
you! What a trivial conclusion, and how untrue to everyday life, where things come out in the oddest
fashion with no regard for cause and effect."
"A sage point," the man said. "But consider, sir, these tales are not meant to be true to life. They just
point to how a man should attempt to comport himself in various circumstances."
"Well, obviously, sir," Azzie said. "But it is all sheerest propaganda. Don't you ever wish you could see a
play with more invention in it, instead of a concoction like this that links homilies together as a butcher
links sausages? Wouldn't you like to see a play whose plot was not hitched to the simpering determinism
of standard morality?"
"Such would be refreshing, I suppose," the man said. "But such a philosophically based work is unlikely
to come from the clerics who pen this sort of thing. Perhaps you'd care to pursue the point further, sir,
after the play, over a tankard of ale?"
"Delighted," said Azzie. "I am Azzie Elbub, and my profession is gentleman."
"And I am Peter Westfall," the stranger said. "I am a grain importer, and I have my shop near St.
Gregory's in the Field. But I see the players are beginning again."
The play got no better. After it was over, Azzie accompanied Westfall and several of his friends to the
Sign of the Pied Cow, in Holbeck Lane near High Street. The landlord brought them flowing tankards,
and Azzie ordered mutton and potatoes for all.
Westfall had received some education in a monastery in Burgundy. He was a large middle-aged man,
sanguine of complexion, mostly bald, florid of gesture, and tending toward goutiness. From watching him
refuse the meat, Azzie suspected him of vegetarianism, one of the deviant marks by which a Catharist
heretic could be detected. It made no difference to Azzie, but he filed the information away for possible
use some other time. Meanwhile there was the play to discuss with Westfall and the several other
members of his party.
When Azzie complained about the play's lack of originality, Westfall said, "Indeed, sir, it is not supposed
to be original. It is a story that tells a most edifying message."
"You call that an edifying message?" Azzie demanded. "Be patient and it'll all work out? You know
perfectly well that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that if you don't complain nothing ever
changes. In the Noah story, God was a tyrant. He should have been opposed! Who says God is right
every time? Is a man to have no judgment of his own? If I were a playwright, I'd come up with
something better than that!"
Westfall thought that Azzie's words were provocative and unorthodox, and it was in his mind to chastise
him. But he noticed that there was a strange and commanding presence about the young fellow, and it
was well known that members of the Court often disguised themselves as ordinary gentlemen, the better
to draw responses from the unwary. So Westfall eased up on his queries, finally pleading the late hour as
an excuse to retire.
After Westfall and the others had departed, Azzie stayed on awhile at the tavern. He wasn't sure what to
do next. Azzie considered following Ylith and again trying his seductive wiles, but he realized it would not
be a good move. He decided instead to travel on to the Continent, as he had originally intended. He was
thinking of staging a play of his own. A play that would run counter to these morality plays with their
insipid messages. An immorality play!
Chapter 3