The Hungarian Countess
| Act Two Scene 2 | Main curtain raised with Countess and Mumkin are seated behind a sheer white curtain with back lighting. Mumkin and the Countess seated on a bench at Stage Left with several girls sitting on a bench at Stage Right. A two foot high white Marble fluted cylinder about four feet in diameter with a black step at the rear is at stage right in front of the sheer curtain. There are torch lights at each side of block to illuminate the slaves standing on it and offered for sale. The girl is young, not yet a woman, looks absolutely terrified. Due to her age she is not veiled but is displayed naked to the waist with a rope around her neck tied to her hands in front of her. |
| Countess: | [to Mumkin.]Is that the auction block? |
| Mumkin: | Yes, it is from an old pagan temple of the Greeks. |
| Countess: | Will it start now? |
| Mumkin: | Shush, shush. You must be quiet. Yes, it will start in a moment. |
| Countess: | Are those the buyers? Can they see us? They seem to be looking only at the girl. |
| Mumkin: | No, they cannot see us for the curtain is too thick. They want the buyers to only pay attention to what is being offered. |
| Countess: | [hand to her throat.] I am a what! |
| Auctioneer: | Now, for the glory of Turkey whose strength together with the superior Moslem way of life has supplied these magnificent captives offered for your pleasure. The first you see here is young Greek girl. She has lived all her young life in Turkey as an infidel Christian but she can speak Turkish. She was sold by her parents and is unmarried. |
| Voices: | She speaks Turkish. She can understand what a man wants. She must be a virgin. Soon she will be ripe. |
| Auctioneer: | You can see yourself she is a strong girl. What do you offer for this girl who will require no training and give great pleasures? |
| Voices: | 100 Drachmas |
| 125 | |
| 150 | |
| 200 | |
| 300 | |
| Auctioneer: | Next for your pleasure is young Abyssinian girl. She comes from darkest Africa where she practiced paganism. She was captured as a young girl with her mother and both have been slaves for several years in a great Turkish house. Now the daughter is old enough to separate from her mother and offered to you. |
| Voices: | She shines like ebony
I prefer ivory She was raised in a fine harem With her beauty she has great potential. Potential? It’s proven performance that counts. [Laughter] |
| Auctioneer: | This beauty offers any man pleasure plus she is strong and skilled in the pleasures of the harem. |
| Voices: | 200 Drachmas |
| 225 | |
| 275 | |
| 350 | |
| 300 | |
| Auctioneer: | Here is the child of a Bulgarian slave and her Turkish master. She speaks Turkish, is skilled in dancing and singing. |
| Countess: | From what you tell me her father would be a free Turk and she would be a Moslem but Moslem’s cannot be enslaved. Why is she a slave? |
| Mumkin: | Children of slaves are slaves but can be freed on the master’s pleasure. |
| Voices: | She is not a beauty. Bulgarians are strong, she will bear many slaves. Her skin is so white, like alabaster. She will please any man whose need is great enough. [Laughter.] |
| Auctioneer: | Here is a girl who also knows how to live in a Turkish Harem and will please a man. Surely her price will soon be forgotten by the buyer. |
| Voices: | 225 Drachmas |
| 275 | |
| 350 | |
| 300 | |
| 325 | |
| Auctioneer: | Now, you see here is a young girl from Russia whose potential is yet unfulfilled. You can see she is well formed and healthy, ready to be molded by you to meet any desire. |
| Voices: | She is young. You can see she has potential If not the harem, then the scullery. Her skin is unmarked and such a lovely white. Didn’t someone prefer ivory? Yes, here is his chance to come close to Paradise. |
| Countess: | She is so young! How terrified she must be. Why does this happen? Is there no compassion here? |
| Mumkin: | She is young and therefore malleable. I understand she was sold by her parents. She will possibly be the reason for the Sultan’s interest. If she ends up with the Son of Heaven she will be happier than a countess, Countess. |
| Countess: | Is the soul and free will valueless? Peasants on our land are poor but happy. My husband the Count never told the peasants what to think. |
| Auctioneer: | You can see she is a fine specimen, healthy, docile and ready to serve. |
