A MAN AND HIS WIFE
Persons
Mitsune
His Wife
Tarankuwazhiya, his servant.
(Mitsune enters through the audience talking as he walks toward the stage.)
Mitsune.—I am a resident in the suburbs of the metropolis. On the occasion of a recent journey to the city I was served at a tea house by a girl called Hano. I became very much attached to her . . . oh, very much so. And now tonight I am to meet her again. But my vixen of a wife has got scent of the affair, and thus made it difficult for me to go. Ah, I'll call her and tell her some pretty fable that may set me free.
(The curtain rises on the simple interior of a Japanese house. Mitsune mounts the stage and goes to a door at the back.)
Mitsune. — Halloo! Halloo! Are you there . . . are you there?
Wife.—You are pleased to call me? What is it you want?
Mitsune.—Well, please come in.
Wife.—Your commands are obeyed.
Mitsune.—My reason for calling you is simply this: (He pauses a moment in thought, scratching the back of his head) I want to tell you how much my spirits have been affected lately by continual dreams . . . that’s why I called you.
Wife.—You’re talking rubbish! Dreams come from stomach trouble . . . and do not come true. (With an ironical laugh.) Don’t bother your head about them.
Mitsune.—What you say is quite correct . . . as usual. Dreams do not come true nine times out of ten. Still, mine have affected my spirits to such an extent that I think of making some pilgrimage or other to offer up prayers both for you and for myself.
Wife.—Where will you go?
Mitsune.—I mean to worship at every Shintau shrine and every Buddhist temple throughout the land.
Wife.—No . . . no! I won't allow you to go out of the house for a single hour.
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