Page:A history of Chinese literature - Giles.djvu/280

 268 CHINESE LITERATURE

Lady Wang [sings.] Stay 1 1 hear the people shouting What, the Ball some beggar struck ? It must be my own true P'ing Kuei ril go home and tell my luck ! Maidens ! through the temple kindle Incense for my lucky fate ; Now my true love will discover That I can discriminate.

[Exeunt omnes.

Enter Hu Mao-yuan and Su Tai-ch'in. Hu. The second of the second moon

The Dragon wakes to life and power j

To-day the Lady Wang has thrown

The Ball from out the Painted Tower.

No well-born youth was singled out.

It struck a dirty vagrant lout.

Friend Su, Pm off: we're done for, as you saw^

Though for the little paltry wench I do not care a straw.

[Exeunt.

Enter Gatekeeper and Beggar. Gatekeeper. Only one poor beggar now remains within the hall,

Who'd have thought that this poor vagrant would have got

the Ball? [To P'ing Kuei.] Sir, you've come off well this morning:

You must be a lucky man. Come with me to claim your bride, and Make the greatest haste you can.

[Exeunt.

Even the longer and more elaborate plays are propor- tionately wanting in all that makes the drama piquant to a European, and are very seldom, if ever, produced as they stand in print. Many collections of these have been published, not to mention the acting editions of each play, which can be bought at any bookstall for some- thing like three a penny. One of the best of such collections is the Yuan cnii hstian tsa chi, or Miscel- laneous Selection of Mongol Plays, bound up in eight

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