LANDOLPH. Cheer up, my dear fellow! We don't any of us know who we are really. He's Harold; he's Ordulph; I'm Landolph! That's the way he calls us. We've got used to it. But who are we? Names of the period! Yours, too, is a name of the period: Berthold! Only one of us, poor Tito, had got a really decent part, as you can read in history: that of the Bishop of Bremen. He was just like a real bishop. Tito did it awfully well, poor chap! HAROLD. Look at the study he put into it! LANDOLPH. Why, he even ordered his Majesty about, opposed his views, guided and counselled him. We're "secret counsellors"--in a manner of speaking only; because it is written in history that Henry IV. was hated by the upper aristocracy for surrounding himself at court with young men of the bourgeoise. ORDULPH. Us, that is. LANDOLPH. Yes, small devoted vassals, a bit dissolute and very gay.... BERTHOLD. So I've got to be gay as well? HAROLD. I should say so! Same as we are! ORDULPH. And it isn't too easy, you know. LANDOLPH. It's a pity; because the way we're got up, we could do a fine historical reconstruction. There's any amount of material in the story of Henry IV. But, as a matter of fact, we do nothing. We have the form without the content. We're worse than the real secret counsellors of Henry IV.; because certainly no one had given them a part to play--at any rate, they didn't feel they had a part to play. It was their life. They looked after their own interests at the expense of others, sold investitures and--what not! We stop here in this magnificent court--for what?--Just doing nothing. We're like so many puppets hung on the wall, waiting for some one to come and move us or make us talk. HAROLD. Ah no, old sport, not quite that! We've got to give the proper answer, you know. There's trouble if he asks you something and you don't chip in with the cue. LANDOLPH. Yes, that's true. BERTHOLD. Don't rub it in too hard! How the devil am I to give him the proper answer, if I've swatted up Henry IV. of France, and now he turns out to be Henry IV. of Germany? (_The other three laugh_). HAROLD. You'd better start and prepare yourself at once. ORDULPH. We'll help you out. HAROLD. We've got any amount of books on the subject. A brief run through the main points will do to begin with. ORDULPH. At any rate, you must have got some sort of general idea. HAROLD. Look here! (_Turns him around and shows him the portrait of the Marchioness Matilda on the wall_). Who's that? BERTHOLD (_looking at it_). That? Well, the thing seems to me somewhat out of place, anyway: two modern paintings in the midst of all this respectable antiquity!