LUDOVICO: I've come a great distance and need refreshment, of any source.

MERCHANT: This cart full is better, sir. 

LUDOVICO: Oh, thank you. Slakes very well, very good.

MERCHANT: Slake the mental thirst as well as the physical. I'll play a soothing ditty for you.

LUDOVICO: Interested in a sale, I can tell. Play, it's all the same to me.

MERCHANT: You look rather careworn. Another cup for you? 

LUDOVICO: Yes, I am careworn. But fizzing water will not abate this wretched condition. Would you please tell me where, in this of all cities, the capital of the empire, I might find any wine?

MERCHANT: Wine? Wine? Ah, what you speak of is forbidden. A hundred lashes should accompany every letter of that word.

MERCHANT: Now I will play a fast concerto by Tomadeus, no charge! (accordion into crowd noise)

CROWD: HEAR, HEAR! He no longer wears a general's sash! He no longer carries the silver sword! The soldiers no longer salute him!

LUDOVICO: This can't be true!

CROWD: It is! Sopron has been removed from his vital command! Now the frontier will collapse! The barbarian savage will envelop us in eternal night. It's the emperor's fault! He has gone mad! First he drains wine from our goblets and now he allows savages to invade the empire! He is mad! We must----LOOK! It's general Sopron coming here!

SOPRON: Citizens, it is dangerous to remain here in this city square. A legion of troops has been sent here to quell any thought of revolt. 

CROWD: The emperor is deranged! He would massacre his own people! We must flee... flee... flee... flee... 

SOPRON: Sir, you are not of the city rabble. You did not at once take to your heels at the brazen falsehood.

LUDOVICO: I have come a great distance and will not be deterred.

SOPRON: You seem determined to find a valuable treasure.

LUDOVICO: I have come in search of wine and I have vowed I will find it.

SOPRON: You are most familiar... yes, you are Ludovico, son of the finest vintner of the empire. I remember well the great wines from your estate.

LUDOVICO: This craven mob screams wine's illegality! 

SOPRON: Yes, it's true. The emperor has thus decreed.

LUDOVICO: You mean the emperor's the author of the wine blight? Why did he do such a wicked deed?

SOPRON: His reason is lost in a deep imperial fog. I can't understand it, he was once a great lover of wine. This city was once a fountain of the viny water. But on a sudden came that horrid wine edict. I was commanded to plow under every last vine and cast every last bottle into the sea.  

LUDOVICO: Ughh! It rises, in my throat...

SOPRON: Oh, it does? In your throat? What is that?

LUDOVICO: Nothing. The mob also screamed your position is vital. What could you have done to be removed from command?

SOPRON: It was by one woman's will, the regent Oranda. I bested her in noble horsemanship in conditions most staged. Because of that, they took away my sword and boots, and ordered me to dress as a city latrine keeper. 

LUDOVICO: Did this Oranda also decree the wine edict?

SOPRON: Yes, I fear the mob's rage was misdirected.

LUDOVICO: This womanly beast must be cast out of the palace! 

SOPRON: She has planned more. Tonight at a grand ball, before all the nobles, I am to be denounced and demoted by imperial decree.

LUDOVICO: To make appear more vile in the people's eyes? 

SOPRON: Correct again... Hmm. Ludovico... I must get him to go with me...

LUDOVICO: You mumble, sir.

SOPRON: Sorrow garbles my speech. That's all.

LUDOVICO: Again, you mumble speech.

SOPRON: A melancholy bug has bit. I am tormented by... unless. Ludovico, if you would be so kind as to go with me to the palace? Beside me, perhaps a better case could be made before the emperor about this evil that pollutes the empire...

LUDOVICO: YES. To restore wine to every cup and to depose that viper that slithers around the throne!

SOPRON: His throne will cause great turmoil and hassle.

LUDOVICO: If you mumble once again---

SOPRON: Excitement oppresses my speech. Please, at once, to the palace.

BOTH: TO THE PALACE!