The youth to the people said:
"I would make your pathway fair!"
"There's trouble," the rulers cried,
"Sedition breeds in the air."
Still they sat in the square,
And still they quaffed their ale;
They talked of the people's good,
But heard not the people's wail.
The youth in the pillory stood,
For there he'd been given his place;
In the wag'nmaker's hen-coop the cock crew
As of yore in Caiphas' palace.
The great respect the law,
Their own renown they buy
With statues and tombs and gold
To praise them when they die.
The people pass under the yoke,
They wail through the vigils of night,
And wait till the cock shall crow
To herald an era of light.
[Shoemaker's company make wry faces and pretend not to be
listening; the people are interested and drop pennies into the old
woman's bank. The women are moved to tears and wipe their eyes now
and then.]
RELATIVE. [To shoemaker.] Have you many orders now-a-days?
SHOEMAKER. Oh, so-so--
OLD WOMAN. Give the old blind woman a coin?
CHIROPODIST. Begging is prohibited, don't you know that?
ONE OF THE PEOPLE. She's not begging; she asks remuneration.
SHOEMAKER. What kind of rot is he talking?
ONE OF THE PEOPLE. The Schulze Society is paid to sing for the
statue yonder, but the men pocket the coins and stay away. This
morning only three were there.
SHOEMAKER. [To his guests.] Think, they know all that goes on, the
villains!
OLD WOMAN.
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