PEHR. Is what you say true? Well, then, give it me! [Accepts paper--
hesitates.] The belfry, the chimes, the singing, the lights,
Christmas--all pass before mine eyes! No more Christmas Eve! Life
is so pitiless; it only demands, but never gives anything!
VIZIER. Your Highness, the people are clamoring! They would see
their chief in the attire of the old caliphs--the crown and sceptre
await to be borne anew by a branch of the old ancestral tree.
PEHR. [Catches sight of crown and sceptre.] Ah! Vizier, who can
command me to forswear my faith?
VIZIER. The laws.
PEHR. Who made the laws?
VIZIER. Our forefathers.
PEHR. They were weak mortals, like ourselves. Well and good, I'll
make over all the laws!
VIZIER. The Caliph does not reconstruct laws, for our form of
administration has not given him law-making rights.
PEHR. What is the form of administration in this land?
VIZIER. Constitutional Despotism.
PEHR. Answer! Am I Caliph, or not?
VIZIER. You will be as soon as you have affixed your signature.
PEHR. Then hand me the paper! [Signs. Enter Viziers, Court
Attendants, etc. Crowning Ceremony.]
PEOPLE. [Without.] Long live Omar the twenty-seventh! Allah, Allah,
Allah!
VIZIER. Will it please Your Royal Highness to ascend the throne and
begin the reign?
PEHR. That will be quite diverting. Admit the people!
VIZIER. The people? The people have nothing to do with the Government!
PEHR. But surely I shall have someone to rule over?
VIZIER.
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