time and hoped it would never be Monday. For every time they got to the end
of a century they wanted to stay and see what would happen in the next.
Like when you eat nuts it's so very difficult to stop at any particular
nut, isn't it? Now I ...

UNCLE EDWARD. But they don't want to hear about you.

ALICE. Sorry.

UNCLE EDWARD. And don't gabble. This ain't the metaphysics, which they
can't abear. This is facts. They respect facts.

ALICE. I hate facts. They're so dull. It was when they became actors they
got their new names. Harlequin and Columbine and Clown and Pantaloon. And
they travelled from Greece into Italy, where Charon got called Pantaloon
because he acted an old gentleman of Venice, and Saint Pantaleone is a
patron of Venice, and there were heaps of people called Pantaleone there in
the fifteenth....

[Uncle Edward is snapping his fingers and pointing to Ms trousers.]

Yes, I know. Even to-day Pantaloon is still wearing the very Venetian
clothes of the time when he first played the part. He's got on the first
pantaloons ever worn, and his hair is tied in a lovelock. Clown and
Pantaloon have got white faces. By this time funny actors, who acted in
dumb-show, used to put flour on their faces, like Pierrot you know, because
the theatres were so dark and they wanted to show their expressions. Then
there's the scene. I do hope you'll like the scene. It's supposed to be
Italy, and I think it's beautiful. Anyhow it's the kind of scene we have
to have so as not to take up too much room. And it has beehives in it.