_] Is the merriment well under way? On guard!
THE GOLDEN PADUA COCK
[_Nodding his plume._] Gentlemen, engage!
VOICES
[_Amid storms of laughter._] Funny! Side-splitting! Was anything ever so
droll? I shall die laughing!
THE BLACKBIRD
The old Gallic love of a joke is not dead!
A CHICKEN
He sings light into the sky!
A DUCK
The Sun gets up to hear him!
CHANTECLER
[_Avoiding the blows which the_ WHITE PILE _is beginning to aim at
him._] Yes, it is I who give you back the Day!
A CHICK
And a jolly fine day it is!
CHANTECLER
[_While parrying and attacking._] The crowing of other Cocks, able
neither to make nor mar, is no better nor worse than sonorous sneezing!
Mine--[_He is wounded._]
A VOICE
Biff! In the neck!
CHANTECLER
--mine makes--[_He is again wounded._]
THE TURKEY
Insufferable self-sufficiency!
CHANTECLER
--the light--[_Again he is struck._]
A VOICE
Biff! On the neb!
CHANTECLER
--the light appear!
A VOICE
Biff! In the eye!
CHANTECLER
[_Blinded with blood._] Yes, the light!
A VOICE
[_Sneering._] Better have let sleeping darkness lie!
CHANTECLER
[_Automatically repeating beneath his adversary's blows._] It is I who
make the dawn appear!
PATOU
[_Barking._] Aye! Aye! Aye!
THE PHEASANT-HEN
[_Sobbing._] Stand up to him, darling! Oh, hit back! Hit back!
A CHICK
Fellows, a nickname for the dawn!
ALL
Yes! Yes!
[_The_ WHITE PILE _hurls himself upon_ CHANTECLER.
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