B007P4V3G4 EBOK (52 page)

Now on tip-toe, then stomping his heels, the indignant king
made his way across the boards. His beard waved wildly about his
face and the hair danced above his eyes.

It was a terribly tiring job to follow all the gestures but the king
did not miss a single one. He saw rivulets of moisture running
down the actor's face and heard how the audience murmured
approvingly as the colours melted and merged on the mobile countenance.

Women pressed their handkerchiefs to their mouths, men moved
their heads, nodding, and on all faces he read admiration.

When the king had spoken his proudest words, the curtain came
down but it had to rise at once again.

Loud cheering resounded throughout the auditorium.

'Oh, what a king!' they cried and a sobbing young lady shouted:
'Ecstasy!'

The king was left staring gloomily ahead of himself. He had
seen how the governor of the province had risen to applaud the
artiste, that the mayor was beside himself with admiration and that
many dignitaries were still nodding satisfaction, long after the
curtain had come down.

'So this is majesty? he thought. 'Is this the way my people want
their king to And will I ever be able to learn this, what is thought to be fine and regal? I tire quickly, I have never bothered
with gymnastics and my mouth is much smaller than this man's.'

Then he heard a nice young girl say: 'This one's quite different
from that creep yesterday! He is the spitting image of the king
He really could pass for his brother.'

'Indeed,' agreed a neighbour.

This surprised the king highly, and with longing he awaited the
second act to see this curious likeness for himself.

The second act, too, enraptured the audience to great admiration
but only in the third did enthusiasm rise properly to its peak.

In the final scenes, the actor gave himself completely. His
glorious delivery sounded as tireless as at the beginning, his hair
whirled wildly around his head, he made the robe wave about like
the gown of a belly-dancer and he twisted his body into many contortions.

'Delicious! Masterly!' were the cries.

The rolling r's, the penetrating i's and the clear a's were of
wondrous effect.

'God save the king!' cried many in the galleries, and when the
play had ended, people were loath to leave the auditorium.

'Well7' asked De Man, when the king entered the dressing
room. 'Have you now seen what a king is?'

'It was an overwhelming success,' said the king, 'but forgive me
for daring to make an observation. Weren't your movements a
touch frantic for a dignified prince?'

The actor laughed: 'Are you now trying to teach me how a king
behaves?!'

And to the fat father, ridding himself huffing and puffing of his
stockings, he said: 'The man hasn't the slightest notion of physical
expression! What did you think of it?'

I always think it's tremendous!' was the reply, but the father
could say no more for a servant was just bringing in the platter
with one of his favourite dishes.

Now many people in fine gala attire came to pay the artist their
respects. In the foul-smelling room, past bowls of dirty water in
which floated thick tufts of hair, they moved about with relish.

Modestly, the king retired behind a curtain and heard one of the
gentlemen, in whom, by his voice, he recognised the governor of
the province at once, say with conviction: 'Mr De Man, Sir, you are
a splendid being! You could even teach our king a lesson or two.'

Then the king removed himself.

Once outside, he hastened his step.

The cold of night did not bother him. A lovely warm feeling
had taken possession of him. He could have sung with joy.

Far outside of town, he turned round. He raised his hands high,
and proudly his voice resounded: 'Starrrs, shine down on thy king
forrr whom the mysterrry has been solved.'

The stars twinkled in the sky. The cows lowed in the fields.

Proud, he made his regal progress to his palace.

The guards at the gilded gate did not recognise him at once, so
strange was his bearing, and in the marble corridors the lavishly
gold-adorned footmen stared at him in great surprise.

It seemed as if the king had grown larger. The indifference had
vanished from his features. His chest puffed out, head thrown back,
one hand by his side, the other stretched out commandingly in
front of him, fingers spread wide, his heels stamping on the mosaic
floors, he made the impression of one ostentatiously proclaiming
his dignity.

His eyebrows were gathered in a frown, his eyes glinted and
strong-willed furrows outlined his mouth.

