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SECOND TOAD
Since we are assembled around a table, why should we not offer to the
Chief--

CHANTECLER
[Modestly, hanging back from the suggested honour.]Gentlemen--

SECOND TOAD
--to the Chief of whom we stood in notable need, a banquet?

ALL
[Beating enthusiastically upon the toadstool.] A banquet!

THE PHEASANT-HEN
[Looking out from the tree.] What is the matter?

CHANTECLER
[In spite of all, rather flattered.] A banquet!

THE PHEASANT-HEN
[Slightly ironical.] Shall you accept?

CHANTECLER
You see, my dear--the new tendencies--Art,--the thinking contingency of
the Forest--[Indicating the TOADS.] Yes, I have lent wings to--[In a
light and careless tone.] It's all up with the Nightingale, you see.
Musty old method! Antiquated trill! This is the way he goes on--[To
the TOADS.] How was it you said he went on?

ALL THE TOADS
[Comically.] Tio! Tio!

CHANTECLER
[To the PHEASANT-HEN, with pitying indulgence.] He goes on like
this: Tio! Tio! And I believe I need not scruple to accept--

A VOICE
[In the tree above him breaks forth in a long note, limpid, and
heart-moving.] Tio! [Silence.]

CHANTECLER
[Startled, raising his head.] What was that?

THE BIG TOAD
[Quickly, visibly embarrassed.] Nothing! It is he!

THE VOICE
[Slowly and wonderfully, with the sigh of a soul in every note.] Tio!
Tio! Tio! Tio!

CHANTECLER
[Turning upon the TOADS.] Scum of the earth!

THE TOADS
[Backing away from him.] What--?



SCENE SIXTH

THE SAME, the NIGHTINGALE unseen, and little by little all the
FOREST CREATURES.


THE NIGHTINGALE
[From the tree, in his emotionally throbbing voice.] Tiny bird, lost
in the darkness of the tree, I feel myself turning into the heart-beat
of the infinite night!

CHANTECLER
[To the TOADS.] And you have dared--

THE NIGHTINGALE
Hushed lies the ravine beneath the magic of the moon--

CHANTECLER
--to compare my rude singing with that divine voice? Scum of the earth!
Toads! And I never divined that they were doing to him here what was
done to me over yonder!

THE BIG TOAD
[Suddenly swelling to a great size.] Toads! Yes, as it happens, we are
Toads!

THE NIGHTINGALE
Vapour of pearl wreathes the summits in an ethereal veil--

THE BIG TOAD
[Self-appreciatively.] We are Toads, certainly, magnificently embossed
with warts! [All rear themselves up, swollen, standing between
CHANTECLER and the tree.]

CHANTECLER
And I perceived not, I who have never known envy, to what venomous feast
I was bidden!

THE NIGHTINGALE
What matter? Sooner or later, you, the strong, and I, the tender, we
were fated, despite all the Toads in the world, to understand
each other!

CHANTECLER
[With religious fervour.] Sing!

A TOAD
[Who has hastily dragged himself to the tree in which the NIGHTINGALE
is singing.] Let us clasp the bark with our slimy little arms, and
slaver upon the foot of the tree! [All crawl toward the tree.]

CHANTECLER
[Trying to stop one of them who is clumsily hopping.] But are you not
yourself gifted with a singing voice of exceptional purity?

THE TOAD
[In a tone of sincerest suffering.] I am, but when I hear somebody
else singing, I can't help it,--I see green! [He joins his
companions.]

THE BIG TOAD
[Working his jaws as if chewing something which foamed.] There foam up
beneath our tongues I know not what strange soapsuds, and--[To his
neighbour.] Are you frothing?

THE OTHER
I am frothing.

ANOTHER
He is frothing.

ALL
We are frothing.

A TOAD
[Tenderly laying his arm about the neck of a dilatory TOAD.] Come and
froth!

CHANTECLER
[To the NIGHTINGALE.] But will they not trouble and prevent your
mellifluent song?

THE NIGHTINGALE
In no wise. I will take their refrain into my song--

THE BIG TOAD
[Patting a little TOAD on the head to encourage him.] Don't be
afraid, go ahead,--froth!

THE TOADS
[All together, at the base of the tree to which they form a crawling,
writhing girdle.] The Toads, croak! croak! the Toads are we!

THE NIGHTINGALE
--And make of both a Villanelle!

THE TOADS
We welter in malignity!

THE NIGHTINGALE
The while they fume beneath my tree I fill with song the enchanted dell--

THE TOADS
The Toads, croak! croak! the Toads are we! [And the Villanelle
proceeds, sung by the alternate voices, one of which, ever higher and
more enraptured, carries the song proper, and the others, ever angrier
and lower, the burden of the song.]

THE NIGHTINGALE and THE TOADS, alternately
  I sing! for Wind, that harper free,
  And music bubbling from the well--
  --We welter in malignity!--

  And fragrance floating from the lea,
  Of meadow-sweet and pimpernel--
  --The Toads, croak! croak! the Toads are we!--

  And Luna showering ecstasy,
  All weave so wonderful a spell--
  --We welter in malignity!--

  Its melting magic moveth me
  The secret of my heart to tell!
  --The Toads, croak! croak! the Toads are we!--

  Within my heart all sympathy,
  Within mine eye all visions dwell--
  --We welter in malignity!--

  Life, Death, I turn to rhapsody,
  Who am the deathless Philomel!
  --The Toads, croak! croak! the Toads are we,
  Who welter in malignity!

CHANTECLER
Beside those heavenly pipes, ah, me! my voice is Punchinello's squeak!
Sing on! Sing on! The Croakers are in retreat.

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