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Henley is best known for this quote from Invictus:
"I am the master of my fate,
I am the of captain my soul."
He also published Hardy, Kipling and Wells when they were unknowns.
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The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson
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In a rare fit of editorial prerogative, I have added Henley's
poem "Invictus" as a prefatory note. . .Michael S. Hart
INVICTUS
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I think whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
The Plays of W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson
Contents
Deacon Brodie
Beau Austin
Admiral Guinea
Robert Macaire
-------------------------------------------------------------
Play: DEACON BRODIE - OR THE DOUBLE LIFE. A MELODRAMA IN FIVE
ACTS AND EIGHT TABLEAUX
PERSONS REPRESENTED
WILLIAM BRODIE, Deacon of the Wrights, Housebreaker and Master
Carpenter.
OLD BRODIE, the Deacon's Father.
WILLIAM LAWSON, Procurator-Fiscal, the Deacon's Uncle.
ANDREW AINSLIE, }
HUMPHREY MOORE } Robbers in the Deacon's gang.
GEORGE SMITH, } C
APTAIN RIVERS, an English Highwayman.
HUNT, a Bow Street Runner.
A DOCTOR.
WALTER LESLIE.
MARY BRODIE, the Deacon's Sister.
JEAN WATT, the Deacon's Mistress.
VAGABONDS, OFFICERS OF THE WATCH, MEN-SERVANTS.
The Scene is laid in Edinburgh. The Time is towards the close of
the Eighteenth Century. The Action, some fifty hours long,
begins at eight p.m. on Saturday and ends before midnight on
Monday.
NOTE. - PASSAGES SUGGESTED FOR OMISSION IN REPRESENTATION ARE
ENCLOSED IN SQUARE BRACKETS, THUS [ ].
SYNOPSIS OF ACTS AND TABLEAUX
ACT I.
TABLEAU I. The Double Life.
TABLEAU II. Hunt the Runner.
TABLEAU III. Mother Clarke's.
ACT II.
TABLEAU IV. Evil and Good.
ACT III.
TABLEAU V. King's Evidence. TABLEAU VI. Unmasked.
ACT IV.
TABLEAU VII. The Robbery.
ACT V.
TABLEAU VIII. The Open Door.
LONDON: PRINCE'S THEATRE 2D JULY 1884
DEACON BRODIE, MR. E. J. HENLEY.
WALTER LESLIE, MR. CHARLES CARTWRIGHT.
WILLIAM LAWSON, MR. JOHN MACLEAN.
ANDREW AINSLIE, MR. FRED DESMOND.
HUMPHREY MOORE, MR. EDMUND GRACE.
GEORGE SMITH, MR. JULIAN CROSS.
HUNT, MR. HUBERT AKHURST.
OLD BRODIE, MR. A. KNIGHT.
CAPTAIN RIVERS, MR. BRANDON THOMAS.
MARY BRODIE, MISS LIZZIE WILLIAMS.
JEAN WATT, MISS MINNIE BELL.
MONTREAL 26TH SEPTEMBER 1887
DEACON BRODIE, MR. E. J. HENLEY.
WALTER LESLIE, MR. GRAHAM STEWART.
WILLIAM LAWSON, MR. EDMUND LYONS.
ANDREW AINSLIE, MR. FRED DESMOND.
HUMPHREY MOORE, MR. EDMUND GRACE.
GEORGE SMITH, MR. HORATIO SAKER.
HUNT, MR. HENRY VERNON.
CAPTAIN RIVERS, MR. BRUCE PHILIPS.
MARY BRODIE, MISS ANNIE ROBE.
JEAN WATT, MISS CARRIE COOTE.
ACT I.
TABLEAU I. THE DOUBLE LIFE.
The Stage represents a room in the Deacon's house, furnished
partly as a sitting-, partly as a bed-room, in the style of an
easy burgess of about 1780. C., a door; L. C., a second and
smaller door; R. C., practicable window; L., alcove, supposed to
contain bed; at the back, a clothes-press and a corner cupboard
containing bottles, etc. MARY BRODIE at needlework; OLD BRODIE,
a paralytic, in wheeled chair, at the fireside, L.
SCENE I
To these LESLIE, C.
LESLIE. May I come in, Mary?
MARY. Why not?
LESLIE. I scarce knew where to find you.
MARY. The dad and I must have a corner, must we not? So when my
brother's friends are in the parlour he allows us to sit in his
room. 'Tis a great favour, I can tell you; the place is sacred.
LESLIE. Are you sure that 'sacred' is strong enough?
MARY. You are satirical!
LESLIE. I? And with regard to the Deacon? Believe me, I am not
so ill-advised. You have trained me well, and I feel by him as
solemnly as a true-born Brodie.
MARY. And now you are impertinent! Do you mean to go any
further? We are a fighting race, we Brodies. Oh, you may laugh,
sir! But 'tis no child's play to jest us on our Deacon, or, for
that matter, on our Deacon's chamber either. It was his father's
before him: he works in it by day and sleeps in it by night; and
scarce anything it contains but is the labour of his hands. Do
you see this table, Walter? He made it while he was yet a
'prentice. I remember how I used to sit and watch him at his
work. It would be grand, I thought, to be able to do as he did,
and handle edge-tools without cutting my fingers, and getting my
ears pulled for a meddlesome minx! He used to give me his mallet
to keep and his nails to hold; and didn't I fly when he called
for them! and wasn't I proud to be ordered about with them! And
then, you know, there is the tall cabinet yonder; that it was
that proved him the first of Edinburgh joiners, and worthy to be
their Deacon and their head. And the father's chair, and the
sister's workbox, and the dear dead mother's footstool - what are
they all but proofs of the Deacon's skill, and tokens of the
Deacon's care for those about him?
LESLIE. I am all penitence. Forgive me this last time, and I
promise you I never will again.
MARY. Candidly, now, do you think you deserve forgiveness?
LESLIE. Candidly, I do not.
MARY. Then I suppose you must have it. What have you done with
Willie and my uncle?
LESLIE. I left them talking deeply. The dear old Procurator has
not much thought just now for anything but those mysterious
burglaries -
MARY. I know! -
LESLIE. Still, all of him that is not magistrate and official is
politician and citizen; and he has been striving his hardest to
undermine the Deacon's principles, and win the Deacon's vote and
interest.
MARY. They are worth having, are they not?
LESLIE. The Procurator seems to think that having them makes the
difference between winning and losing.
MARY. Did he say so? You may rely upon it that he knows. There
are not many in Edinburgh who can match with our Will.
LESLIE. There shall be as many as you please, and not one more.
MARY. How I should like to have heard you! What did uncle say?
Did he speak of the Town Council again? Did he tell Will what a
wonderful Bailie he would make? O why did you come away?
LESLIE. I could not pretend to listen any longer. The election
is months off yet; and if it were not - if it were tramping
upstairs this moment - drums, flags, cockades, guineas,
candidates, and all! - how should I care for it? What are Whig
and Tory to me?
MARY. O fie on you! It is for every man to concern himself in
the common weal. Mr. Leslie - Leslie of the Craig! - should know
that much at least.
LESLIE. And be a politician like the Deacon? All in good time,
but not now. I hearkened while I could, and when I could no more
I slipped out and followed my heart. I hoped I should be
welcome.
MARY. I suppose you mean to be unkind.
LESLIE. Tit for tat. Did you not ask me why I came away? And
is it usual for a young lady to say 'Mr.' to the man she means to
marry?
MARY. That is for the young lady to decide, sir.
LESLIE. And against that judgment there shall be no appeal?
MARY. O, if you mean to argue! -
LESLIE. I do not mean to argue. I am content to love and be
loved. I think I am the happiest man in the world.
MARY. That is as it should be; for I am the happiest girl.
LESLIE. Why not say the happiest wife? I have your word, and
you have mine. Is not that enough?
MARY. Have you so soon forgotten? Did I not tell you how it
must be as my brother wills? I can do only as he bids me.
LESLIE. Then you have not spoken as you promised?
MARY. I have been too happy to speak.
LESLIE. I am his friend. Precious as you are, he will trust you
to me. He has but to know how I love you, Mary, and how your
life is all in your love of me, to give us his blessing with a
full heart.
MARY. I am sure of him. It is that which makes my happiness
complete. Even to our marriage I should find it hard to say
'Yes' when he said 'No.'
LESLIE. Your father is trying to speak. I'll wager he echoes
you.
MARY (TO OLD BRODIE). My poor dearie! Do you want to say
anything to me? No? Is it to Mr. Leslie, then?
LESLIE. I am listening, Mr. Brodie.
MARY. What is it, daddie?
OLD BRODIE. My son - the Deacon - Deacon Brodie - the first at
school.
LESLIE. I know it, Mr. Brodie. Was I not the last in the same
class? (TO MARY.) But he seems to have forgotten us.
MARY. O yes! his mind is wellnigh gone. He will sit for hours
as you see him, and never speak nor stir but at the touch of
Will's hand or the sound of Will's name.
LESLIE. It is so good to sit beside you. By and by it will be
always like this. You will not let me speak to the Deacon? You
are fast set upon speaking yourself? I could be so eloquent,
Mary - I would touch him. I cannot tell you how I fear to trust
my happiness to any one else - even to you!
MARY. He must hear of my good fortune from none but me. And
besides, you do not understand. We are not like families, we
Brodies. We are so clannish, we hold so close together.
LESLIE. You Brodies, and your Deacon!
OLD BRODIE. Deacon of his craft, sir - Deacon of the Wrights -
my son! If his mother - his mother - had but lived to see!
MARY. You hear how he runs on. A word about my brother and he
catches it. 'Tis as if he were awake in his poor blind way to
all the Deacon's care for him and all the Deacon's kindness to
me. I believe he only lives in the thought of the Deacon.
There, it is not so long since I was one with him. But indeed I
think we are all Deacon-mad, we Brodies. Are we not, daddie
dear?
BRODIE (WITHOUT, AND ENTERING). You are a mighty magistrate,
Procurator, but you seem to have met your match.
SCENE II
To these, BRODIE and LAWSON.
MARY (CURTSEYING). So, uncle! you have honoured us at last.
LAWSON. QUAM PRIMUM, my dear, QUAM PRIMUM.
BRODIE. Well, father, do you know me? (HE SITS BESIDE HIS
FATHER AND TAKES HIS HAND.)
[OLD BRODIE. William - ay - Deacon. Greater man - than - his
father.
BRODIE. You see, Procurator, the news is as fresh to him as it
was five years ago. He was struck down before he got the
Deaconship, and lives his lost life in mine.
LAWSON. Ay, I mind. He was aye ettling after a bit handle to
his name. He was kind of hurt when first they made me
Procurator.]
MARY. And what have you been talking of?
LAWSON. Just o' thae robberies, Mary. Baith as a burgher and a
Crown offeecial, I tak' the maist absorbing interest in thae
robberies.
LESLIE. Egad, Procurator, and so do I.
BRODIE (WITH A QUICK LOOK AT LESLIE). A dilettante interest,
doubtless! See what it is to be idle.
LESLIE. Faith, Brodie, I hardly know how to style it.
BRODIE. At any rate, 'tis not the interest of a victim, or we
should certainly have known of it before; nor a practical tool-
mongering interest, like my own; nor an interest professional and
official, like the Procurator's. You can answer for that, I
suppose?
LESLIE. I think I can; if for no more. It's an interest of my
own, you see, and is best described as indescribable, and of no
manner of moment to anybody. [It will take no hurt if we put off
its discussion till a month of Sundays.]
BRODIE. You are more fortunate than you deserve. What do you
say, Procurator?
LAWSON. Ay is he! There is no a house in Edinburgh safe. The
law is clean helpless, clean helpless! A week syne it was auld
Andra Simpson's in the Lawnmarket. Then, naething would set the
catamarans but to forgather privily wi' the Provost's ain butler,
and tak' unto themselves the Provost's ain plate. And the day,
information was laid before me offeecially that the limmers had
made infraction, VI ET CLAM, into Leddy Mar'get Dalziel's, and
left her leddyship wi' no sae muckle's a spune to sup her
parritch wi'. It's unbelievable, it's awful, it's
anti-christian!
MARY. If you only knew them, uncle, what an example you would
make! But tell me, is it not strange that men should dare such
things, in the midst of a city, and nothing, nothing be known of
them - nothing at all?
LESLIE. Little, indeed! But we do know that there are several
in the gang, and that one at least is an unrivalled workman.
LAWSON. Ye're right, sir; ye're vera right, Mr. Leslie. It had
been deponed to me offeecially that no a tradesman - no the
Deacon here himsel' - could have made a cleaner job wi' Andra
Simpson's shutters. And as for the lock o' the bank - but that's
an auld sang.
BRODIE. I think you believe too much, Procurator. Rumour's an
ignorant jade, I tell you. I've had occasion to see some little
of their handiwork - broken cabinets, broken shutters, broken
doors - and I find them bunglers. Why, I could do it better
myself!
LESLIE. Gad, Brodie, you and I might go into partnership. I
back myself to watch outside, and I suppose you could do the work
of skill within?
BRODIE. An opposition company? Leslie, your mind is full of
good things. Suppose we begin to-night, and give the
Procurator's house the honours of our innocence?
MARY. You could do anything, you two!
LAWSON. Onyway, Deacon, ye'd put your ill-gotten gains to a
right use; they might come by the wind but they wouldna gang wi'
the water; and that's aye A SOLATIUM, as we say. If I am to be
robbit, I would like to be robbit wi' decent folk; and no think
o' my bonnie clean siller dirling among jads and dicers. [Faith,
William, the mair I think on't, the mair I'm o' Mr. Leslie's
mind. Come the night, or come the morn, and I'se gie ye my free
permission, and lend ye a hand in at the window forbye!
BRODIE. Come, come, Procurator, lead not our poor clay into
temptation. (LESLIE AND MARY TALK APART.)
LAWSON. I'm no muckle afraid for your puir clay, as ye ca't.]
But hark i' your ear: ye're likely, joking apart, to be gey and
sune in partnership wi' Mr. Leslie. He and Mary are gey and
pack, a body can see that.
[BRODIE. 'Daffin' and want o' wit' - you know the rest.
LAWSON. VIDI, SCIVI, ET AUDIVI, as we say in a Sasine, William.]