The old duty-chamberlain who had fallen asleep in the hall in
front of the royal bedchamber, tired from days of waiting, was
gravely startled by his thunderous voice. The crystals in the
chandeliers glittering in the morning sun tinkled.

The pikemen at the doors rushed forward and the king's favourite dogs gave tongue.

A smile passed around the king's lips and with impressive
stateliness he proceeded solemnly past the startled individuals into
his bedchamber.

There, he laid himself down to rest in an impeccable, physically
expressive attitude and, while he slept, the tiding went from mouth
to mouth in a whisper: 'The king's returned but he seems almost intoxicated.'

When finally, after a long wait, the stroke of a gong announced
the king's order to approach to the softly conversing ministers,
they, curious, went to pay their respects.

They did not find him in his housecoat sitting listlessly at the
golden table, like on other days, but strong-willed, upright, fists
clenched on the armrests of his Florentine chair. He sat there, legs
wide, broad in his coronation robes draped in elegant folds, a crown of golden laurel leaves on his curiously coiffed hair, his head
thrown back haughtily.

So much did his altered appearance surprise them that they
remained bunched together at the entrance to the room, staring at
him.

This pleased the king greatly.

'Apprrroach, my Lorrrds, apprrroach,' he commanded, and on
the features of these highly surprised ones, his eyes sought out the
effect of the distinguished sound of his words.

Slowly, the ministers approached but remained carefully bunched
together.

'You arrre surrrprrrised,' said the king, 'fearrrful, prrrobably,
because we seem alterrred to you.'

'Oh, no, Your Majesty,' the ministers stammered.

Then, with broad gestures, the king stepped up to them; his
brow wrinkled, his eyes rolled wildly beneath his fearsomely
bunched up eyebrows and in a tremendous voice he roared:

'Do not lie, odious crrreaturrres! We have become a differrrent
perrrson. Werrre we in times past merrrely king by birrrth, today
we arrre this deliberrrately, thrrrough knowledge of life and the
superrriorrrity of ourrr perrrsonal genius. The days spent by us in
grrrave and weighty study have perrrforrrmed a wondrrrous metamorrrphosis upon us. Frrrom now on, we arrre king with rrroyal
allurrre! Yourrr unrrrefined gesturrres displease us grrreatly! What
seems strrrange to you in ourrr charrracterrr is the neverrr demonstrrrated essence of trrruly rrregal rrroyalty. Teach yourrrselves to
move exprrressively! Learrrn thrrrough us the corrrrrrrect prrronunciation of the worrrd. Study yourrr a's, yourrr e's, and arrrticulate
the rrr's with distinction. Frrrom now on, ourrr courrrt will exude
trrrue rrroyal rrrefinement!'

Then the king made a splendid gesture. He drew himself up tall,
pointed wrathfully at the richly decorated doors and waited until
their surprised excellencies had disappeared, their backs hunched.

Following this, without altering the expression on his face, he
went to the huge full-length mirror and studied the distinguished
impression he must have made on the wisest men in his realm.

The ministers, once outside, rushed, their backs hunched, to their
own council chamber, closed the doors there circumspectly,
stretched themselves to the length befitting ordinary human dignity, patted their ears in which the many fierce sounds uttered by
the king still rang and regarded each other, smiling.

'Priceless,' the prime minister spoke first, and instantly the
others dared to hoot with laughter.

They deliberated in hushed voices for a long time. One brought
up the suspicion that someone had intoxicated the king's mind
with a mysterious poison, another irreverently suspected His Majesty of overindulgence in drink, a third let it be known that in his
opinion they were dealing with a case of One being of unsound
mind, but all were in agreement that the actions of the monarch
were exceptionally amusing and each time they reminded one
another of the details of his poses, the laughter became uncontrollable.

'Oh the prime minister said at last, trying to force his
face, once again, into the grave creases befitting his office: Wisdom
or folly, it is our conviction that we must co-operate with the king
and therefore I don't believe that this attitude will be a permanent
one. His Majesty, doubtless, was jesting, but,' and he placed special
emphasis on the word 'but', 'we must not take this jest with too
much mirth. We must watch over decorum. I myself shall acquaint
Her Majesty the Queen with what has taken place:

Then the sound of many trumpets sounded through the corridors
of the palace.

