e in a dragon's mouth.

LAU. [Suddenly waking] Well, are we going? [All laugh.]

LUI. No one is going that cannot go afoot.
I have enough to carry!

LAU. Nay; take me too!
I am a little thing. What does it matter--
One flower more?

LUI. You are a thousand flowers,
Sweet Laura,--you are a meadow full of them--
I'll bring a wagon for you.

CAR. Come. Come home.

[In the meantime the stage has been filling with girls and men
bearing flowers, a multitude of people, in groups and couples,
humming the song very softly. As Carlotta speaks several more
people take up the song, then finally the whole crowd. They move
off slowly, singing.]

SONG. "Strew we flowers on their pathway," etc.

Scene 2

[Bianca's boudoir in the palace at Fiori. Bianca with a mirror in
her hand, having her hair done by a maid. Several maids about,
holding perfume-flasks, brushes, and veils, articles of apparel of
one sort or another. Beatrice standing beside her, watching.]

BIA. Look at me, Rose-Red. Am I pretty enough,
Think you, to marry a King?

BEA. You are too pretty.
There is no justice in it. Marry a cobbler
And make a king of him. It is unequal,--
Here is one beggarly boy king in his own right,
And king by right of you.

BIA. Mario is not
A beggarly boy! Nay, tell me truly, Beatrice,
What do you think of him?

BEA. La, by my soul!
Have I not told you what I think of him
A thousand times? He is graceful enough, I tell you,
And hath a well-shaped head.

BIA. Nay, is that all?

BEA. Nay, hands and feet he hath, like any other.

BIA. Oh, out upon you for a surly baggage!
Why will you tease me so? You do not like him,
I think.

BEA. Snow-White! Forgive me! La, indeed,
I was but jesting! By my sacred word,
These brides are serious folk.

BIA. I could not bear
To wed a man that was displeasing to you.
Loving him as I do, I could not choose
But wed him, if he wished it, but 'twould hurt me
To think he did not please you.

BEA. Let me, then,
Set your sweet heart at rest. You could not find
In Christendom a man would please me more.

BIA. Then I am happy.

BEA. Aye, be happy, child.

BIA. Why do you call me child?

BEA. Faith, 'tis the season
O' the year when I am older than you. Besides
A bride is always younger than a spinster.

BIA. A spinster! Do you com