me a common man with a common trade. My friends are fellows from
the market, and all my worthless family is dead. Had I been rich,
ah me! how deep had been my delight in matters of the soul,
in poetry and music and pictures, and companions who do not jeer
and grin, and above all, and in the colours of rich carpets
and expensive silks. But be content, O artist: thou hast one
carpet; be content, O confectioner: thou hast one love--one love,
but unattained...yet hadst thou been rich, O confectioner, never hadst
thou found her.

Now I will make her sweets, such sweets, ah me! as never I made
in my life before. I will make her sweets like globes of crystal,
like cubes of jade, like polygons of ruby. I will make her sweets
like flowers. Great red roses, passionate carnations, raying
daisies, violets, and curly hyacinths. I will perfume my roses
(may they melt sweetly in her lips) with the perfume of roses,
so that she shall say "a rose"! and smell before she tastes.
And in the heart of each flower I will distil one drop
of the magic of love. Did I not say "they shall be flowers"?




SCENE II


Moonlight. The Street of Felicity by the Fountain of the Two Pigeons.
A house with a balcony on either side of the street.
In front of one of the houses, HASSAN, cloaked: a PORTER.