ARTHUR:
How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who’s castle is that?
WOMAN:
King of the who?
ARTHUR:
The Britons.
WOMAN:
Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR:
Well, we all are. We are all Britons, and I am your king.
WOMAN:
I didn’t know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
DENNIS:
You’re fooling yourself. We’re living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes–
WOMAN:
Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.
DENNIS:
That’s what it’s all about. If only people would hear of–
ARTHUR:
Please! Please, good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?
WOMAN:
No one lives there.
ARTHUR:
Then who is your lord?
WOMAN:
We don’t have a lord.
ARTHUR:
What?
DENNIS:
I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week,…
ARTHUR:
Yes.
DENNIS:
…but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting…
ARTHUR:
Yes, I see.
DENNIS:
…by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,…
ARTHUR:
Be quiet!
DENNIS:
…but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major–
ARTHUR:
Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN:
Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.
ARTHUR:
I am your king!
WOMAN:
Well, I didn’t vote for you.
ARTHUR:
You don’t vote for kings.
WOMAN:
Well, how did you become King, then?
ARTHUR:
The Lady of the Lake,…
[angels sing]
…her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.
[singing stops]
That is why I am your king!
DENNIS:
Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR:
Be quiet!
DENNIS:
Well, but you can’t expect to wield supreme executive power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR:
Shut up!