Aesop and Delicious Figs

Today, we will look at a play script in PSE. This play tells about Aesop the storyteller of Aesop's Tales.


Aesop and Delicious Figs

[Prelude]
    Aesop is a slave.
His master is a rich land owner. He has many slaves and a butler, Agathopus, to look after his house and slaves.

Aesop works in the field.
His master believes that Aesop can’t do anything else.

Moreover, Aesop looks ugly and ungainly.
So Aesop is put to work in the fields to keep out of his master’s sight.

[Scene 1]
    One day, the master visits his land.
A peasant brings him some figs.
He tries a little.
They are so delicious.
He orders his butler, "Agathopus, keep the figs carefully and bring them to me after my bath."

[Scene 2]   
    Aesop happens to come up to the house.
Agathopus seizes the opportunity to eat the figs then blames Aesop for it.
He thinks that Aesop will not be able to clear his name.

Agathopus reports, "Master, the figs are gone. Someone has stolen them. I see Aesop in the house. He should not be in the house. He should be in the fields."

The master is so angry he orders Aesop to be punished at once.

[Scene 3]
    Aesop is very frightened indeed.
He throws himself at his master’s feet and begs him to delay his punishment, to give him time to prove his innocence.

[Scene 4]
    Aesop fetches some water and drinks it in front of his master.
He then puts his fingers down his throat.
He throws up only water.

Aesop then looks at Agathopus and his friends.

[Scene 5]
    The master orders Agathopus and his friends do the same.
But they throw up the figs in their stomach.
 
The master then realizes that Aesop’s accusers must have eaten the figs themselves.

He orders them to be punished, for their greed and malice.

[Curtain down, Lights out]


Source: Rewritten in PSE as a short play from
ครูอ้อย แซ่เฮ เล่านิทานภาษาอังกฤษ..อิสป ตอนที่ 1 ตามมาตรฐานตัวชี้วัด http://www.gotoknow.org/blogs/posts/442272 and comments therein.

vocabulary:

ungainly : [adv] awkward, clumsily, abnormally
a butler : [n] a person in charge of housekeeping
a fig : [n] a sweet small fruit from fig tree
throw himself at : [v] drop quickly
to delay ดีเล: [v] to put off; to defer; to procrastinate; to prolong the time of or before. acting
to throw up : [v] to vomit, to puke 
to realize : [v] to come to know or to understand
malice มาลีสื : [n]  wicked or mischievous intention

Questions:

1) How did Aesop become a slave?
2) Was the master fair and just in the story?
3) If you were the butler, what would you do with the figs?
4) How would you treat a disabled person?
5) If you were a big farm owner, how would you treat your farm workers?