Man, because my wig's pouthered do ye think I havena a green
heart? I was aince a lad mysel', and I ken fine by the glint o'
the e'e when a lad's fain and a lassie's willing. And, man, it's
the town's talk; COMMUNIS ERROR FIT JUS, ye ken.
[OLD BRODIE. Oh!
LAWSON. See, ye're hurting your faither's hand.
BRODIE. Dear dad, it is not good to have an ill-tempered son.
LAWSON. What the deevil ails ye at the match? 'Od, man, he has
a nice bit divot o' Fife corn-land, I can tell ye, and some
Bordeaux wine in his cellar! But I needna speak o' the Bordeaux;
ye'll ken the smack o't as weel's I do mysel'; onyway it's grand
wine. TANTUM ET TALE. I tell ye the PRO'S, find you the CON.'S,
if ye're able.]
BRODIE. [I am sorry, Procurator, but I must be short with you.]
You are talking in the air, as lawyers will. I prefer to drop
the subject [and it will displease me if you return to it in my
hearing].
LESLIE. At four o'clock to-morrow? At my house? (TO MARY).
MARY. As soon as church is done. (EXIT MARY.)
LAWSON. Ye needna be sae high and mighty, onyway.
BRODIE. I ask your pardon, Procurator. But we Brodies - you
know our failings! [A bad temper and a humour of privacy.]
LAWSON. Weel, I maun be about my business. But I could tak' a
doch-an-dorach, William; SUPERFLUA NON NOCENT, as we say; an
extra dram hurts naebody, Mr. Leslie.
BRODIE (WITH BOTTLE AND GLASSES). Here's your old friend,
Procurator. Help yourself, Leslie. Oh no, thank you, not any
for me. You strong people have the advantage of me there. With
my attacks, you know, I must always live a bit of a hermit's
life.
LAWSON. 'Od, man, that's fine; that's health o' mind and body.
Mr. Leslie, here's to you, sir. 'Od, it's harder to end than to
begin wi' stuff like that.
SCENE III
To these, SMITH and JEAN, C.
SMITH. Is the king of the castle in, please?
LAWSON (ASIDE). Lord's sake, it's Smith!
BRODIE (TO SMITH). I beg your pardon?
SMITH. I beg yours, sir. If you please, sir, is Mr. Brodie at
home, sir?
BRODIE. What do you want with him, my man?
SMITH. I've a message for him, sir, a job of work, sir!
BRODIE (TO SMITH; REFERRING TO JEAN). And who is this?
JEAN. I am here for the Procurator, about my rent. There's nae
offence, I hope, sir.
LAWSON. It's just an honest wife I let a flat to in Libberton's
Wynd. It'll be for the rent?
JEAN. Just that, sir.
LAWSON. Weel, ye can just bide here a wee, and I'll step down
the road to my office wi' ye. (EXEUNT BRODIE, LAWSON, LESLIE,
C.)
SCENE IV
SMITH, JEAN WATT, OLD BRODIE.
SMITH (BOWING THEM OUT). Your humble and most devoted servant,
George Smith, Esquire. And so this is the garding, is it? And
this is the style of horticulture? Ha, it is! (AT THE MIRROR.)
In that case George's mother bids him bind his hair. (KISSES HIS
HAND.) My dearest Duchess, - (TO JEAN.) I say, Jean, there's a
good deal of difference between this sort of thing and the way we
does it in Libberton's Wynd.
JEAN. I daursay. And what wad ye expeck?
SMITH. Ah, Jean, if you'd cast affection's glance on this poor
but honest soger! George Lord S. is not the nobleman to cut the
object of his flame before the giddy throng; nor to keep her
boxed up in an old mouse-trap, while he himself is revelling in
purple splendours like these. He didn't know you, Jean: he was
afraid to. Do you call that a man? Try a man that is.
JEAN. Geordie Smith, ye ken vera weel I'll tak' nane o' that
sort of talk frae you. And what kind o' a man are you to even
yoursel' to the likes o' him? He's a gentleman.
SMITH. Ah, ain't he just! And don't he live up to it? I say,
Jean, feel of this chair.
JEAN. My! look at yon bed!
SMITH. The carpet too! Axminster, by the bones of Oliver
Cromwell!
JEAN. What a expense!
SMITH. Hey, brandy! The deuce of the grape! Have a toothful,
Mrs. Watt. [(SINGS) -
'Says Bacchus to Venus,
There's brandy between us,
And the cradle of love is the bowl, the bowl!']
JEAN. Nane for me, I thank ye, Mr. Smith.
SMITH. What brings the man from stuff like this to rotgut and
spittoons at Mother Clarke's; but ah, George, you was born for a
higher spear! And so was you, Mrs. Watt, though I say it that
shouldn't. (SEEING OLD BRODIE FOR THE FIRST TIME.) Hullo! it's
a man!
JEAN. Thonder in the chair. (THEY GO TO LOOK AT HIM, THEIR
BACKS TO THE DOOR.)
GEORGE. Is he alive?
JEAN. I think there's something wrong with him.
GEORGE. And how was you to-morrow, my valued old gentleman, eh?
JEAN. Dinna mak' a mock o' him, Geordie.
OLD BRODIE. My son - the Deacon - Deacon of his trade.
JEAN. He'll be his feyther. (HUNT APPEARS AT DOOR C., AND
STANDS LOOKING ON.)
SMITH. The Deacon's old man! Well, he couldn't expect to have
his quiver full of sich, could he, Jean? (TO OLD BRODIE.) Ah,
my Christian soldier, if you had, the world would have been more
varigated. Mrs. Deakin (TO JEAN), let me introduce you to your
dear papa.
JEAN. Think shame to yoursel'! This is the Deacon's house; you
and me shouldna be here by rights; and if we are, it's the least
we can do to behave dacent. [This is no the way ye'll mak' me
like ye.]
SMITH. All right, Duchess. Don't be angry.
SCENE V
To these, HUNT, C. (He steals down, and claps each one suddenly
on the shoulder.)
HUNT. Is there a gentleman here by the name of Mr. Procurator-
Fiscal?
SMITH (PULLING HIMSELF TOGETHER). D-n it, Jerry, what do you
mean by startling an old customer like that?
HUNT. What, my brave un'? You're the very party I was looking
for!
SMITH. There's nothing out against me this time?
HUNT. I'll take odds there is. But it ain't in my hands. (TO
OLD BRODIE.) You'll excuse me, old genelman?
SMITH. Ah, well, if it's all in the way of friendship! . . . I
say, Jean, [you and me had best be on the toddle.] We shall be
late for church.
HUNT. Lady, George?
SMITH. It's a - yes, it's a lady. Come along, Jean.
HUNT. A Mrs. Deacon, I believe? [That was the name, I think?]
Won't Mrs. Deacon let me have a queer at her phiz?
JEAN (UNMUFFLING). I've naething to be ashamed of. My name's
Mistress Watt; I'm weel kennt at the Wynd heid; there's naething
again me.
HUNT. No, to be sure, there ain't; and why clap on the blinkers,
my dear? You that has a face like a rose, and with a cove like
Jerry Hunt that might be your born father? [But all this don't
tell me about Mr. Procurator-Fiscal.]
GEORGE (IN AN AGONY). Jean, Jean, we shall be late. (GOING WITH
ATTEMPTED SWAGGER.) Well, ta-ta, Jerry.
SCENE VI
To these, C, BRODIE and LAWSON (greatcoat, muffler, lantern).
LAWSON (FROM THE DOOR). Come your ways, Mistress Watt.
JEAN. That's the Fiscal himsel'.
HUNT. Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, I believe?
LAWSON. That's me. Who'll you be?
HUNT. Hunt the Runner, sir; Hunt from Bow Street; English
warrant.
LAWSON. There's a place for a' things, officer. Come your ways
to my office, with me and this guid wife.
BRODIE (ASIDE TO JEAN, AS SHE PASSES WITH A CURTSEY). How dare
you be here? (ALOUD TO SMITH.) Wait you here, my man.
SMITH. If you please, sir. (BRODIE GOES OUT, C.)
SCENE VII
BRODIE, SMITH.
BRODIE. What the devil brings you here?
SMITH. CONfound it, Deakin! Not rusty?
[BRODIE. And not you only: Jean too! Are you mad?
SMITH. Why, you don't mean to say, Deakin, that you have been
stodged by G. Smith, Esquire? Plummy old George?]
BRODIE. There was my uncle the Procurator -
SMITH. The Fiscal? He don't count.
BRODIE. What d'ye mean?
SMITH. Well, Deakin, since Fiscal Lawson's Nunkey Lawson, and
it's all in the family way, I don't mind telling you that Nunkey
Lawson's a customer of George's. We give Nunkey Lawson a good
deal of brandy - G. S. and Co.'s celebrated Nantz.
BRODIE. What! does he buy that smuggled trash of yours?
SMITH. Well, we don't call it smuggled in the trade, Deakin.
It's a wink, and King George's picter between G. S. and the
Nunks.
BRODIE. Gad! that's worth knowing. O Procurator, Procurator, is
there no such thing as virtue? [ALLONS! It's enough to cure a
man of vice for this world and the other.] But hark you hither,
Smith; this is all damned well in its way, but it don't explain
what brings you here.
SMITH. I've trapped a pigeon for you.
BRODIE. Can't you pluck him yourself?
SMITH. Not me. He's too flash in the feather for a simple
nobleman like George Lord Smith. It's the great Capting
Starlight, fresh in from York. [He's exercised his noble art all
the way from here to London. 'Stand and deliver, stap my
vitals!'] And the north road is no bad lay, Deakin.
BRODIE. Flush?
SMITH (MIMICKING). 'The graziers, split me! A mail, stap my
vitals! and seven demned farmers, by the Lard - '
BRODIE. By Gad!
SMITH. Good for trade, ain't it? And we thought, Deakin, the
Badger and me, that coins being ever on the vanish, and you not
over sweet on them there lovely little locks at Leslie's, and
them there bigger and uglier marine stores at the Excise Office .
. .
BRODIE (IMPASSIBLE). Go on.
SMITH. Worse luck! . . . We thought, me and the Badger, you
know, that maybe you'd like to exercise your helbow with our free
and galliant horseman.
BRODIE. The old move, I presume? the double set of dice?
SMITH. That's the rig, Deakin. What you drop on the square you
pick up again on the cross. [Just as you did with G. S. and
Co.'s own agent and correspondent, the Admiral from Nantz.] You
always was a neat hand with the bones, Deakin.
BRODIE. The usual terms, I suppose?
SMITH. The old discount, Deakin. Ten in the pound for you, and
the rest for your jolly companions every one. [THAT'S the way WE
does it!]
BRODIE. Who has the dice?
SMITH. Our mutual friend, the Candleworm.
BRODIE. You mean Ainslie? - We trust that creature too much,
Geordie.
SMITH. He's all right, Marquis. He wouldn't lay a finger on his
own mother. Why, he's no more guile in him than a set of sheep's
trotters.
[BRODIE. You think so? Then see he don't cheat you over the
dice, and give you light for loaded. See to that, George, see to
that; and you may count the Captain as bare as his last grazier.
SMITH. The Black Flag for ever! George'll trot him round to
Mother Clarke's in two twos.] How long'll you be?
BRODIE. The time to lock up and go to bed, and I'll be with you.
Can you find your way out?
SMITH. Bloom on, my Sweet William, in peaceful array. Ta-ta.
SCENE VIII
BRODIE, OLD BRODIE; to whom, MARY
MARY. O Willie, I am glad you did not go with them. I have
something to tell you. If you knew how happy I am, you would
clap your hands, Will. But come, sit you down there, and be my
good big brother, and I will kneel here and take your hand. We
must keep close to dad, and then he will feel happiness in the
air. The poor old love, if we could only tell him! But I
sometimes think his heart has gone to heaven already, and takes a
part in all our joys and sorrows; and it is only his poor body
that remains here, helpless and ignorant. Come, Will, sit you
down, and ask me questions - or guess - that will be better,
guess.
BRODIE. Not to-night, Mary; not to-night. I have other fish to
fry, and they won't wait.
MARY. Not one minute for your sister? One little minute for
your little sister?
BRODIE. Minutes are precious, Mary. I have to work for all of
us, and the clock is always busy. They are waiting for me even
now. Help me with the dad's chair. And then to bed, and dream
happy things. And to-morrow morning I will hear your news - your
good news; it must be good, you look so proud and glad. But
to-night it cannot be.
MARY. I hate your business - I hate all business. To think of
chairs, and tables, and foot-rules, all dead and wooden - and
cold pieces of money with the King's ugly head on them; and here
is your sister, your pretty sister, if you please, with something
to tell, which she would not tell you for the world, and would
give the world to have you guess, and you won't? - Not you! For
business! Fie, Deacon Brodie! But I'm too happy to find fault
with you.
BRODIE. 'And me a Deacon,' as the Procurator would say.
MARY. No such thing, sir! I am not a bit afraid of you - nor a
bit angry neither. Give me a kiss, and promise me hours and
hours to-morrow morning.
BRODIE. All day long to-morrow, if you like.
MARY. Business or none?
BRODIE. Business or none, little sister! I'll make time, I
promise you; and there's another kiss for surety. Come along.
(THEY PROCEED TO PUSH OUT THE CHAIR, L.C.) The wine and wisdom
of this evening have given me one of my headaches, and I'm in
haste for bed. You'll be good, won't you, and see they make no
noise, and let me sleep my fill to-morrow morning till I wake?
MARY. Poor Will! How selfish I must have seemed! You should
have told me sooner, and I wouldn't have worried you. Come
along.
(SHE GOES OUT, PUSHING CHAIR.)
SCENE IX
BRODIE
(HE CLOSES, LOCKS, AND DOUBLE-BOLTS BOTH DOORS)
BRODIE. Now for one of the Deacon's headaches! Rogues all,
rogues all! (GOES TO CLOTHES-PRESS, AND PROCEEDS TO CHANGE HIS
COAT.) On with the new coat and into the new life! Down with
the Deacon and up with the robber! (CHANGING NECK-BAND AND
RUFFLES.) Eh God! how still the house is! There's something in
hypocrisy after all. If we were as good as we seem, what would
the world be? [The city has its vizard on, and we - at night we
are our naked selves. Trysts are keeping, bottles cracking,
knives are stripping; and here is Deacon Brodie flaming forth the
man of men he is!] - How still it is! . . . My father and Mary -
Well! the day for them, the night for me; the grimy cynical night
that makes all cats grey, and all honesties of one complexion.
