WHILE THE LENTILS BOIL

A monologue by Stuart Walker


  • NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Portmanteau Plays. Stuart Walker. Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd Company, 1919.
  • MIME: I'm on my way to the decapitation. I want to pick up a few coins. I'll perform after the Queen has lost her head. I have to do my best because it's hard to be more interesting than a decapitation. After it's all over the crowd will begin to talk and to move about, and I'll have to rush up to the front of them and cry out at the top of my lungs, "Stop--Ho, for Jack the Juggler! Would you miss him? In London where the king of kings lives, all the knights and ladies of the Court would leave a crowning to watch Jack the Juggler toss three golden balls with one hand or balance a weathervane upon his nose." Then a silence will come upon the crowd and they will all turn to me. Someone will say, "Where is this Jack the Juggler?" And I shall answer, "Jack the Jugler, the greatest of the great, the pet of kings, entertainer of the Pope and the joy of Cathay stands before you." And I'll throw back my cloak and stand revealed. "So!" someone will shout, "Let us have it, Jack." And I'll draw my three golden balls from my pouch--like this--and then begin. [Pause.] I'd show you, but I must be off. If I'm as interesting as the beheading, I'll get perhaps fifteen farthings. Who knows? Well ... goodbye!

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