| Voices: | 300 drachmas |
| 325 | |
| 375 | |
| 400 | |
| 425 | |
| 450 | |
| Auctioneer: | Now we offer a young woman who has had courses for over a year and has never been touched. She is soft in charm and voice. She was captured in a raid on the coast of from Italy. She is the daughter of a nobleman of Venice. She was captured by Pirates. She is a virgin of great beauty and will both test and please her master. |
| Voices: | A delight! She is a pearl. A rose. She is a rose colored pearl and just as rare. |
| Countess: | Are they all children? Are the buyers young? This girl is like me when I was young, her life ahead of her and ready to meet life on her own terms. |
| Mumkin: | Was our husband you age? |
| Countess: | My husband was four years older than I, I had a choice as I told you and my parents did not have to settle for an old man nor should this girl. What kind of old man wants a child? |
| Auctioneer: | This slave is ready for your desire. What will you offer this pirate’s prize? |
| Voices: | 400 |
| 450 | |
| 475 | |
| 500 | |
| 600 | |
| 650 | |
| 700 | |
| 800 | |
| Auctioneer: | Now we offer a woman who is fully ripe. She is a virgin and ready to bear children. She was part of an assessment of slaves from Bosnia has great beauty. |
| Voices: | A marvel! Another great beauty. Another wonderful virgin. I am told she was being saved for a great Christian nobleman but Allah brought her to us. |
| Mumkin: | Did she agree to be saved for a man? Was it likely he was her age? |
| Countess: | I do not know. |
| Mumkin: | You must know women are not cared for. Women know they have to cope with whatever comes for they have little choice. |
| Countess: | How can a woman be used to pay taxes? |
| Mumkin: | The tax is for slaves and is in addition to monetary taxes. Turkey needs more slaves that can be captured so a slave tax is needed. |
| Countess: | I am trying to think of asking our peasants to give us a son or daughter every year. My husband would not have had to wait for the Turks to kill him. His peasants would have done it first. |
| Auctioneer: | The price of this gem of a woman is small compared to the pleasure she offers. She is instructed in Islam and will be a good mother. |
| Voices: | She will be faithful, that is sure. 400 drachmas |
| 450 | |
| 500 | |
| 525 | |
| 550 | |
| 575 | |
| 600 | |
| 650 | |
| Auctioneer: | Now we offer a virgin from the Christian convents of France. She was captured by the pirates of the Barbary Coast and has been trained in the female arts of music, dancing and sewing as well as being a beauty. |
| Voices: | A beauty she is! |
| Countess: | Why are they all Christians, why are there no Moslems? |
| Mumkin: | The Koran prohibits enslaving a Moslem. Of course, they are converted to Islam but that does not free them nor their children. Do Christians enslave Christians? |
| Countess: | I do not know. I have never heard of a Christian enslaving another but they must enslave someone for there are slaves in Christiandom. |
| Auctioneer: | What do you bid for this treasure for your pleasure? |
| Voices: | 600 drachma |
| 650 | |
| 700 | |
| 725 | |
| 750 | |
| 800 | |
| 850 | |
| Auctioneer: | Here now comes a young girl from England and captured in Italy. She speaks English, French, German and Italian. She is a painter and dancer and is 16 years old. |
| Voices: | Another great beauty And talented From England. Few come from there |
| Auctioneer: | This is a prize for any man. She is a virgin, she is docile and talented. You should not miss this chance to bid on a woman of your dreams. |
| Voices: | 700 Drachmas |
| 750 | |
| 800 | |
| 850 | |
| 875 | |
| 900 | |
| 1000 | |
| 1100 | |
| 1150 | |
| 1200 | |
| 1250 | |
| Auctioneer: | She is sold. Those who have bid successfully have done well with their purchases and those who have not bought as yet, there is still more to come but now you will have to prepare to see the bottom of your purse. |
| Voices: | Is there more? There is a wonder to come I have been told. There is indeed. I have seen her. So have I. You had better breathe deeply now for you will soon see a woman that will stop your breath. |
| Auctioneer: | Patience. You will soon see that the wait was worth it. |
| Voices: | Now I am intrigued. I hope I have enough left to buy this new one. |