Shall a man not have HALF a life of his own? - not eight hours
out of twenty-four? [Eight shall he have should he dare the pit
of Tophet.] (TAKES OUT MONEY.) Where's the blunt? I must be
cool to-night, or . . . steady, Deacon, you must win; damn you,
you must! You must win back the dowry that you've stolen, and
marry your sister, and pay your debts, and gull the world a
little longer! (AS HE BLOWS OUT THE LIGHTS.) The Deacon's going
to bed - the poor sick Deacon! ALLONS! (THROWS UP THE WINDOW,
AND LOOKS OUT.) Only the stars to see me! (ADDRESSING THE BED.)
Lie there, Deacon! sleep and be well to-morrow. As for me, I'm a
man once more till morning. (GETS OUT OF THE WINDOW.)
TABLEAU II. HUNT THE RUNNER
THE SCENE REPRESENTS THE PROCURATOR'S OFFICE.
SCENE I
LAWSON, HUNT
[LAWSON (ENTERING). Step your ways in, Officer. (AT WING.) Mr.
Carfrae, give a chair to yon decent wife that cam' in wi' me.
Nae news?
A VOICE WITHOUT. Naething, sir.
LAWSON (SITTING). Weel, Officer, and what can I do for you?]
HUNT. Well, sir, as I was saying, I've an English warrant for
the apprehension of one Jemmy Rivers, ALIAS Captain Starlight,
now at large within your jurisdiction.
LAWSON. That'll be the highwayman?
HUNT. That same, Mr. Procurator-Fiscal. The Captain's given me
a hard hunt of it this time. I dropped on his marks first at
Huntingdon, but he was away North, and I had to up and after him.
I heard of him all along the York road, for he's a light hand on
the pad, has Jemmy, and leaves his mark. [I missed him at York
by four-and-twenty hours, and lost him for as much more. Then I
picked him up again at Carlisle, and we made a race of it for the
Border; but he'd a better nag, and was best up in the road; so I
had to wait till I ran him to earth in Edinburgh here and could
get a new warrant.] So here I am, sir. They told me you were an
active sort of gentleman, and I'm an active man myself. And Sir
John Fielding, Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, he's an active gentleman,
likewise, though he's blind as a himage, and he desired his
compliments to you, [sir, and said that between us he thought
we'd do the trick].
LAWSON. Ay, he'll be a fine man, Sir John. Hand me owre your
papers, Hunt, and you'll have your new warrant QUAM PRIMUM. And
see here, Hunt, ye'll aiblins have a while to yoursel', and an
active man, as ye say ye are, should aye be grinding grist.
We're sair forfeuchen wi' our burglaries. NON CONSTAT DE
PERSONA. We canna get a grip o' the delinquents. Here is the
HUE AND CRY. Ye see there is a guid two hundred pounds for ye.
HUNT. Well, Mr. Procurator-Fiscal [I ain't a rich man, and two
hundred's two hundred. Thereby, sir], I don't mind telling you
I've had a bit of a worry at it already. You see, Mr.
Procurator-Fiscal, I had to look into a ken to-night about the
Captain, and an old cock always likes to be sure of his walk; so
I got one of your Scotch officers - him as was so polite as to
show me round to Mr. Brodie's - to give me full particulars about
the 'ouse, and the flash companions that use it. In his list I
drop on the names of two old lambs of my own; and I put it to
you, Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, as a genleman as knows the world, if
what's a black sheep in London is likely or not to be keeping
school in Edinburgh?
LAWSON. COELUM NON ANIMUM. A just observe.
HUNT. I'll give it a thought, sir, and see if I can't kill two
birds with one stone. Talking of which, Mr. Procurator-Fiscal,
I'd like to have a bit of a confab with that nice young woman as
came to pay her rent.
LAWSON. Hunt, that's a very decent woman.
HUNT. And a very decent woman may have mighty queer pals, Mr.
Procurator-Fiscal. Lord love you, sir, I don't know what the
profession would do without 'em!
LAWSON. Ye're vera richt, Hunt. An active and a watchful
officer. I'll send her in till ye.
SCENE II
HUNT (SOLUS)
Two hundred pounds reward. Curious thing. One burglary after
another, and these Scotch blockheads without a man to show for
it. Jock runs east, and Sawney cuts west; everything's at a
deadlock; and they go on calling themselves thief-catchers! [By
jingo, I'll show them how we do it down South! Well, I've worn
out a good deal of saddle leather over Jemmy Rivers; but here's
for new breeches if you like.] Let's have another queer at the
list. (READS.) 'Humphrey Moore, otherwise Badger; aged forty,
thick-set, dark, close-cropped; has been a prize-fighter; no
apparent occupation.' Badger's an old friend of mine, 'George
Smith, otherwise the Dook, otherwise Jingling Geordie; red-haired
and curly, slight, flash; an old thimble-rig; has been a
stroller; suspected of smuggling; an associate of loose women.'
G. S., Esquire, is another of my flock. 'Andrew Ainslie,
otherwise Slink Ainslie; aged thirty-five; thin, white-faced,
lank-haired; no occupation; has been in trouble for reset of
theft and subornation of youth; might be useful as king's
evidence.' That's an acquaintance to make. 'Jock Hamilton,
otherwise Sweepie,' and so on. ['Willie M'Glashan,' hum - yes,
and so on, and so on.] Ha! here's the man I want. 'William
Brodie, Deacon of the Wrights, about thirty; tall, slim, dark;
wears his own hair; is often at Clarke's, but seemingly for
purposes of amusement only; [is nephew to the Procurator-Fiscal;
is commercially sound, but has of late (it is supposed) been
short of cash; has lost much at cock-fighting;] is proud, clever,
of good repute, but is fond of adventures and secrecy, and keeps
low company.' Now, here's what I ask myself: here's this list
of the family party that drop into Mother Clarke's; it's been in
the hands of these nincompoops for weeks, and I'm the first to
cry Queer Street! Two well-known cracksmen, Badger and the Dook!
why, there's Jack in the Orchard at once. This here topsawyer
work they talk about, of course that's a chalk above Badger and
the Dook. But how about our Mohock-tradesman? 'Purposes of
amusement!' What next? Deacon of the Wrights? and wright in
their damned lingo means a kind of carpenter, I fancy? Why,
damme, it's the man's trade! I'll look you up, Mr. William
Brodie, Deacon of the Wrights. As sure as my name's Jerry Hunt,
I wouldn't take one-ninety-nine in gold for my chance of that
'ere two hundred!
SCENE III
HUNT; to him JEAN
HUNT. Well, my dear, and how about your gentleman friend now?
How about Deacon Brodie?
JEAN. I dinna ken your name, sir, nor yet whae ye are; but this
is a very poor employ for ony gentleman - it sets ill wi' ony
gentleman to cast my shame in my teeth.
HUNT. Lord love you, my dear, that ain't my line of country.
Suppose you're not married and churched a hundred thousand times,
what odds to Jerry Hunt? Jerry, my Pamela Prue, is a cove as
might be your parent; a cove renowned for the ladies' friend [and
he's dead certain to be on your side]. What I can't get over is
this: here's this Mr. Deacon Brodie doing the genteel at home,
and leaving a nice young 'oman like you - as a cove may say - to
take it out on cold potatoes. That's what I can't get over, Mrs.
Watt. I'm a family man myself; and I can't get over it.
JEAN. And whae said that to ye? They lee'd whatever. I get
naething but guid by him; and I had nae richt to gang to his
house; and O, I just ken I've been the ruin of him!
HUNT. Don't you take on, Mrs. Watt. Why, now I hear you piping
up for him, I begin to think a lot of him myself. I like a cove
to be open-handed and free.
JEAN. Weel, sir, and he's a' that.
HUNT. Well, that shows what a wicked world this is. Why, they
told me - . Well, well, 'here's the open 'and and the 'appy
'art.' And how much, my dear - speaking as a family man - now,
how much might your gentleman friend stand you in the course of a
year?
JEAN. What's your wull?
HUNT. That's a mighty fancy shawl, Mrs. Watt. [I should like to
take its next-door neighbour to Mrs. Hunt in King Street, Common
Garden.] What's about the figure?
JEAN. It's paid for. Ye can sweir to that.
HUNT. Yes, my dear, and so is King George's crown; but I don't
know what it cost, and I don't know where the blunt came from to
pay for it.
JEAN. I'm thinking ye'll be a vera clever gentleman.
HUNT. So I am, my dear; and I like you none the worse for being
artful yourself. But between friends now, and speaking as a
family man -
JEAN. I'll be wishin' ye a fine nicht. (CURTSIES AND GOES OUT.)
SCENE IV
HUNT (SOLUS)
HUNT. Ah! that's it, is it? 'My fancy man's my 'ole delight,'
as we say in Bow Street. But which IS the fancy man? George the
Dock, or William the Deacon? One or both? (HE WINKS SOLEMNLY.)
Well, Jerry, my boy, here's your work cut out for you; but if you
took one-nine-five for that 'ere little two hundred you'd be a
disgrace to the profession.
TABLEAU III. MOTHER CLARKE'S
SCENE I
The Stage represents a room of coarse and sordid appearance:
settles, spittoons, etc.; sanded floor. A large table at back,
where AINSLIE, HAMILTON, and others are playing cards and
quarrelling. In front, L. and R. smaller tables, at one of which
are BRODIE and MOORE, drinking. MRS. CLARKE and women serving.
MOORE. You've got the devil's own luck, Deacon, that's what
you've got.
BRODIE. Luck! Don't talk of luck to a man like me! Why not say
I've the devil's own judgment? Men of my stamp don't risk - they
plan, Badger; they plan, and leave chance to such cattle as you
[and Jingling Geordie. They make opportunities before they take
them].
MOORE. You're artful, ain't you?
BRODIE. Should I be here else? When I leave my house I leave an
ALIBI behind me. I'm ill - ill with a jumping headache, and the
fiend's own temper. I'm sick in bed this minute, and they're all
going about with the fear of death on them lest they should
disturb the poor sick Deacon. [My bedroom door is barred and
bolted like the bank - you remember! - and all the while the
window's open, and the Deacon's over the hills and far away.
What do you think of me?]
MOORE. I've seen your sort before, I have.
BRODIE. Not you. As for Leslie's -
MOORE. That was a nick above you.
BRODIE. Ay was it. He wellnigh took me red-handed; and that was
better luck than I deserved. If I'd not been drunk, and in my
tantrums, you'd never have got my hand within a thousand years of
such a job.
MOORE. Why not? You're the King of the Cracksmen, ain't you?
BRODIE. Why not! He asks me why not! Gods, what a brain it is!
Hark ye, Badger, it's all very well to be King of the Cracksmen,
as you call it; but however respectable he may have the
misfortune to be, one's friend is one's friend, and as such must
be severely let alone. What! shall there be no more honour among
thieves than there is honesty among politicians? Why, man, if
under heaven there were but one poor lock unpicked, and that the
lock of one whose claret you've drunk, and who has babbled of
woman across your own mahogany - that lock, sir, were entirely
sacred. Sacred as the Kirk of Scotland; sacred as King George
upon his throne; sacred as the memory of Bruce and Bannockburn.
MOORE. Oh, rot! I ain't a parson, I ain't; I never had no
college education. Business is business. That's wot's the
matter with me.
BRODIE. Ay, so we said when you lost that fight with Newcastle
Jemmy, and sent us all home poor men. That was a nick above YOU.
MOORE. Newcastle Jemmy! Muck: that's my opinion of him: muck.
I'll mop the floor up with him any day, if so be as you or any on
'em 'll make it worth my while. If not, muck! That's my motto.
Wot I now ses is, about that 'ere crib at Leslie's, wos I right,
I ses? or wos I wrong? That's wot's the matter with you.
BRODIE. You are both right and wrong. You dared me to do it. I
was drunk; I was upon my mettle; and I as good as did it. More
than that, black-guardly as it was, I enjoyed the doing. He is
my friend. He had dined with me that day, and I felt like a man
in a story. I climbed his wall, I crawled along his pantry roof,
I mounted his window-sill. That one turn of my wrist - you know
it I - and the casement was open. It was as dark as the pit, and
I thought I'd won my wager, when, phewt! down went something
inside, and down went somebody with it. I made one leap, and was
off like a rocket. It was my poor friend in person; and if he'd
caught and passed me on to the watchman under the window, I
should have felt no viler rogue than I feel just now.
MOORE. I s'pose he knows you pretty well by this time?
BRODIE. 'Tis the worst of friendship. Here, Kirsty, fill these
glasses. Moore, here's better luck - and a more honourable
plant! - next time.
MOORE. Deacon, I looks towards you. But it looks thundering
like rotten eggs, don't it?
BRODIE. I think not. I was masked, for one thing, and for
another I was as quick as lightning. He suspects me so little
that he dined with me this very afternoon.
MOORE. Anyway, you ain't game to try it on again, I'll lay odds
on that. Once bit, twice shy. That's your motto.
BRODIE. Right again. I'll put my ALIBI to a better use. And,
Badger, one word in your ear: there's no Newcastle Jemmy about
ME. Drop the subject, and for good, or I shall drop you. (HE
RISES, AND WALKS BACKWARDS AND FORWARDS, A LITTLE UNSTEADILY.
THEN RETURNS, AND SITS L., AS BEFORE.)
SCENE II
To these, HUNT, disguised He is disguised as a 'flying stationer'
with a patch over his eye. He sits at table opposite BRODIE'S
and is served with bread and cheese and beer.
HAMILTON (FROM BEHIND). The deevil tak' the cairts!
AINSLIE. Hoot, man, dinna blame the cairts.
MOORE. Look here, Deacon, I mean business, I do. (HUNT LOOKS UP
AT THE NAME OF 'DEACON.')
BRODIE. Gad, Badger, I never meet you that you do not. [You
have a set of the most commercial intentions!] You make me
blush.
MOORE. That's all blazing fine, that is! But wot I ses is, wot
about the chips? That's what I ses. I'm after that thundering
old Excise Office, I am. That's my motto.
BRODIE. 'Tis a very good motto, and at your lips, Badger, it
kind of warms my heart. But it's not mine.
MOORE. Muck! why not?
