SE: A large room with a door at the bad a the side opening to an inner room. A desk and a chair in the middle. An hlass on a bracket he door. A creepy stool near it. Some behe WISE MAN sitting at his desk.
WISE MAN [turning over the pages of a book]. Where is that passage I am to explain to my pupils to?day?
Here it is, and the book says that it was written by a beggar on the walls of Babylon: "There are two living tries, the one visible and the one invisible; and when it is winter with us it is summer in that try; ahe November winds are up among us it is lambing?time there." I wish that my pupils had asked me to explain any other passage, for this is a hard passage. [The FOOL es in and stands at the door, holding out his hat. He has a pair of shears iher hand.] It sounds to me like foolishness; ahat ot be, for the writer of this book, where I have found so muowledge, would not have set it by itself on this page, and surrou with so many images and so many deep colors and so much fine gilding, if it had been foolishness.
FOOL. Give me a penny.
WISE MAN. [Turns to ane.] Here he has written: "The learned in old times fot the visible try." That I uand, but I have taught my learners better.
FOOL. Wont you give me a penny?
WISE MAN. What do you want? The words of the wise Sara will not teauch.
FOOL. Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a Fool.
WISE MAN. What do you know about wisdom?
FOOL. Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.
WISE MAN. What is it you have seen?
FOOL. When I went by Kil where the bells used to be ringing at the break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people sn in their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach where the young meo be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the crossroads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras where the friars used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all these ges, they said it was no misfortune, but it was the wisdom they had learned from your teag.
WISE MAN. Run round to the kit, and my wife will give you something to eat.
FOOL. That is foolish advice for a wise man to give.
WISE MAN. Why, Fool?
FOOL. What is eaten is gone. I ennies for my bag. I must buy ba in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time when the sun is weak. And I want so catch the rabbits and the squirrels and the bares, and a pot to cook them in.
WISE MAN. Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving you pennies.
FOOL. Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the Fishermas me sleep among the s in his loft in the wiime because he says I bring him luck; and in the summer?time the wild creatures let me sleep heir s and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me or to touch me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. [Holds out his hand.] If I wasnt lucky, Id starve.
WISE MAN. What have you got the shears for?
FOOL. I wont tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away.
WISE MAN. Whom would I drive away?
FOOL. I wont tell you.
WISE MAN. Not if I give you a penny?
FOOL. No.
WISE MAN. Not if I give you two pennies.
FOOL. You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I wont tell you.
WISE MAN. Three pennies?
FOOL. Four, and I will tell you!
WISE MAN. Very w