _(He picks up the crown from the floor._ Vanish, like wreaths of smoke, dreams, prestige, past, and you Who look at me, I bid you dare To contemplate with new eyes a new day! In the name of everything, and not Of the appearances that the dream of custom brings, But of everything as it actually is, and in the name of truth and reason, I place this crown on my head. _(He puts the crown on his head._ To-day for the first time the king of men uplifts a head encircled with gold! Yes, and thereat eternity may take a voice and lament. She shall not shake my royal heart. For what can chaos itself and the night of creation avail Against the man whose soul in the uttermost depths of shadow, in the crowning horror of silence, stands firm And fears neither pain nor death? MURMUR (_in the crowd_): He has put the crown on his head. _(Silence._ TÊTE-D'OR (_shouting_): Search my heart and if you find there Anything save an immortal desire, take it and cast it on the dunghill for a hen to carry away in her beak! I do not come here with an unworthy thought. Cassius (_rushing forward_): Will none of you speak? Who dares to say "What shall we do?" Shall he be the only one to speak of this? Will you be silent forever? As for me I shall follow you, O King! Here you are again, O King, like a rose preserved in honey! Hail! I have listened to you and I have understood, and also I fought at your side when you gained the victory, And it was I, all unworthy, my breast distended with an intolerable joy, who bore the tidings hither. Like a runner carrying in his mouth a draught of water to one that thirsts! Now that this air has fanned my martial cheek And my eyes have been dazzled an instant by this miracle of suns, I will fight, I will march in the place from whence it blows and shines. And now I see another thing, O King! You, who like a beggar before a prince, Were not afraid to tear your veil before this shadowy country and to reveal yourself! And I kneel before you! Remember that I was the first to kneel. SIGH, _then_ CRY (_among the onlookers_): We kneel before you, O King! _(All except the leaders, kneel._ TÊTE-D'OR: Rise! Rise! VOICE: We kneel before you. TÊTE-D'OR: Rise! Do not humble yourselves before me. _(They rise._ VOICE: Then we will rise and now we stand at our full stature. Hail, O King!