BRODIE. 'Tis too big and too dangerous. I shirk King George; he
has a fat pocket, but he has a long arm. [You pilfer sixpence
from him, and it's three hundred reward for you, and a hue and
cry from Tophet to the stars.] It ceases to be business; it
turns politics, and I'm not a politician, Mr. Moore. (RISING.)
I'm only Deacon Brodie.
MOORE. All right. I can wait.
BRODIE (SEEING HUNT). Ha, a new face, - and with a patch!
[There's nothing under heaven I like so dearly as a new face with
a patch.] Who the devil, sir, are you that own it? And where
did you get it? And how much will you take for it second-hand?
HUNT. Well, sir, to tell you the truth (BRODIE BOWS) it's not
for sale. But it's my own, and I'll drink your honour's health
in anything. BRODIE. An Englishman, too! Badger, behold a
countryman. What are you, and what part of southern Scotland do
you come from?
HUNT. Well, your honour, to tell you the honest truth -
[BRODIE (BOWING). Your obleeged!]
HUNT. I knows a gentleman when I sees him, your honour [and, to
tell your honour the truth -
BRODIE. JE VOUS BAISE LES MAINS! (BOWING.)]
HUNT. A gentleman as is a gentleman, your honour [is always a
gentleman, and to tell you the honest truth] -
BRODIE. Great heavens! answer in three words, and be hanged to
you! What are you, and where are you from?
HUNT. A patter-cove from Seven Dials.
BRODIE. Is it possible? All my life long have I been pining to
meet with a patter-cove from Seven Dials! Embrace me, at a
distance. [A patter-cove from Seven Dials!] Go, fill yourself
as drunk as you dare, at my expense. Anything he likes, Mrs.
Clarke. He's a patter-cove from Seven Dials. Hillo! what's all
this?
AINSLIE. Dod, I'm for nae mair! (AT BACK, AND RISING.)
PLAYERS. Sit down, Ainslie. - Sit down, Andra. - Ma revenge!
AINSLIE. Na, na, I'm for canny goin'. (COMING FORWARD WITH
BOTTLE.) Deacon, let's see your gless.
BRODIE. Not an inch of it.
MOORE. No rotten shirking, Deacon!
[AINSLIE. I'm sayin', man, let's see your gless.
BRODIE. Go to the deuce!]
AINSLIE. But I'm sayin' -
BRODIE. Haven't I to play to-night?
AINSLIE. But, man, ye'll drink to bonnie Jean Watt?
BRODIE. Ay, I'll follow you there. A LA REINE DE MES AMOURS!
(DRINKS.) What fiend put this in your way, you hound? You've
filled me with raw stuff. By the muckle deil! -
MOORE. Don't hit him, Deacon; tell his mother.
HUNT (ASIDE). Oho!
SCENE III
To these, SMITH, RIVERS
SMITH. Where's my beloved? Deakin, my beauty, where are you?
Come to the arms of George, and let him introduce you. Capting
Starlight Rivers! Capting, the Deakin: Deakin, the Capting. An
English nobleman on the grand tour, to open his mind, by the
Lard!
RIVERS. Stupendiously pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr.
Deakin, split me!
[BRODIE. We don't often see England's heroes our way, Captain,
but when we do, we make them infernally welcome.
RIVERS. Prettily put, sink me! A demned genteel sentiment, stap
my vitals!]
BRODIE. Oh Captain! you flatter me. [We Scotsmen have our
qualities, I suppose, but we are but rough and ready at the best.
There's nothing like your Englishman for genuine distinction. He
is nearer France than we are, and smells of his neighbourhood.
That d-d thing, the JE NE SAIS QUOI, too! Lard, Lard, split me!
stap my vitals! O such manners are pure, pure, pure. They are,
by the shade of Claude Duval!]
RIVERS. Mr. Deakin, Mr. Deakin [this is passatively too much].
What will you sip? Give it the Hanar of a neam.
BRODIE. By these most Hanarable hands now, Captain, you shall
not. On such an occasion I could play host with Lucifer
himself. Here, Clarke, Mother Midnight! Down with you, Captain!
(FORCING HIM BOISTEROUSLY INTO A CHAIR.) I don't know if you can
lie, but, sink me! you shall sit. (DRINKING, ETC., IN
DUMB-SHOW.)
MOORE (ASIDE TO SMITH). We've nobbled him, Geordie!
SMITH (ASIDE TO MOORE). As neat as ninepence! He's taking it
down like mother's milk. But there'll be wigs on the green
to-morrow, Badger! It'll be tuppence and toddle with George
Smith.
MOORE. O muck! Who's afraid of him? (TO AINSLIE.) Hang on,
Slinkie.
HUNT (WHO IS FEIGNING DRUNKENNESS, AND HAS OVERHEARD; ASIDE). By
jingo!
[RIVERS. Will you sneeze, Mr. Deakin, sir?
BRODIE. Thanks; I have all the vices, Captain. You must send me
some of your rappee. It is passatively perfect.]
RIVERS. Mr. Deakin, I do myself the Hanar of a sip to you.
BRODIE. Topsy-turvy with the can!
MOORE (ASIDE TO SMITH). That made him wink.
BRODIE. Your high and mighty hand, my Captain! Shall we dice -
dice - dice? (DUMB-SHOW BETWEEN THEM.)
AINSLIE (ASIDE TO MOORE). I'm sayin' -?
MOORE. What's up now?
AINSLIE. I'm no to gie him the coggit dice?
MOORE. The square ones, rot you! Ain't he got to lose every
brass farden?
AINSLIE. What'll like be my share?
MOORE. You mucking well leave that to me.
RIVERS. Well, Mr. Deakin, if you passatively will have me shake
a Helbow -
BRODIE. Where are the bones, Ainslie? Where are the dice, Lord
George? (AINSLIE GIVES THE DICE AND DICE-BOX TO BRODIE; AND
PRIVATELY A SECOND PAIR OF DICE.) Old Fortune's counters the
bonnie money-catching, money-breeding bones! Hark to their dry
music! Scotland against England! Sit round, you tame devils,
and put your coins on me!
SMITH. Easy does it, my lord of high degree! Keep cool.
BRODIE. Cool's the word, Captain - a cool twenty on the first?
RIVERS. Done and done. (THEY PLAY.)
HUNT (ASIDE TO MOORE, A LITTLE DRUNK). Ain't that 'ere Scotch
gentleman, your friend, too drunk to play, sir?
MOORE. You hold your jaw; that's what's the matter with you.
AINSLIE. He's waur nor he looks. He's knockit the box aff the
table.
SMITH (PICKING UP BOX). That's the way we does it. Ten to one
and no takers!
BRODIE. Deuces again! More liquor, Mother Clarke!
SMITH. Hooray our side! (POUTING OUT.) George and his pal for
ever!
BRODIE. Deuces again, by heaven! Another?
RIVERS. Done!
BRODIE. Ten more; money's made to go. On with you!
RIVERS. Sixes.
BRODIE. Deuce-ace. Death and judgment? Double or quits?
RIVERS. Drive on! Sixes.
SMITH. Fire away, brave boys! (TO MOORE) It's Tally-ho-the-
Grinder, Hump!
BRODIE. Treys! Death and the pit! How much have you got there?
RIVERS. A cool forty-five.
BRODIE. I play you thrice the lot.
RIVERS. Who's afraid?
SMITH. Stand by, Badger!
RIVERS. Cinq-ace.
BRODIE. My turn now. (HE JUGGLES IN AND USES THE SECOND PAIR OF
DICE.) Aces! Aces again! What's this? (PICKING UP DICE.)
Sold! . . . You play false, you hound!
RIVERS. You lie!
BRODIE. In your teeth. (OVERTURNS TABLE, AND GOES FOR HIM.)
MOORE. Here, none o' that. (THEY HOLD HIM BACK. STRUGGLE.)
SMITH. Hold on, Deacon!
BRODIE. Let me go. Hands off, I say! I'll not touch him.
(STANDS WEIGHING DICE IN HIS HAND.) But as for that thieving
whinger, Ainslie, I'll cut his throat between this dark and
to-morrow's. To the bone. (ADDRESSING THE COMPANY.) Rogues,
rogues, rogues! (SINGING WITHOUT.) Ha! what's that?
AINSLIE. It's the psalm-singing up by at the Holy Weaver's. And
O Deacon, if ye're a Christian man -
THE PSALM WITHOUT:- 'Lord, who shall stand, if Thou, O Lord,
Should'st mark iniquity? But yet with Thee forgiveness is, That
feared Thou may'st be.'
BRODIE. I think I'll go. 'My son the Deacon was aye regular at
kirk.' If the old man could see his son, the Deacon! I think
I'll - Ay, who SHALL stand? There's the rub! And forgiveness,
too? There's a long word for you! I learnt it all lang syne,
and now . . . hell and ruin are on either hand of me, and the
devil has me by the leg. 'My son, the Deacon . . . !' Eh, God!
but there's no fool like an old fool! (BECOMING CONSCIOUS OF THE
OTHERS.) Rogues!
SMITH. Take my arm, Deacon.
BRODIE. Down, dog, down! [Stay and be drunk with your equals.]
Gentlemen and ladies, I have already cursed you pretty heavily.
Let me do myself the pleasure of wishing you - a very - good
evening. (AS HE GOES OUT, HUNT, WHO HAS BEEN STAGGERING ABOUT IN
THE CROWD, FALLS ON A SETTLE, AS ABOUT TO SLEEP.)
ACT-DROP.
ACT II.
TABLEAU. EVIL AND GOOD
The Stage represents the Deacon's workshop; benches, shavings,
tools, boards, and so forth. Doors, C. on the street, and L.
into the house. Without, church bells; not a chime, but a slow
brokentocsin.
SCENE I
BRODIE (SOLUS). My head! my head! It's the sickness of the
grave. And those bells go on . . . go on! . . . inexorable as
death and judgment. [There they go; the trumpets of
respectability, sounding encouragement to the world to do and
spare not, and not to be found out. Found out! And to those who
are they toll as when a man goes to the gallows.] Turn where I
will are pitfalls hell-deep. Mary and her dowry; Jean and her
child - my child; the dirty scoundrel Moore; my uncle and his
trust; perhaps the man from Bow Street. Debt, vice, cruelty,
dishonour, crime; the whole canting, lying, double-dealing,
beastly business! 'My son the Deacon - Deacon of the Wrights!'
My thoughts sicken at it. [Oh the Deacon, the Deacon! Where's a
hat for the Deacon? where's a hat for the Deacon's headache?
(SEARCHING). This place is a piggery. To be respectable and not
to find one's hat.)
SCENE II
To him, JEAN, a baby in her shawl. C.
JEAN (WHO HAS ENTERED SILENTLY DURING THE DEACON'S LAST WORDS).
It's me, Wullie.
BRODIE (TURNING UPON HER). What! You here again? [you again!]
JEAN. Deacon, I'm unco vexed.
BRODIE. Do you know what you do? Do you know what you risk?
[Is there nothing - nothing! - will make you spare me this
idiotic, wanton prosecution?]
JEAN. I was wrong to come yestreen; I ken that fine. But the
day it's different; I but to come the day, Deacon, though I ken
fine it's the Sabbath, and I think shame to be seen upon the
streets.
BRODIE. See here, Jean. You must go now. I come to you
to-night; I swear that. But now I'm for the road.
JEAN. No till you've heard me, William Brodie. Do ye think I
came to pleasure mysel', where I'm no wanted? I've a pride o' my
ains.
BRODIE. Jean, I am going now. If you please to stay on alone,
in this house of mine, where I wish I could say you are welcome,
stay (GOING).
JEAN. It's the man frae Bow Street.
BRODIE. Bow Street?
JEAN. I thocht ye would hear me. Ye think little o' me; but
it's mebbe a braw thing for you that I think sae muckle o'
William Brodie . . . ill as it sets me.
BRODIE. [You don't know what is on my mind, Jeannie, else you
would forgive me.] Bow Street?
JEAN. It's the man Hunt: him that was here yestreen for the
Fiscal.
BRODIE. Hunt?
JEAN. He kens a hantle. He . . . Ye maunna be angered wi' me,
Wullie! I said what I shouldna.
BRODIE. Said? Said what?
JEAN. Just that ye were a guid frien' to me. He made believe he
was awful sorry for me, because ye gied me nae siller; and I
said, 'Wha tellt him that?' and that he lee'd.
BRODIE. God knows he did! What next?
JEAN. He was that soft-spoken, butter wouldna melt in his mouth;
and he keept aye harp, harpin'; but after that let out, he got
neither black nor white frae me. Just that ae word and nae mair;
and at the hinder end he just speired straucht out, whaur it was
ye got your siller frae.
BRODIE. Where I got my siller?
JEAN. Ay, that was it! 'You ken,' says he.
BRODIE. Did he? and what said you?
JEAN. I couldna think on naething, but just that he was a gey
and clever gentleman.
BRODIE. You should have said I was in trade, and had a good
business. That's what you should have said. That's what you
would have said had you been worth your salt. But it's blunder,
blunder, outside and in [upstairs, downstairs, and in my lady's
chamber]. You women! Did he see Smith?
JEAN. Ay, and kennt him.
BRODIE. Damnation! - No, I'm not angry with you. But you see
what I've to endure for you. Don't cry. [Here's the devil at
the door, and we must bar him out as best we can.]
JEAN. God's truth, ye are nae vexed wi' me?
BRODIE. God's truth, I am grateful to you. How is the child?
Well? That's right. (PEEPING.) Poor wee laddie! He's like
you, Jean.
JEAN. I aye thocht he was liker you.
BRODIE. Is he? Perhaps he is. Ah, Jeannie, you must see and
make him a better man than his father.
JEAN. Eh man, Deacon, the proud wumman I'll be gin he's only
half sae guid.
BRODIE. Well, well, if I win through this, we'll see what we can
do for him between us. (LEADING HER OUT, C.) And now, go - go -
go.
LAWSON (WITHOUT, L.). I ken the way, I ken the way.
JEAN (STARRING TO DOOR). It's the Fiscal; I'm awa. (BRODIE,
L.).
SCENE III
To these, LAWSON, L.
LAWSON. A braw day this, William. (SEEING JEAN.) Eh Mistress
Watt? And what'll have brocht you here?
BRODIE (SEATED ON BENCH). Something, uncle, she lost last night,
and she thinks that something she lost is here. VOILA.
