A sixteenth-century city street. Alabaster Wren walks on the sunny side; Anthony Dull stands in a shadowed doorway. As Wren passes, Dull calls out and the two men have the following dialogue:
Dull: Hi, mister Wren! Stop a moment, please!
Wren: Mister Dull, how is life? Isn’t this sunshine lovely?
Dull: Plague; who can enjoy sunshine with this plague killing the city?
Wren: Who can think of plague in this weather?
Dull: Do you have the plague? Have you taken a plague test today?
Wren: No, and no! Good day to you!
Wren turns to walk up the street.
Dull: Stop! It isn’t a good day if you are walking around outside in MY city without showing me your papers! Or taking a plague test!
Wren: I’m not sick; besides, this sunshine kills all bad vapors, moods, and plagues by virtue of its delicious golden warmth: too bad you don’t live on the sunny side!
Dull: Don’t you know you have to take a plague test before you come out of your house? And, you have to take a plague test every third and seventh day? Who are you, man? Who do you think you are?
Wren: I’m a free citizen on a walk.
Dull: I tested myself today; and, here, look, here are my papers showing that I’ve taken the test and it was negative. I’m the only one who can go on a walk, okay? You have to stay at home unless you have papers.
Wren: I don’t have papers; as I said, I’m not sick.
Dull: You don’t have papers! He doesn’t have papers! Can you believe it! Are you an idiot, man? Don’t you know that the only way to stop the plague is by testing and proving to one another, again and again, that we each don’t have the plague? If you can’t prove you don’t have the plague, you stay in your house! That’s only logical!
Wren: No, it isn’t. This is a public space free for all healthy citizens to enter at will; upon what authority are you demanding to see papers? Or demanding when I come or go? Are you a doctor suddenly that you can assess my health?
Dull: I have a right to live in a safe and healthy city.
Wren: By all means do so!
Dull: I can’t! Where your freedom ends is where my freedom begins.
Wren: That is an incorrect definition of freedom.
Dull: No papers and he is a walking dictionary, too! The arrogance of this man!
Wren: Freedom is where we both obey the same law, and having obeyed the same law, we are both equally free to live our lives. There is no freedom without law.
Dull: Okay, well, the law says you must show me your plague papers, or you must stay inside of your house.
Wren: No, the law does not say this; the law clearly says that if anyone is sick, he must quarantine for two weeks in his house. This is an ancient and time-honored law that stops plagues. I am not sick, so I am on a walk in the sunlight.
Dull: But maybe you are sick!
Wren: I’m not sick!
Dull: But you didn’t prove it to me!
Wren: Look at me! Do I look healthy?
Dull: That doesn’t prove anything!
Wren: And that’s the beauty of freedom: I don’t have to prove anything to you.
Anthony Dull ties a new approach:
Dull: Please, mister Wren, look, I have to work next week, and I can’t get the plague. I have to be negative in order to work, you see. If you are positive and you infect me with the plague, I won’t be able to eat next month. So, you see, you are a health threat to me! Please, don’t come into the street without first taking a test.
Wren: Why aren’t you quarantining? If you are so concerned about remaining clean of the plague, why aren’t you quarantining in your home or wearing a mobile quarantine garment?
Dull: A mobile quarantine garment?
Wren: A mask.
Dull: I’m negative: it is YOU who should wear a mask and stay in your home.
Wren: No, the law clearly states that to avoid the plague, you must quarantine. There is no other rule. If you don’t want the plague, stay away from people for two weeks and you will succeed.
Dull: I don’t want to stay in my house for two weeks! Especially when YOU are the threat to my health!
Wren: I am not a threat; I am healthy.
Dull: No, no, no; you have not proved that you are healthy! You must first prove you are healthy to me and then you can go on your walk.
Wren: But then our city would be ruled by tyranny, a tyranny based on medical Fascism instead of democratic ideals of freedom of expression, movement, and thought.
Dull: As long as I’m safe, I don’t care the cost.
Wren: No, as long as you FEEL safe.
Dull: I don’t care, I just want you to leave.
Wren: Well, the longer I stand here talking, the less I want to live in this city!
Dull: I’m pleased to hear you say this for I, too, desire less of you in this city.
Wren: The trouble is this: if I leave, where will I go? Where on earth can I escape the tyranny of medical Fascism when all the lands are plague ridden?
Dull: Go to the desert; go to the moors; just go; go to the wastes where no one—
At this moment, a window above Dull’s head opens and a woman says “Look out below!” and she empties a large chamberpot into the street. Anthony Dull steps inside of his house just in time and closes the door. Alabaster Wren covers his nose with a lavender scented handkerchief, turns, and walks out of the city.
The end.