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ROBERT LOWELL
TAVERN KEEPER
You mean
a Tory.
BARBER
Shave them to the bone!
TAVERN KEEPER
(Pointing to newspaper)
BARBER
Here's the last picture of King George ;
He's passed another tax on tea.
Health to the King, health to the King!
Here's rum to drown him in the tea!
(Drenches the newspaper with his mug. A
CLERGYMAN,
white-wigged,
all in black, comes out of the church.)
CLERGYMAN
What an ungodly hour! The city's
boiling. All's rum and revolution.
We have an everlasting city,
but here in this unsteady brightness,
nothing's clear, unless the Lord
enlighten us and show the winner!
(A
PROSTITUTE
comes out of the bay window house. She wears a
red skirt and a low, full-bosomed white blouse.)
PROSTITUTE
Here in the shadow of the church,
I save whatever God despises-–
Whig or Tory, saint or sinner,
I'm their refuge from the church.
(The pillared mansion lights up. A
MAN
comes out in a blue coat
and white trousers like General Washington's. He wears a grayish
mask covered with pocks. His forehead juts out and divides in a
deuble bulge. His nose is a yellow eagle's beak. His eyes flash like fire
in a cave. He looks at himself in a mirror. )
MAN WITH MASK
My mind's on fire. This fire will burn
the pocks and paleness from my face.
Freedom has given me this palace.
I'll go and mingle with the mob.
(Now the houses are dark.
ROBIN
rubs his eyes in a daze, stares into
the darkness, then turns to his brother.)