LAWSON. Why are ye no at the kirk, woman? Do ye gang to the
kirk?
JEAN. I'm mebbe no what ye would just ca' reg'lar. Ye see,
Fiscal, it's the wean.
LAWSON. A bairn's an excuse; I ken that fine, Mistress Watt.
But bairn or nane, my woman, ye should be at the kirk. Awa wi'
ye! Hear to the bells; they're ringing in. (JEAN CURTSIES TO
BOTH, AND GOES OUT C. THE BELLS WHICH HAVE BEEN RINGING QUICKER,
CEASE.)
SCENE IV
LAWSON (TO BRODIE, RETURNING C. FROM DOOR). MULIER FORMOSA
SUPERNE, William: a braw lass, and a decent woman forbye.
BRODIE. I'm no judge, Procurator, but I'll take your word for
it. Is she not a tenant of yours?
LAWSON. Ay, ay; a bit house on my land in Liberton's Wynd. Her
man's awa, puir body; or they tell me sae; and I'm concerned for
her [she's unco bonnie to be left her lane]. But it sets me
brawly to be finding faut wi' the puir lass, and me an elder, and
should be at the plate. [There'll be twa words about this in the
Kirk Session.] However, it's nane of my business that brings me,
or I should tak' the mair shame to mysel'. Na, sir, it's for
you; it's your business keeps me frae the kirk.
BRODIE. My business, Procurator? I rejoice to see it in such
excellent hands.
LAWSON. Ye see, it's this way. I had a crack wi' the laddie,
Leslie, INTER POCULA (he took a stirrup-cup wi' me), and he tells
me he has askit Mary, and she was to speak to ye hersel'. O, ye
needna look sae gash. Did she speak? and what'll you have said
to her?
BRODIE. She has not spoken; I have said nothing; and I believe I
asked you to avoid the subject.
LAWSON. Ay, I made a note o' that observation, William [and
assoilzied mysel']. Mary's a guid lass, and I'm her uncle, and
I'm here to be answered. Is it to be ay or no?
BRODIE. It's to be no. This marriage must be quashed; and hark
ye, Procurator, you must help me.
LAWSON. Me? ye're daft! And what for why?
BRODIE. Because I've spent the trust-money, and I can't refund
it.
LAWSON. Ye reprobate deevil!
BRODIE. Have a care, Procurator. No wry words!
LAWSON. Do you say it to my face, sir? Dod, sir, I'm the Crown
Prosecutor.
BRODIE. Right. The Prosecutor for the Crown. And where did you
get your brandy?
LAWSON. Eh?
BRODIE. Your brandy! Your brandy man! Where do you get your
brandy? And you a Crown official and an elder!
LAWSON. Whaur the deevil did ye hear that?
BRODIE. Rogues all! Rogues all, Procurator!
LAWSON. Ay, ay. Lord save us! Guidsake, to think o' that noo!
. . . Can ye give me some o' that Cognac? I'm . . . . . I'm sort
o' shaken, William, I'm sort o' shaken. Thank you, William!
(LOOKING, PITEOUSLY AT GLASS.) NUNC EST BIBENDUM. (DRINKS.)
Troth, I'm set ajee a bit. Wha the deevil tauld ye?
BRODIE. Ask no questions, brother. We are a pair.
LAWSON. Pair, indeed! Pair, William Brodie! Upon my saul, sir,
ye're a brazen-faced man that durst say it to my face! Tak' you
care, my bonnie young man, that your craig doesna feel the wecht
o' your hurdies. Keep the plainstanes side o' the gallows. VIA
TRITA, VIA TUTA, William Brodie!
BRODIE. And the brandy, Procurator? and the brandy?
LAWSON. Ay . . . weel . . . be't sae! Let the brandy bide, man,
let the brandy bide! But for you and the trust-money . . .
damned! It's felony. TUTOR IN REM SUAM, ye ken, TUTOR IN REM
SUAM. But O man, Deacon, whaur is the siller?
BRODIE. It's gone - O how the devil should I know? But it'll
never come back.
LAWSON. Dear, dear! A' gone to the winds o' heaven! Sae ye're
an extravagant dog, too. PRODIGUS ET FURIOSUS! And that puir
lass - eh, Deacon, man, that puir lass! I mind her such a bonny
bairn.
BRODIE (STOPPING HIS EARS). Brandy, brandy, brandy, brandy,
brandy
LAWSON. William Brodie, mony's the long day that I've believed
in you; prood, prood was I to be the Deacon's uncle; and a sore
hearing have I had of it the day. That's past; that's past like
Flodden Field; it's an auld sang noo, and I'm an aulder man than
when I crossed your door. But mark ye this - mark ye this,
William Brodie, I may be no sae guid's I should be; but there's
no a saul between the east sea and the wast can lift his een to
God that made him, and say I wranged him as ye wrang that lassie.
I bless God,
William Brodie - ay, though he was like my brother - I bless God
that he that got ye has the hand of death upon his hearing, and
can win into his grave a happier man than me. And ye speak to
me, sir? Think shame - think shame upon your heart!
BRODIE. Rogues all!
LAWSON. You're the son of my sister, William Brodie. Mair than
that I stop not to inquire. If the siller is spent, and the
honour tint - Lord help us, and the honour tint! - sae be it, I
maun bow the head. Ruin shallna come by me. Na, and I'll say
mair, William; we have a' our weary sins upon our backs, and
maybe I have mair than mony. But, man, if ye could bring HALF
the jointure . . . [POTIUS QUAM PEREAS] . . . for your mither's
son? Na? You couldna bring the half? Weel, weel, it's a sair
heart I have this day, a sair heart and a weary. If I were a
better man mysel' . . . but there, there, it's a sair heart that
I have gotten. And the Lord kens I'll help ye if I can. [POTIUS
QUAM PEREAS.]
SCENE V
BRODIE. Sore hearing, does he say? My hand's wet. But it's
victory. Shall it be go? or stay? [I should show them all I
can, or they may pry closer than they ought.] Shall I have it
out and be done with it? To see Mary at once [to carry bastion
after bastion at the charge] - there were the true safety after
all! Hurry - hurry's the road to silence now. Let them once get
tattling in their parlours, and it's death to me. For I'm in a
cruel corner now. I'm down, and I shall get my kicking soon and
soon enough. I began it in the lust of life, in a hey-day of
mystery and adventure. I felt it great to be a bolder, craftier
rogue than the drowsy citizen that called himself my fellow-man.
[It was meat and drink to know him in the hollow of my hand,
hoarding that I and mine might squander, pinching that we might
wax fat.] It was in the laughter of my heart that I tip-toed
into his greasy privacy. I forced the strong-box at his ear
while he sprawled beside his wife. He was my butt, my ape, my
jumping-jack. And now . . . O fool, fool! [Duped by such knaves
as are a shame to knavery, crime's rabble, hell's
tatterdemalions!] Shorn to the quick! Rooked to my vitals! And
I must thieve for my daily bread like any crawling blackguard in
the gutter. And my sister . . . my kind, innocent sister! She
will come smiling to me with her poor little love-story, and I
must break her heart. Broken hearts, broken lives! . . . I
should have died before.
SCENE VI
BRODIE, MARY
MARY (TAPPING WITHOUT). Can I come in, Will?
BRODIE. O yes, come in, come in! (MARY ENTERS.) I wanted to be
quiet, but it doesn't matter, I see. You women are all the same.
MARY. O no, Will, they're not all so happy, and they're not all
Brodies. But I'll be a woman in one thing. For I've come to
claim your promise, dear; and I'm going to be petted and
comforted and made much of, altho' I don't need it, and . . .
Why, Will, what's wrong with you? You look . . . I don't know
what you look like.
BRODIE. O nothing! A splitting head and an aching heart. Well!
you've come to speak to me. Speak up. What is it? Come, girl!
What is it? Can't you speak?
MARY. Why, Will, what is the matter?
BRODIE. I thought you had come to tell me something. Here I am.
For God's sake out with it, and don't stand beating about the
bush.
MARY. O be kind, be kind to me.
BRODIE. Kind? I am kind. I'm only ill and worried, can't you
see? Whimpering? I knew it! Sit down, you goose! Where do you
women get your tears?
MARY. Why are you so cross with me? Oh, Will, you have forgot
your sister! Remember, dear, that I have nobody but you. It's
your own fault, Will, if you've taught me to come to you for
kindness, for I always found it. And I mean you shall be kind to
me again. I know you will, for this is my great need, and the
day I've missed my mother sorest. Just a nice look, dear, and a
soft tone in your voice, to give me courage, for I can tell you
nothing till I know that you're my own brother once again.
BRODIE. If you'd take a hint, you'd put it off till to-morrow.
But I suppose you won't. On, then, I'm listening. I'm
listening!
MARY. Mr. Leslie has asked me to be his wife.
BRODIE. He has, has he?
MARY. And I have consented.
BRODIE. And ...?
MARY. You can say that to me? And that is all you have to say?
BRODIE. O no, not all.
MARY. Speak out, sir. I am not afraid.
BRODIE. I suppose you want my consent?
MARY. Can you ask?
BRODIE. I didn't know. You seem to have got on pretty well
without it so far.
MARY. O shame on you! shame on you!
BRODIE. Perhaps you may be able to do without it altogether. I
hope so. For you'll never have it. ... Mary! ... I hate to see
you look like that. If I could say anything else, believe me, I
would say it. But I have said all; every word is spoken; there's
the end.
MARY. It shall not be the end. You owe me explanation; and I'll
have it.
BRODIE. Isn't my 'No' enough, Mary?
MARY. It might be enough for me; but it is not, and it cannot
be, enough for him. He has asked me to be his wife; he tells me
his happiness is in my hands - poor hands, but they shall not
fail him, if my poor heart should break! If he has chosen and
set his hopes upon me, of all women in the world, I shall find
courage somewhere to be worthy of the choice. And I dare you to
leave this room until you tell me all your thoughts - until you
prove that this is good and right.
BRODIE. Good and right? They are strange words, Mary. I mind
the time when it was good and right to be your father's daughter
and your brother's sister . . . Now! . . .
MARY. Have I changed? Not even in thought. My father, Walter
says, shall live and die with us. He shall only have gained
another son. And you - you know what he thinks of you; you know
what I would do for you.
BRODIE. Give him up.
MARY. I have told you: not without a reason.
BRODIE. You must.
MARY. I will not.
BRODIE. What if I told you that you could only compass your
happiness and his at the price of my ruin?
MARY. Your ruin?
BRODIE. Even so.
MARY. Ruin!
BRODIE. It has an ugly sound, has it not?
MARY. O Willie, what have you done? What have you done? What
have you done?
BRODIE. I cannot tell you, Mary. But you may trust me. You
must give up this Leslie . . . and at once. It is to save me.
MARY. I would die for you, dear, you know that. But I cannot be
false to him. Even for you, I cannot be false to him.
BRODIE. We shall see. Let me take you to your room. Come.
And, remember, it is for your brother's sake. It is to save me.
MARY. I am true Brodie. Give me time, and you shall not find me
wanting. But it is all so sudden ... so strange and dreadful!
You will give me time, will you not? I am only a woman, and ...
O my poor Walter! It will break his heart! It will break his
heart! (A KNOCK.)
BRODIE. You hear!
MARY. Yes, yes. Forgive me. I am going. I will go. It is to
save you, is it not? To save you. Walter . . . Mr. Leslie ... O
Deacon, Deacon, God forgive you! (SHE GOES OUT.)
BRODIE. Amen. But will He?
SCENE VII
BRODIE, HUNT
HUNT (HAT IN HAND). Mr. Deacon Brodie, I believe?
BRODIE. I am he, Mr. -
HUNT. Hunt, sir; an officer from Sir John Fielding of Bow
Street.
BRODIE. There can be no better passport than the name. In what
can I serve you?
HUNT. You'll excuse me, Mr. Deacon.
BRODIE. Your duty excuses you, Mr. Hunt.
HUNT. Your obedient. The fact is, Mr. Deacon [we in the office
see a good deal of the lives of private parties; and I needn't
tell a gentleman of your experience it's part of our duty to hold
our tongues. Now], it's come to my knowledge that you are a
trifle jokieous. Of course I know there ain't any harm in that.
I've been young myself, Mr. Deacon, and speaking -
BRODIE. O, but pardon me. Mr. Hunt, I am not going to discuss
my private character with you.
HUNT. To be sure you ain't. [And do I blame you? Not me.]
But, speaking as one man of the world to another, you naturally
see a great deal of bad company.
BRODIE. Not half so much as you do. But I see what you're
driving at; and if I can illuminate the course of justice, you
may command me. (HE SITS, AND MOTIONS HUNT TO DO LIKEWISE.)
HUNT. I was dead sure of it; and 'and upon 'art, Mr. Deacon, I
thank you. Now (CONSULTING POCKET-BOOK), did you ever meet a
certain George Smith?
BRODIE. The fellow they call Jingling Geordie? (HUNT NODS.)
Yes.
HUNT. Bad character.
BRODIE. Let us say . . . disreputable.
HUNT. Any means of livelihood?
BRODIE. I really cannot pretend to guess, I have met the
creature at cock-fights [which, as you know, are my weakness].
Perhaps he bets.
HUNT. [Mr. Deacon, from what I know of the gentleman, I should
say that if he don't - if he ain't open to any mortal thing - he
ain't the man I mean.] He used to be about with a man called
Badger Moore.
BRODIE. The boxer?
HUNT. That's him. Know anything of him?
BRODIE. Not much. I lost five pieces on him in a fight; and I
fear he sold his backers.
HUNT. Speaking as one admirer of the noble art to another, Mr.
Deacon, the losers always do. I suppose the Badger cockfights
like the rest of us?
BRODIE. I have met him in the pit.
HUNT. Well, it's a pretty sport. I'm as partial to a main as
anybody.
BRODIE. It's not an elegant taste, Mr. Hunt.
HUNT. It costs as much as though it was. And that reminds me,
speaking as one sportsman to another, Mr. Deacon, I was sorry to
hear that you've been dropping a hatful of money lately.
BRODIE. You are very good.
HUNT. Four hundred in three months, they tell me.
BRODIE. Ah!
HUNT. So they say, sir.
BRODIE. They have a perfect right to say so, Mr. Hunt.
HUNT. And you to do the other thing? Well, I'm a good hand at
keeping close myself.
