in the next house. Soft music starts; the first light of dawn
shines in the sky.)

(Enter the CALIPH HAROUN AR RASCHID, JAFAR, his Vizier, MASRUR (a
Negro), his Executioner, and ISHAK, a young man, his poet,
all attired as Merchants.)

CALIPH
Ishak, my heart is heavy and still the night drags on,
and still we wander in the crooked streets, and still
we find no entertainment, and still the white moon shines.

ISHAK
O Caliph of Islam, is there not vast entertainment for the wise
in the shining of the moon, in the dripping of that fountain,
and in the shape of that tall cypress that has leapt the wall
to shoot her arrow at the stars?

(The music which had stopped recommences.)

CALIPH
But I hear music, and see lights. Come on, come on, we will snatch
profit from this cursed night even yet, my friends,
even at the eleventh hour.

JAFAR
Master, the night is far advanced, and you have not slept.
It is a late hour to seek for entertainment.

CALIPH