Turandot: The Chinese Sphinx

BRIG.

Your soul in blackness with your visage vies--
You grin whene'er a fellow-creature dies.

TRUF.

You jackanapes! None of your paltry spite;
My heart's not black,--your liver 'tis that's white;
So hold your jaw. Why should I grieve to see
That men for love such arrant fools can be?
The more the merrier; for on each day,
Our Princess 'scapes a husband's dreaded sway;
She gives us all a good jollification,
Besides munificent gratification.

BRIG.

How barbarous.

TRUF.

Now, don't you be so silly.
Her suitors are not dragged here willy-nilly;
They know the journey here their heads may cost 'em,
But 'tis no loss; for they've already lost 'em.
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