BRODIE. I am not consulting you, Mr. Hunt; 'tis you who are
consulting me. And if there is nothing else (RISING) in which I
can pretend to serve you . . . ?
HUNT (RISING). That's about all, sir, unless you can put me on
to anything good in the way of heckle and spur? I'd try to look
in.
BRODIE. O, come, Mr. Hunt, if you have nothing to do, frankly
and flatly I have. This is not the day for such a conversation;
and so good-bye to you. (A KNOCKING, C.)
HUNT. Servant, Mr. Deacon. (SMITH AND MOORE, WITHOUT WAITING TO
BE ANSWERED, OPEN AND ENTER, C. THEY ARE WELL INTO THE ROOM
BEFORE THEY OBSERVE HUNT.) [Talk of the Devil, sir!]
BRODIE. What brings you here? (SMITH AND MOORE, CONFOUNDED BY
THE OFFICER'S PRESENCE, SLOUCH TOGETHER TO RIGHT OF DOOR. HUNT,
STOPPING AS HE GOES OUT, CONTEMPLATES THE PAIR, SARCASTICALLY.
THIS IS SUPPORTED BY MOORE WITH SULLEN BRAVADO; BY SMITH, WITH
CRINGING AIRINESS.)
HUNT (DIGGING SMITH IN THE RIBS). Why, you are the very parties
I was looking for! (HE GOES OUT, C.)
SCENE VIII
BRODIE, MOORE, SMITH
MOORE. Wot was that cove here about?
BRODIE (WITH FOLDED ARMS, HALF-SITTING ON BENCH). He was here
about you.
SMITH (STILL QUITE DISCOUNTENANCED). About us? Scissors! And
what did you tell him?
BRODIE (SAME ATTITUDE). I spoke of you as I have found you. [I
told him you were a disreputable hound, and that Moore had
crossed a fight.] I told him you were a drunken ass, and Moore
an incompetent and dishonest boxer.
MOORE. Look here, Deacon! Wot's up? Wot I ses is, if a cove's
got any thundering grudge agin a cove, why can't he spit it out,
I ses.
BRODIE. Here are my answers (PRODUCING PURSE AND DICE). These
are both too light. This purse is empty, these dice are not
loaded. Is it indiscretion to inquire how you share? Equal with
the Captain, I presume?
SMITH. It's as easy as my eye, Deakin. Slink Ainslie got
letting the merry glass go round, and didn't know the right bones
from the wrong. That's Hall.
BRODIE. [What clumsy liars you are!
SMITH. In boyhood's hour, Deakin, he were called Old Truthful.
Little did he think -]
BRODIE. What is your errand?
MOORE. Business.
SMITH. After the melancholy games of last night, Deakin, which
no one deplores so much as George Smith, we thought we'd trot
round - didn't us, Hump? and see how you and your bankers was
a-getting on.
BRODIE. Will you tell me your errand?
MOORE. You're dry, ain't you?
BRODIE. Am I?
MOORE. We ain't none of us got a stiver, that's wot's the matter
with us.
BRODIE. Is it?
MOORE. Ay, strike me, it is! And wot we've got to is to put up
the Excise.
SMITH. It's the last plant in the shrubbery Deakin, and it's
breaking George the gardener's heart, it is. We really must!
BRODIE. Must we?
MOORE. Must's the thundering word. I mean business, I do.
BRODIE. That's lucky. I don't.
MOORE. O, you don't, don't you?
BRODIE. I do not.
MOORE. Then p'raps you'll tell us wot you thundering well do?
BRODIE. What do I mean? I mean that you and that merry-andrew
shall walk out of this room and this house. Do you suppose, you
blockheads, that I am blind? I'm the Deacon, am I not? I've
been your king and your commander. I've led you, and fed you,
and thought for you with this head. And you think to steal a
march upon a man like me? I see you through and through [I know
you like the clock]; I read your thoughts like print. Brodie,
you thought, has money, and won't do the job. Therefore, you
thought, we must rook him to the heart. And therefore, you put
up your idiot cockney. And now you come round, and dictate, and
think sure of your Excise? Sure? Are you sure I'll let you pack
with a whole skin? By my soul, but I've a mind to pistol you
like dogs. Out of this! Out, I say, and soil my home no more.
MOORE (SITTING). Now look 'ere. Mr. bloody Deacon Brodie, you
see this 'ere chair of yours, don't you? Wot I ses to you is,
here I am, I ses, and here I mean to stick. That's my motto.
Who the devil are you to do the high and mighty? You make all
you can out of us, don't you? and when one of your plants get
cross, you order us out of the ken? Muck! That's wot I think of
you. Muck! Don't you get coming the nob over me, Mr. Deacon
Brodie, or I'll smash you.
BRODIE. You will?
MOORE. Ay will I. If I thundering well swing for it. And as
for clearing out? Muck! Here I am, and here I stick. Clear
out? You try it on. I'm a man, I am.
BRODIE. This is plain speaking.
MOORE. Plain? Wot about your father as can't walk? Wot about
your fine-madam sister? Wot about the stone-jug, and the dock,
and the rope in the open street? Is that plain? If it ain't,
you let me know, and I'll spit it out so as it'll raise the roof
off this 'ere ken. Plain! I'm that cove's master, and I'll make
it plain enough for him.
BRODIE. What do you want of me?
MOORE. Wot do I want of you? Now you speak sense. Leslie's is
wot I want of you. The Excise is wot I want of you. Leslie's
to-night and the Excise to-morrow. That's wot I want of you, and
wot I thundering well mean to get.
BRODIE. Damn you!
MOORE. Amen. But you've got your orders.
BRODIE (WITH PISTOL). Orders? hey? orders?
SMITH (BETWEEN THEM). Deacon, Deacon! - Badger, are you mad?
MOORE. Muck! That's my motto. Wot I ses is, has he got his
orders or has he not? That's wot's the matter with him.
SMITH. Deacon, half a tick. Humphrey, I'm only a light weight,
and you fight at twelve stone ten, but I'm damned if I'm going to
stand still and see you hitting a pal when he's down.
MOORE. Muck! That's wot I think of you.
SMITH. He's a cut above us, ain't he? He never sold his
backers, did he? We couldn't have done without him, could we?
You dry up about his old man, and his sister; and don't go on
hitting a pal when he's knocked out of time and cannot hit back,
for, damme, I will not stand it.
MOORE. Amen to you. But I'm cock of this here thundering walk,
and that cove's got his orders.
BRODIE (PUTTING PISTOL ON BENCH). I give in. I will do your
work for you once more. Leslie's to-night and the Excise
to-morrow. If that is enough, if you have no more . . . orders,
you may count it as done.
MOORE. Fen larks. No rotten shirking, mind.
BRODIE. I have passed you my word. And now you have said what
you came to say, you must go. I have business here; but two
hours hence I am at your ... orders. Where shall I await you?
MOORE. What about that woman's place of yours?
BRODIE. Your will is my law.
MOORE. That's good enough. Now, Dock.
SMITH. Bye-bye, my William. Don't forget.
SCENE IX
BRODIE. Trust me. No man forgets his vice, you dogs, or
forgives it either. It must be done: Leslie's to-night and the
Excise to-morrow. It shall be done. This settles it. They used
to fetch and carry for me, and now . . . I've licked their boots,
have I? I'm their man, their tool, their chattel. It's the
bottom rung of the ladder of shame. I sound with my foot, and
there's nothing underneath but the black emptiness of damnation.
Ah, Deacon, Deacon, and so this is where you've been travelling
all these years; and it's for this that you learned French! The
gallows . . . God help me, it begins to dog me like my shadow.
THERE'S a step to take! And the jerk upon your spine! How's a
man to die with a night-cap on? I've done with this. Over
yonder, across the great ocean, is a new land, with new
characters, and perhaps new lives. The sun shines, and the bells
ring, and it's a place where men live gladly; and the Deacon
himself can walk without terror, and begin again like a new-born
child. It must be good to see day again and not to fear; it must
be good to be one's self with all men. Happy like a child, wise
like a man, free like God's angels . . . should I work these
hands off and eat crusts, there were a life to make me young and
good again. And it's only over the sea! O man, you have been
blind, and now your eyes are opened. It was half a life's
nightmare, and now you are awake. Up, Deacon, up, it's hope
that's at the window! Mary! Mary! Mary!
SCENE X
BRODIE, MARY, OLD BRODIE
(BRODIE has fallen into a chair, with his face upon the table.
Enter MARY, by the side door pushing her father's chair. She is
supposed to have advanced far enough for stage purposes before
BRODIE is aware of her. He starts up, and runs to her.)
BRODIE. Look up, my lass, look up, and be a woman! I . . . O
kiss me, Mary I give me a kiss for my good news.
MARY. Good news, Will? Is it changed?
BRODIE. Changed? Why, the world's a different colour! It was
night, and now it's broad day and I trust myself again. You must
wait, dear, wait, and I must work and work; and before the week
is out, as sure as God sees me, I'll have made you happy. O you
may think me broken, hounds, but the Deacon's not the man to be
run down; trust him, he shall turn a corner yet, and leave you
snarling! And you, Poll, you. I've done nothing for you yet;
but, please God, I'll make your life a life of gold; and wherever
I am, I'll have a part in your happiness, and you'll know it, by
heaven! and bless me.
MARY. O Willie, look at him; I think he hears you, and is trying
to be glad with us.
BRODIE. My son - Deacon - better man than I was.
BRODIE. O for God's sake, hear him!
MARY. He is quite happy, Will, and so am I ... so am I.
BRODIE. Hear me, Mary. This is a big moment in our two lives.
I swear to you by the father here between us that it shall not be
fault of mine if this thing fails; if this ship founders you have
set your hopes in. I swear it by our father; I swear it by God's
judgments.
MARY. I want no oaths, Will.
BRODIE. No, but I do. And prayers, Mary, prayers. Pray night
and day upon your knees. I must move mountains.
OLD BRODIE. A wise son maketh - maketh -
BRODIE. A glad father? And does your son, the Deacon, make you
glad? O heaven of heavens, if I were a good man.
ACT-DROP
ACT III.
TABLEAU V. KING'S EVIDENCE
The Stage represents a public place in Edinburgh.
SCENE I
JEAN, SMITH, AND MOORE
(They loiter in L., and stand looking about as for somebody not
there. SMITH is hat in hand to JEAN; MOORE as usual.)
MOORE. Wot did I tell you? Is he 'ere, or ain't he? Now, then.
Slink by name and Slink by nature, that's wot's the matter with
him.
JEAN. He'll no be lang; he's regular enough, if that was a'.
MOORE. I'd regular him; I'd break his back.
SMITH. Badger, you brute, you hang on to the lessons of your
dancing-master. None but the genteel deserves the fair; does
they, Duchess?
MOORE. O rot! Did I insult the blowen? Wot's the matter with
me is Slink Ainslie.
SMITH. All right, old Crossed-in-love. Give him forty winks,
and he'll turn up as fresh as clean sawdust and as respectable as
a new Bible.
MOORE. That's right enough; but I ain't agoing to stand here all
day for him. I'm for a drop of something short, I am. You tell
him I showed you that (SHOWING HIS DOUBLED FIST). That's wot's
the matter with him. (HE LURCHES OUT, R.)
SCENE II
SMITH and JEAN, to whom HUNT, and afterwards MOORE
SMITH (CRITICALLY). No, Duchess, he has not good manners.
JEAN. Ay, he's an impident man.
SMITH. So he is, Jean; and for the matter of that he ain't the
only one.
JEAN. Geordie, I want nae mair o' your nonsense, mind.
SMITH. There's our old particular the Deacon, now. Why is he
ashamed of a lovely woman? That's not my idea of the Young
Chevalier, Jean. If I had luck, we should be married, and retire
to our estates in the country, shouldn't us? and go to church and
be happy, like the nobility and gentry.
JEAN. Geordie Smith, div ye mean ye'd mairry me?
SMITH. Mean it? What else has ever been the 'umble petition of
your honest but well-meaning friend, Roman, and
fellow-countryman? I know the Deacon's your man, and I know he's
a cut above G. S.; but he won't last, Jean, and I shall.
JEAN. Ay, I'm muckle ta'en up wi' him; wha could help it?
SMITH. Well, and my sort don't grow on apple-trees either.
JEAN. Ye're a fine, cracky, neebourly body, Geordie, if ye wad
just let me be.
SMITH. I know I ain't a Scotchman born.
JEAN. I dinna think sae muckle the waur o' ye even for that; if
ye would just let me be.
[HUNT (ENTERING BEHIND, ASIDE). Are they thick? Anyhow, it's a
second chance.]
SMITH. But he won't last, Jean, and when he leaves you, you come
to me. Is that your taste in pastry? That's the kind of
harticle that I present.
HUNT (SURPRISING THEM AS IN TABLEAU I.). Why, you're the very
parties I was looking for!
JEAN. Mercy me!
SMITH. Damn it, Jerry, this is unkind.
HUNT. [Now this is what I call a picter of good fortune.] Ain't
it strange I should have dropped across you comfortable and
promiscuous like this?
JEAN (STOLIDLY). I hope ye're middling weel, Mr. Hunt? (GOING.)
Mr. Smith!
SMITH. Mrs. Watt, ma'am! (GOING.)
HUNT. Hold hard, George. Speaking as one lady's man to another,
turn about's fair play. You've had your confab, and now I'm
going to have mine. [Not that I've done with you; you stand by
and wait.] Ladies first, George, ladies first; that's the size
of it. (TO JEAN, ASIDE.) Now, Mrs. Watt, I take it you ain't a
natural fool?
JEAN. And thank ye kindly, Mr. Hunt.
SMITH (INTERFERING). Jean . . . !
HUNT (KEEPING HIM OFF). Half a tick, George. (TO JEAN.) Mrs.
Watt, I've a warrant in my pocket. One, two, three: will you
peach?
JEAN. Whaten kind of a word'll that be?
SMITH. Mum it is, Jean!
HUNT. WHEN you've done dancing, George! (TO JEAN.) It ain't a
pretty expression, my dear, I own it. 'Will you blow the gaff?'
is perhaps more tenderer.
JEAN. I think ye've a real strange way o' expressin yoursel'.
HUNT (TO JEAN). I can't waste time on you, my girl. It's now or
never. Will you turn king's evidence?
