e General. I really cannot find it in my heart to leave your Majesty
when your Majesty is in so despondent a humour.

The King. I am afraid you will have to try, my gallant friend!--Don't
look so dejected, Mr. Mayor!--Suppose some day serious-minded men
should feel just as humiliated at such falsehoods existing as you do
now because you have not been allowed to participate in them. I might
perhaps be able to endure being king then! But as things are now, I am
not strong enough for the job. I feel as if I had been shouldered out
of actual life on to this strip of carpet that I am standing on! That is
what my attempts at reform have ended in!

The Mayor. May I be allowed to say that the impression made on my mind
by the somewhat painful scene we have just gone through is that your
Majesty is overwrought.

The King. Mad, you mean?

The Mayor. God forbid I should use such a word of my King!

The King. Always punctilious!--Well, judging by the fact that every one
else considers themselves sane, I must undoubtedly be the mad one. It
is as simple as a sum in arithmetic.--And, in all conscience, isn't
it madness, when all is said and done, to take such trifles so much to
heart?--to bother about a few miserable superannuated forms that are not
of the slightest importance?--a few venerable, harmless prejudices?--a
few foolish social customs and other trumpery affairs of that sort?

The General. Quite so!

The Mayor. Your Majesty is absolutely right!

Bang. I quite agree!

The Priest. It is exactly what I have been thinking all the time.

The King. And probably we had better add to the list certain
extravagant ideas--perhaps even certain dangerous ideas, like mine about
Christianity?

The Priest (hastily and impressively). Your Majesty is mistaken on the
subject of Christianity.

The Mayor. Christianity is entirely a personal matter, your Majesty.

The General. Your Majesty expects too much of it. Now, as a comfort for
the dying--!

The King. And a powerful instrument of discipline.

The General (smiling). Ah, your Majesty!

Bang (confidentially). Christianity is no longer such a serious matter
nowadays, except for certain persons--. (Glances at the PRIEST.)

The King. All I have to say on the head of such unanimous approval
is this: that in such a shallow society, where there is no particular
distinction between lies and truth, because most things are mere
forms without any deeper meaning--where ideals are co