Pierrot:  [Off stage.] Ehe, Pierrette!

Columbine:  [Off stage.] My name is Columbine! 
Leave me alone!

Thyrsis:  [Coming up to the wall.]
Corydon, after all, and in spite of the fact
I started it myself, I do not like this
So very much.  What is the sense of saying
I do not want you on my side the wall? 
It is a silly game.  I’d much prefer
Making the little song you spoke of making,
About the lamb, you know, that thought himself
A shepherd!—­what do you say?

[Pause.]

Corydon:  [At wall.] (I have forgotten the line.)

Cothurnus:  [Prompting.] “How do I know this isn’t a trick?”

Corydon:  Oh, yes. . . .  How do I know this isn’t a trick
To get upon my land?

Thyrsis:  Oh, Corydon,
You know it’s not a trick.  I do not like
The game, that’s all.  Come over here, or let me
Come over there.

Corydon:  It is a clever trick
To get upon my land. [Seats himself as before.]

Thyrsis:  Oh, very well! [Seats himself as before.]
[To himself.] I think I never knew a sillier game.

Corydon:  [Coming to wall.]
Oh, Thyrsis, just a minute!—­all the water
Is on your side the wall, and the sheep are thirsty. 
I hadn’t thought of that.

Thyrsis:  Oh, hadn’t you?

Corydon:  Why, what do you mean?

Thyrsis:  What do I mean?—­I mean
That I can play a game as well as you can. 
And if the pool is on my side, it’s on
My side, that’s all.

Corydon:  You mean you’d let the sheep
Go thirsty?

Thyrsis:  Well, they’re not my sheep.  My sheep
Have water enough.

Corydon:  Your sheep!  You are mad, to call them
Yours—­mine—­they are all one flock!  Thyrsis, you can’t mean
To keep the water from them, just because
They happened to be grazing over here
Instead of over there, when we set the wall up?

Thyrsis:  Oh, can’t I?—­wait and see!—­and if you try
To lead them over here, you’ll wish you hadn’t!

Corydon:  I wonder how it happens all the water
Is on your side. . . .  I’ll say you had an eye out
For lots of little things, my innocent friend,
When I said, “Let us make a song,” and you said,
“I know a game worth two of that!”

Columbine:  [Off stage.] Pierrot,
D’you know, I think you must be getting old,
Or fat, or something,—­stupid, anyway!—­
Can’t you put on some other kind of collar?

Thyrsis:  You know as well as I do, Corydon,
I never thought anything of the kind.
Don’t you?

CORYDON:  I do not.

THYRSIS:  Don’t you?

CORYDON:  Oh, I suppose so. 
Thyrsis, let’s drop this,—­what do you say?—­it’s only
A game, you know . . . we seem to be forgetting
It’s only a game ... a pretty serious game
It’s getting to be, when one of us is willing
To let the sheep go thirsty for the sake of it.