JEAN. I think ye'll have made a mistake, like.
HUNT. Well, I'm ... ! (SEPARATING THEM.) [No, not yet; don't
push me.] George's turn now. (TO GEORGE.) George, I've a
warrant in my pocket.
SMITH. As per usual, Jerry?
HUNT. Now I want king's evidence.
SMITH. Ah! so you came a cropper with HER, Jerry. Pride had a
fall.
HUNT. A free pardon and fifty shiners down.
SMITH. A free pardon, Jerry?
HUNT. Don't I tell you so?
SMITH. And fifty down? fifty?
HUNT. On the nail.
SMITH. So you came a cropper with her, and then you tried it on
with me?
HUNT. I suppose you mean you're a born idiot?
SMITH. What I mean is, Jerry, that you've broke my heart. I
used to look up to you like a party might to Julius Caesar. One
more of boyhood's dreams gone pop. (ENTER MOORE, L.)
HUNT (TO BOTH). Come, then, I'll take the pair, and be damned to
you. Free pardon to both, fifty down and the Deacon out of the
way. I don't care for you commoners, it's the Deacon I want.
JEAN (LOOKING OFF STOLIDLY). I think the kirks are scalin'.
There seems to be mair people in the streets.
HUNT. O that's the way, is it? Do you know that I can hang you,
my woman, and your fancy man a well?
JEAN. I daur say ye would like fine, Mr. Hunt; and here's my
service to you. (GOING.)
HUNT. George, don't you be a tomfool, anyway. Think of the
blowen here, and have brains for two.
SMITH (GOING). Ah, Jerry, if you knew anything, how different
you would talk! (THEY GO TOGETHER, R.)
SCENE III
HUNT, MOORE
HUNT. Half a tick, Badger. You're a man of parts, you are;
you're solid, you're a true-born Englishman; you ain't a
Jerry-go-Nimble like him. Do you know what your pal the Deacon's
worth to you? Fifty golden Georges and a free pardon. No
questions asked, and no receipts demanded. What do you say? Is
it a deal?
MOORE (AS TO HIMSELF). Muck. (HE GOES OUT, R.)
SCENE IV
HUNT, TO WHOM AINSLIE
HUNT (LOOKING AFTER THEM RUEFULLY). And these were the very
parties I was looking for! [Ah, Jerry, Jerry, if they knew this
at the office!] Well, the market price of that 'ere two hundred
is a trifle on the decline and fall. (LOOKING L.) Hullo!
(SLAPPING HIS THIGH). Send me victorious! It's king's evidence
on two legs. (ADVANCING WITH GREAT CORDIALITY TO MEET AINSLIE,
WHO ENTERS L.) And so your name's Andrew Ainslie, is it? As I
was saying, you're the very party I was looking for. Ain't it
strange, now, that I should have dropped across you comfortable
and promiscuous like this?
AINSLIE. I dinna ken wha ye are, an' I'm ill for my bed.
HUNT. Let your bed wait, Andrew. I want a little chat with you;
just a quiet little sociable wheeze. Just about our friends, you
know. About Badger Moore, and George the Dook, and Jemmy Rivers,
and Deacon Brodie, Andrew. Particularly Deacon Brodie.
AINSLIE. They're nae friens o' mine's, mister. I ken naething
an' naebody. An' noo I'll get to my bed, wulln't I?
HUNT. We're going to have our little talk out first. After that
perhaps I'll let you go, and perhaps I won't. It all depends on
how we get along together. Now, in a general way, Andrew, and
speaking of a man as you find him, I'm all for peace and
quietness myself. That's my usual game, Andrew, but when I do
make a dust I'm considered by my friends to be rather a good hand
at it. So don't you tread upon the worm.
AINSLIE. But I'm sayin' -
HUNT. You leave that to me, Andrew. You shall do your pitch
presently. I'm first on the ground, and I lead off. With a
question, Andrew. Did you ever hear in your life of such a
natural curiosity as a Bow Street Runner?
AINSLIE. Aiblins ay an' aiblins no.
HUNT. 'Aiblins ay and aiblins no.' Very good indeed, Andrew.
Now, I'll ask you another. Did you ever see a Bow Street Runner,
Andrew? With the naked eye, so to speak?
AINSLIE. What's your wull?
HUNT. Artful bird! Now since we're getting on so cosy AND so
free, I'll ask you another, Andrew. Should you like to see a Bow
Street Runner? (PRODUCING STAFF.) 'Cos, if so, you've only got
to cast your eyes on me. Do you queer the red weskit, Andrew?
Pretty colour, ain't it? So nice and warm for the winter too.
(AINSLIE DIVES, HUNT COLLARS HIM.) No, you don't. Not this
time. Run away like that before we've finished our little
conversation? You're a nice young man, you are. Suppose we
introduce our wrists into these here darbies? Now we shall get
along cosier and freer than ever. Want to lie down, do you? All
right! anything to oblige.
AINSLIE (GROVELLING). It wasna me, it wasna me. It's bad
companions; I've been lost wi' bad companions an' the drink. An'
O mister, ye'll be a kind gentleman to a puir lad, an' me sae
weak, an' fair rotten wi' the drink an' that. Ye've a bonnie
kind heart, my dear, dear gentleman; ye wadna hang sitchan a
thing as me. I'm no fit to hang. They ca' me the Cannleworm!
An' I'll dae somethin' for ye, wulln't I? An' ye'll can hang the
ithers?
HUNT. I thought I hadn't mistook my man. Now, you look here,
Andrew Ainslie, you're a bad lot. I've evidence to hang you
fifty times over. But the Deacon is my mark. Will you peach, or
wont you? You blow the gaff, and I'll pull you through. You
don't, and I'll scragg you as sure as my name's Jerry Hunt.
AINSLIE. I'll dae onything. It's the hanging fleys me. I'll
dae onything, onything no to hang.
HUNT. Don't lie crawling there, but get up and answer me like a
man. Ain't this Deacon Brodie the fine workman that's been doing
all these tip-topping burglaries?
AINSLIE. It's him, mister; it's him. That's the man. Ye're in
the very bit. Deacon Brodie. I'll can tak' ye to his vera door.
HUNT. How do you know?
AINSLIE. I gi'ed him a han' wi' them a'. It was him an' Badger
Moore, and Geordie Smith; an' they gart me gang wi' them whether
or no; I'm that weak, an' whiles I'm donner'd wi' the drink.
But I ken a', an' I'll tell a'. And O kind gentleman, you'll
speak to their lordships for me, an' I'll no be hangit. . . I'll
no be hangit, wull I?
HUNT. But you shared, didn't you? I wonder what share they
thought you worth. How much did you get for last night's
performance down at Mother Clarke's?
AINSLIE. Just five pund, mister. Five pund. As sure's deith it
wadna be a penny mair. No but I askit mair: I did that; I'll do
deny it, mister. But Badger kickit me, an' Geordie, he said a
bad sweir, an' made he'd cut the liver out o' me, an' catch fish
wi't. It's been that way frae the first: an aith an' a bawbee
was aye guid eneuch for puir Andra.
HUNT. Well, and why did they do it? I saw Jemmy dance a
hornpipe on the table, and booze the company all round, when the
Deacon was gone. What made you cross the fight, and play booty
with your own man?
AINSLIE. Just to make him rob the Excise, mister. They're
wicked, wicked men.
HUNT. And is he right for it?
AINSLIE. Ay is he.
HUNT. By jingo! When's it for?
AINSLIE. Dear, kind gentleman, I dinna rightly ken: the
Deacon's that sair angered wi' me. I'm to get my orders frae
Geordie the nicht.
HUNT. O, you're to get your orders from Geordie, are you? Now
look here, Ainslie. You know me. I'm Hunt the Runner; I put
Jemmy Rivers in the jug this morning; I've got you this evening.
I mean to wind up with the Deacon. You understand? All right.
Then just you listen. I'm going to take these here bracelets
off, and send you home to that celebrated bed of yours. Only, as
soon as you've seen the Dook you come straight round to me at Mr.
Procurator-Fiscal's, and let me know the Dook's views. One word,
mind, and ... cl'k! It's a bargain?
AINSLIE. Never you fear that. I'll tak' my bannet an' come
straucht to ye. Eh God, I'm glad it's nae mair nor that to start
wi'. An' may the Lord bless ye, dear, kind gentleman, for your
kindness. May the Lord bless ye.
HUNT. You pad the hoof.
AINSLIE (GOING OUT). An' so I wull, wulln't I not? An' bless,
bless ye while there's breath in my body, wulln't I not?
HUNT (SOLUS). You're a nice young man, Andrew Ainslie. Jemmy
Rivers and the Deacon in two days! By jingo! (HE DANCES AN
INSTANT GRAVELY, WHISTLING TO HIMSELF.) Jerry, that 'ere little
two hundred of ours is as safe as the bank.
TABLEAU VI. UNMASKED
The Stage represents a room in Leslie's house. A practicable
window, C., through which a band of strong moonlight falls into
the room. Near the window a strong-box. A practicable door in
wing, L. Candlelight.
SCENE I
LESLIE, LAWSON, MARY, seated. BRODIE at back, walking between
the windows and strong-box.
LAWSON. Weel, weel, weel, weel, nae doubt.
LESLIE. Mr. Lawson, I am perfectly satisfied with Brodie's word;
I will wait gladly.
LAWSON. I have nothing to say against that.
BRODIE (BEHIND LAWSON). Nor for it.
LAWSON. For it? for it, William? Ye're perfectly richt there.
(TO LESLIE.) Just you do what William tells you; ye canna do
better than that.
MARY. Dear uncle, I see you are vexed; but Will and I are
perfectly agreed on the best course. Walter and I are young.
Oh, we can wait; we can trust each other.
BRODIE (FROM BEHIND). Leslie, do you think it safe to keep this
strong-box in your room?
LESLIE. It does not trouble me.
BRODIE. I would not. 'Tis close to the window.
LESLIE. It's on the right side of it.
BRODIE. I give you my advice: I would not.
LAWSON. He may be right there too, Mr. Leslie.
BRODIE. I give him fair warning: it's not safe.
LESLIE. I have a different treasure to concern myself about; if
all goes right with that I shall be well contented.
MARY. Walter!
LAWSON. Ay, bairns, ye speak for your age.
LESLIE. Surely, sir, for every age; the ties of blood, of love,
of friendship, these are life's essence.
MARY. And for no one is it truer than my uncle. If he live to
be a thousand, he will still be young in heart, full of love,
full of trust.
LAWSON. All, lassie, it's a wicked world.
MARY. Yes, you are out of sorts to-day; we know that.
LESLIE. Admitted that you know more of life, sir; admitted (if
you please) that the world is wicked; yet you do not lose trust
in those you love.
LAWSON. Weel . . . ye get gliffs, ye ken.
LESLIE. I suppose so. We can all be shaken for a time; but not,
I think, in our friends. We are not deceived in them; in the few
that we admit into our hearts.
MARY. Never in these.
LESLIE. We know these (TO BRODIE), and we think the world of
them.
BRODIE (AT BACK). We are more acquainted with each other's
tailors, believe me. You, Leslie, are a very pleasant creature.
My uncle Lawson is the Procurator-Fiscal. I - What am I? - I am
the Deacon of the Wrights, my ruffles are generally clean. And
you think the world of me? Bravo!
LESLIE. Ay, and I think the world of you.
BRODIE (AT BACK, POINTING TO LAWSON). Ask him.
LAWSON. Hoot-toot. A wheen nonsense: an honest man's an honest
man, and a randy thief's a randy thief, and neither mair nor
less. Mary, my lamb, it's time you were hame, and had you beauty
sleep.
MARY. Do you not come with us?
LAWSON. I gang the ither gate, my lamb. (LESLIE HELPS MARY ON
WITH HER CLOAK, AND THEY SAY FAREWELL AT BACK. BRODIE FOR THE
FIRST TIME COMES FRONT WITH LAWSON.) Sae ye've consented?
BRODIE. As you see.
LAWSON. Ye'll can pay it back?
BRODIE. I will.
LAWSON. And how? That's what I'm wonderin' to mysel'.
BRODIE. Ay, God knows that.
MARY. Come, Will.
SCENE II
LESLIE, LAWSON (wrapping up)
LESLIE. I wonder what ails Brodie?
LAWSON. How should I ken? What should I ken that ails him?
LESLIE. He seemed angry even with you.
LAWSON (IMPATIENT). Hoot awa'.
LESLIE. Of course, I know. But you see, on the very day when
our engagement is announced, even the best of men may be
susceptible. You yourself seem not quite pleased.
LAWSON (WITH GREAT IRRITATION). I'm perfectly pleased. I'm
perfectly delighted. If I werena an auld man, I'd be just beside
mysel' wi' happiness.
LESLIE. Well, I only fancied.
LAWSON. Ye had nae possible excuse to fancy. Fancy? Perfect
trash and nonsense. Look at yersel'. Ye look like a ghaist,
ye're white-like, ye're black aboot the een; and do ye find me
deavin' ye wi' fancies? Or William Brodie either? I'll say that
for him.
LESLIE. 'Tis not sorrow that alters my complexion; I've
something else on hand. Come, I'll tell you, under seal. I've
not been in bed till daylight for a week.
LAWSON. Weel, there's nae sense in the like o' that.
LESLIE. Gad, but there is though. Why, Procurator, this is
town's business; this is a municipal affair; I'm a public
character. Why? Ah, here's a nut for the Crown Prosecutor! I'm
a bit of a party to a robbery.
LAWSON. Guid guide us, man, what d'ye mean?
LESLIE. You shall hear. A week ago to-night, I was passing
through this very room without a candle on my way to bed, when .
. . what should I see, but a masked man fumbling at that window!
How he did the Lord knows. I suspect, Procurator, it was not the
first he'd tried . . . for he opened it as handily as his own
front door.
LAWSON. Preserve me! Another of thae robberies!
LESLIE. That's it. And, of course, I tried to seize him. But
the rascal was too quick. He was down and away in an instant.
You never saw a thing so daring and adroit.
LAWSON. Is that a'? Ye're a bauld lad, I'll say that for ye.
I'm glad it wasna waur.
LESLIE. Yes, that's all plain sailing. But here's the hitch.
Why didn't I tell the Procurator-Fiscal? You never thought of
that.
LAWSON. No, man. Why?