The king was going to display himself to his people. Already
the guardsmen's horses were stamping and pawing in the forecourt.
Outriders in red uniforms jigged up and down, soldiers in glinting
cuirasses controlled the gawp-happy populace that had poured in,
in droves, and a general stood motionless, sabre drawn, ready to
salute the king.

They expected the king dressed in simple clothes as usual, but
he appeared on the high dais cloaked in an ermine robe.

He bore a golden staff in his hand and he bore a crown of laurel
leaves on his neatly crimped hair.

The ovation the people gave him was, for this reason, of
exceptionally long duration. But the king did not make his way
immediately to his coach as usual. He remained on the steps to his
palace, waiting, the way he had seen the actor do the night before,
until the people had grown tired of cheering, then to make royal
gestures on the marble elevation.

He extended his robe widely, stretching out his hand with the
sceptre toward the sky, and his face showed the expression of the
most regal possible pride.

The people, surprised at his movements, watched with bated breath, and by this silence the king understood that he was being
highly admired. He repeated the gestures therefore; he shrouded
himself in the ermine, raised himself on tip-toe, suddenly let the
robe drop, brought his hand to his chin, stared into the void,
remained motionless a moment only then to move again most
elegantly. He twirled round a few times, stared at the sky, peered
over the heads of the people at the fields, greeted the entire
surroundings with wide-spread arms and stepped, now on tip-toe,
then stomping his heels, towards his gilded coach.

The people were more and more surprised. Never had a king
been seen like this before and when, slowly driving by, he looked
at his subjects with adoringly staring eyes, they thought the
expression on his face so extraordinary that they pressed round his
state-coach as though he were a jolly fair-ground quack instead of
the inaccessible bearer of authority.

The pikemen had difficulty in keeping the people at bay. Wildly,
the people thronged closer.

The king, egged on by their enthusiasm, displayed his most
splendid poses of all. He rose from his seat, made countless elegant
waves of the arms, shook his tresses, twinkled with his fingers,
grimly contorted his mouth only to smile amiably again instantly,
whipping up the people to ever greater boisterousness.

The roar of the crowd could be heard streets away, and the city's
population ran in huge throngs to meet the curious procession.

A fierce crush arose: horses reared up on to their hind legs,
people ended up underfoot and the king went on with his physically expressive until the people could no longer be
contained. They broke the ranks of soldiers, opened the carriage
and forced him to go into the crowd.

This gave him a shock.

People embraced him, wanted to induce him to dance and they
cheered in a disgracefully irreverent manner.

Pale and unnerved, he suddenly understood how much his
dignity had been damaged. He wished to free himself of the
embraces but he got stuck in the crush.

Cuirassiers had to relieve him.

Sabres unsheathed, they hacked their way into the multitude
now running amok.

In a distraught condition, the king reached his palace. Faithful
retainers led him to his apartments and in his bedchamber, burying
his pale face in his trembling hands, he sank down on to his bed.

With reverent gentleness they relieved him of his torn robes,
asked in hushed voices for his orders but he did not stir. For the
second time the shameful feeling of humiliation oppressed him. It
was as if his throat was being pinched shut and the blood throbbed
at his temples.

His head pressed deep into the spotless pillows, he could still
smell the vile smells of the people and, trembling, he could still feel
their rough touch. Through his closed eyelids he saw cheeky
grinning faces and his ears were filled with noise, buzzing.

They let him be, and knowing himself to be safe in the silence at
last, he dared to move.

Then he roused himself, went over to his chair by the window
where he had felt doubt for the first time and, staring, he looked
out into the darkening beyond.

The queen entered by the door, pushed open softly, and approached with small, careful steps.

'My poor Lord,' she said, and her voice sounded so intensely
compassionate that tears welled up in the king's eyes.