Enter OMEGA SPOON and BORED VOID, two FOOLS, accompanied by JESTERS as they walk through the town. A few PEASANTS are gathered nearby, listening.
SPOON
Mold hath crept up upon me while I slept!
How long a while it's shadowed my repose,
I cannot say.
VOID
Take care, lest should also creep upon thee
the temperament of the village ass.
SPOON
The mold is not black, 'tis white and gray.
FIRST JESTER
Pray tell, what’s this?
SPOON
The sausage that rests upon my pillow
has succumbed to the corruption of mold.
I know not when, but it was cover’d well-
by this we may assume some time has passed.
SECOND JESTER
Prithee, say again, in what manner
didst thou keep this sausage?
VOID
Didst thou preserve it in its casing?
By my accounting ‘tis good and right
to let stay a thing on the pillow in sleep;
So kept I the company of a stone for seven years.
SPOON
Aye, I did preserve it.
'Tis a summer sausage, well-wrapped.
VOID
Didst thou bestow a name on’t?
Didst thou place upon it eyes of google,
such that it could look upon thee in return?
I beg thee, wherefore?
SPOON
Nay, aye, and I do as I like.
VOID
Will you eat it? 'Tis a meal as any other.
SPOON
The fungus disturbs me.
VOID
Supper is supper, e'en be it touched by rot.
Never have I fallen ill from spoilt victuals.
SECOND JESTER
You are both mad.
SPOON
On a separate accounting, yon peasant speaks;
an ill portent.
FIRST PEASANT
(Aside to other peasants) It bewilders
that so few are gathered here!
Saw I once a gath’ring of ten thousand
who observed a contemplation of water, boiled.
By my troth, this discourse doth too merit
the admiration of the goodly people.
They are here in seeming, if not yet in flesh.
Let it be so.
More PEASANTS begin to arrive, merry.
SPOON
Nay! Let it not be so!
VOID
Knave, I forbid thee bring the rabble!
I was once trapped with "goodly" such
who spoke but naught of toasting forks-
By my head, I shall not repeat it.
Several PEASANTS emerge from the growing crowd.
SECOND PEASANT
(Aside, to other peasants, but loudly to be heard by all) Ordinary folk speak of common things! How fares thy health?
VOID
I shall make a poor cup of thy skull.
THIRD PEASANT
Thou shouldst wed thy sausage, if it bring thee such joy.
FOURTH PEASANT
I summon the Master of Post Entities.
Enter MASTER OF POST ENTITIES, and TALTALILY, the town crier. The FOOLS and JESTERS are lost within the crowd of peasants.
MASTER OF POST ENTITIES
Upon this post I do bestow the title of Corruption.
Exit MASTER OF POST ENTITIES.
TALTALILY
Though sure my words will count for naught
Duty binds me to convey this letter
that I was given thence.
LETTER OF BORED VOID
Should ye persist repeating thus,
beware, for I shall find ye, one and all
And lost I shall become, and then
I'll surely find ye once again. Woe! Woe!
Exeunt, pursued by a sausage.