LESLIE. Aha! There's the riddle. Will you guess? No? . . . I
thought I knew the man.
LAWSON. What d'ye say?
LESLIE. I thought I knew him.
LAWSON. Wha was't?
LESLIE. Ah, there you go beyond me. That I cannot tell.
LAWSON. As God sees ye, laddie, are ye speaking truth?
LESLIE. Well . . . of course!
LAWSON. The haill truth?
LESLIE. All of it. Why not?
LAWSON. Man, I'd a kind o' gliff.
LESLIE. Why, what were you afraid of? Had you a suspicion?
LAWSON. Me? Me a suspicion? Ye're daft, sir; and me the Crown
offeecial! . . . Eh man, I'm a' shakin' ... And sae ye thocht ye
kennt him?
LESLIE. I did that. And what's more, I've sat every night in
case of his return. I promise you, Procurator, he shall not slip
me twice. Meanwhile I'm worried and put out. You understand how
such a fancy will upset a man. I'm uneasy with my friends and on
bad terms with my own conscience. I keep watching, spying,
comparing, putting two and two together, hunting for resemblances
until my head goes round. It's like a puzzle in a dream. Only
yesterday I thought I had him. And who d'you think it was?
LAWSON. Wha? Wha was't? Speak, Mr. Leslie, speak. I'm an auld
man; dinna forget that.
LESLIE. I name no names. It would be unjust to him; and, upon
my word, it was so silly it would be unfair to me. However, here
I sit, night after night. I mean him to come back; come back he
shall; and I'll tell you who he was next morning.
LAWSON. Let sleeping dogs lie, Mr. Leslie; ye dinna ken what ye
micht see. And then, leave him alane, he'll come nae mair. And
sitting up a' nicht . . . it's a FACTUM IMPRESTABILE, as we say:
a thing impossible to man. Gang ye to your bed, like a guid
laddie, and sleep lang and soundly, and bonnie, bonnie dreams to
ye! (WITHOUT.) Let sleeping dogs lie, and gang ye to your bed.
SCENE III
LESLIE
LESLIE (CALLING). In good time, never fear! (HE CAREFULLY BOLTS
AND CHAINS THE DOOR.) The old gentleman seems upset. What for,
I wonder? Has he had a masked visitor? Why not? It's the
fashion. Out with the lights. (BLOWS OUT THE CANDLES. THE
STAGE IS ONLY LIGHTED BY THE MOON THROUGH THE WINDOW.) He is
sure to come one night or other. He must come. Right or wrong,
I feel it in the air. Man, but I know you, I know you somewhere.
That trick of the shoulders, the hang of the clothes - whose are
they? Where have I seen them? And then, that single look of the
eye, that one glance about the room as the window opened . . . it
is almost friendly; I have caught it over the glass's rim! If it
should be . . . his? No, his it is not.
WATCHMAN (WITHOUT). Past ten o'clock, and a fine moonlight
night.
ANOTHER (FURTHER AWAY). Past ten o'clock, and all's well.
LESLIE. Past ten? Ah, there's a long night before you and me,
watchmen. Heavens, what a trade! But it will be something to
laugh over with Mary and . . . with him? Damn it, the delusion
is too strong for me. It's a thing to be ashamed of. 'We
Brodies': how she says it! 'We Brodies and our Deacon': what a
pride she takes in it, and how good it sounds to me! 'Deacon of
his craft, sir, Deacon of the . . .! (BRODIE, MASKED, APPEARS
WITHOUT AT THE WINDOW, WHICH HE PROCEEDS TO FORCE.) Ha! I knew
he'd come. I was sure of it. (HE CROUCHES NEAR AND NEARER TO
THE WINDOW, KEEPING IN THE SHADE.) And I know you too. I swear
I know you.
SCENE IV
BRODIE, LESLIE
BRODIE enters by the window with assurance and ease, closes it
silently, and proceeds to traverse the room. As he moves, LESLIE
leaps upon and grapples him.
LESLIE. Take off that mask!
BRODIE. Hands off!
LESLIE. Take off the mask!
BRODIE. Leave go, by God, leave go!
LESLIE. Take it off!
BRODIE (OVERPOWERED). Leslie ....
LESLIE. Ah! you know me! (SUCCEEDS IN TEARING OFF THE MASK.)
Brodie!
BRODIE (IN THE MOONLIGHT). Brodie.
LESLIE. You . . . you, Brodie, you?
BRODIE. Brodie, sir, Brodie as you see.
LESLIE. What does it mean? What does it mean, my God? Were you
here before? Is this the second time? Are you a thief, man? are
you a thief? Speak, speak, or I'll kill you.
BRODIE. I am a thief.
LESLIE. And my friend, my own friend, and . . . Mary, Mary! . .
. Deacon, Deacon, for God's sake, no!
BRODIE. God help me!
LESLIE. 'We Brodies! We Brodies!'
BRODIE. Leslie -
LESLIE. Stand off! Don't touch me! You're a thief!
BRODIE. Leslie, Leslie
LESLIE. A thief's sister! Why are you here? why are you here?
Tell me! Why do you not speak? Man, I know you of old. Are you
Brodie, and have nothing to say?
BRODIE. To say? Not much - God help me - and commonplace,
commonplace like sin. I was honest once; I made a false step; I
couldn't retrace it; and . . . that is all.
LESLIE. You have forgot the bad companions!
BRODIE. I did forget them. They were there.
LESLIE. Commonplace! Commonplace! Do you speak to me, do you
reason with me, do you make excuses? You - a man found out,
shamed, a liar, a thief - a man that's killed me, killed this
heart in my body; and you speak! What am I to do? I hold your
life in my hand; have you thought of that? What am I to do?
BRODIE. Do what you please; you have me trapped.
(JEAN WATT IS HEARD SINGING WITHOUT TWO BARS OF 'WANDERIN'
WILLIE,' BY WAY OF SIGNAL.)
LESLIE. What is that?
BRODIE. A signal.
LESLIE. What does it mean?
BRODIE. Danger to me; there is someone coming.
LESLIE. Danger to you?
BRODIE. Some one is coming. What are you going to do with me?
(A KNOCK AT THE DOOR.)
LESLIE (AFTER A PAUSE). Sit down. (KNOCKING.)
BRODIE. What are you going to do with me?
LESLIE. Sit down. (BRODIE SITS IN DARKEST PART OF STAGE.
LESLIE OPENS DOOR, AND ADMITS LAWSON. DOOR OPEN TILL END OF
ACT.)
SCENE V
BRODIE, LAWSON, LESLIE
LAWSON. This is an unco' time to come to your door; but eh,
laddie, I couldna bear to think o' ye sittin' your lane in the
dark.
LESLIE. It was very good of you.
LAWSON. I'm no very fond of playing hidee in the dark mysel';
and noo that I'm here -
LESLIE. I will give you a light. (HE LIGHTS THE CANDLES.
LIGHTS UP.)
LAWSON. God A'michty! William Brodie!
LESLIE. Yes, Brodie was good enough to watch with me.
LAWSON. But he gaed awa' . . . I dinna see . . . an' Lord be
guid to us, the window's open!
LESLIE. A trap we laid for them: a device of Brodie's.
BRODIE (TO LAWSON). Set a thief to catch a thief. (PASSING TO
LESLIE, ASIDE.) Walter Leslie, God will reward. (JEAN SIGNALS
AGAIN.)
LAWSON. I dinna like that singin' at siccan a time o' the nicht.
BRODIE. I must go.
LAWSON. Not one foot o' ye. I'm ower glad to find ye in guid
hands. Ay, ye dinna ken how glad.
BRODIE (ASIDE TO LESLIE). Get me out of this. There's a man
there will stick at nothing.
LESLIE. Mr. Lawson, Brodie has done his shift. Why should we
keep him? (JEAN APPEARS AT THE DOOR, AND SIGNS TO BRODIE.)
LAWSON. Hoots! this is my trade. That's a bit o' 'Wanderin'
Willie.' I've had it before me in precognitions; that same stave
has been used for a signal by some o' the very warst o' them.
BRODIE (ASIDE TO LESLIE). Get me out of this. I'll never forget
to-night. (JEAN AT DOOR AGAIN.)
LESLIE. Well, good-night, Brodie. When shall we meet again?
LAWSON. Not one foot o' him. (JEAN AT DOOR.) I tell you, Mr.
Leslie -
SCENE VI
To these, JEAN
JEAN (FROM SHE DOOR). Wullie, Wullie!
LAWSON. Guid guide us, Mrs. Watt! A dacent wumman like
yoursel'! Whatten a time o' nicht is this to come to folks'
doors?
JEAN (TO BRODIE). Hawks, Wullie, hawks!
BRODIE. I suppose you know what you've done, Jean?
JEAN. I HAD to come, Wullie, he wadna wait another minit. He
wad have come himsel'.
BRODIE. This is my mistress.
LAWSON. William, dinna tell me nae mair.
BRODIE. I have told you so much. You may as well know all.
That good man knows it already. Have you issued a warrant for me
. . . . yet?
LAWSON. No, no, man: not another word.
BRODIE, (POINTING TO THE WINDOW). That is my work. I am the
man. Have you drawn the warrant?
LAWSON (BREAKING DOWN). Your father's son!
LESLIE (TO LAWSON). My good friend! Brodie, you might have
spared the old man this.
BRODIE. I might have spared him years ago; and you and my
sister, and myself. I might . . . would God I had! (WEEPING
HIMSELF.) Don't weep, my good old friend; I was lost long since;
don't think of me; don't pity me; don't shame me with your pity!
I began this when I was a boy. I bound the millstone round my
neck; [it is irrevocable now,] and you must all suffer . . . all
suffer for me! . . . [for this suffering remnant of what was once
a man]. O God, that I can have fallen to stand here as I do now.
My friend lying to save me from the gallows; my second father
weeping tears of blood for my disgrace! And all for what? By
what? Because I had an open hand, because I was a selfish dog,
because I loved this woman.
JEAN. O Wullie, and she lo'ed ye weel! But come near me nae
mair, come near me nae mair, my man; keep wi' your ain folks . .
. your ain dacent folks.
LAWSON. Mistress Watt, ye shall sit rent free as lang's there's
breath in William Lawson's body.
LESLIE. You can do one thing still . . . for Mary's sake. You
can save yourself; you must fly.
BRODIE. It is my purpose; the day after to-morrow. It cannot be
before. Then I will fly; and O, as God sees me, I will strive to
make a new and a better life, and to be worthy of your
friendship, and of your tears . . . your tears. And to be worthy
of you too, Jean; for I see now that the bandage has fallen from
my eyes; I see myself, O how unworthy even of you.
LESLIE. Why not to-night?
BRODIE. It cannot be before. There are many considerations. I
must find money.
JEAN. Leave me, and the wean. Dinna fash yoursel' for us.
LESLIE (OPENING THE STRONG-BOX, AND POURING GOLD UPON THE TABLE).
Take this and go at once.
BRODIE. Not that . . . not the money that I came to steal!
LAWSON. Tak' it, William; I'll pay him.
BRODIE. It is in vain. I cannot leave till I have said. There
is a man; I must obey him. If I slip my chain till he has done
with me, the hue and cry will blaze about the country; every
outport will be shut; I shall return to the gallows. He is a man
that will stick at nothing.
SCENE VII
To these, MOORE
MOORE. Are you coming?
BRODIE. I am coming.
MOORE (APPEARING IN THE DOOR). Do you want us all to get
thundering well scragged?
BRODIE (GOING). There is my master.
ACT-DROP
ACT IV.
TABLEAU VII. THE ROBBERY
The Stage represents the outside of the Excise Office in
Chessel's Court. At the back, L.C., an archway opening on the
High Street. The door of the Excise in wing, R.; the opposite
side of the stage is lumbered with barrels, packing-cases, etc.
Moonlight; the Excise Office casts a shadow over half the stage.
A clock strikes the hour. A round of the City Guard, with
halberts, lanterns, etc. enters and goes out again by the arch,
after having examined the fastenings of the great door and the
lumber on the left. Cry without in the High Street: 'Ten by the
bell, and a fine clear night.' Then enter cautiously by the
arch, SMITH and MOORE, with AINSLIE loaded with tools.
SCENE I
SMITH, MOORE, AINSLIE
SMITH (ENTERING FIRST). Come on. Coast clear.
MOORE (AFTER THEY HAVE COME TO THE FRONT.) Ain't he turned up
yet?
SMITH (TO AINSLIE). Now Maggot! The fishing's a going to begin.
AINSLIE. Dinna cangle, Geordie. My back's fair broke.
MOORE. O muck! Hand out them pieces.
SMITH. All right, Humptious! (TO AINSLIE.) You're a nice old
sort for a rag-and-bone man: can't hold a bag open! (TAKING OUT
TOOLS.) Here they was. Here are the bunchums, one AND two; and
jolly old keys was they. Here's the picklocks, crow-bars, and
here's Lord George's pet bull's eye, his old and valued friend,
the Cracksman's treasure!
MOORE. Just like you. Forgot the rotten centrebit.
SMITH. That's all you know. Here she is, bless her! Portrait
of George as a gay hironmonger.
MOORE. O rot! Hand it over, and keep yourself out of that there
thundering moonlight.
SMITH (LIGHTING LANTERN). All right, old mumble-peg. Don't you
get carried away by the fire of old Rome. That's your motto.
Here are the tools; a perfect picter of the sublime and
beautiful; and all I hope is, that our friend and pitcher, the
Deakin, will make a better job of it than he did last night. If
he don't, I shall retire from the business - that's all; and
it'll be George and his little wife and a black footman till
death do us part.
MOORE. O muck! You're all jaw like a sheep's jimmy. That's my
opinion of you. When did you see him last?
SMITH. This morning; and he looked as if he was rehearsing for
his own epitaph. I never see such a change in a man. I gave him
the office for to-night; and was he grateful? Did he weep upon
my faithful bosom? No; he smiled upon me like a portrait of the
dear departed. I see his 'art was far away; and it broke my own
to look at him.
MOORE. Muck! Wot I ses is, if a cove's got that much of the nob
about him, wot's the good of his working single-handed? That's
wot's the matter with him.
SMITH. Well, old Father Christmas, he ain't single-handed to-
night, is he?
MOORE. No, he ain't; he's got a man with him to-night.
SMITH. Pardon me, Romeo; two men, I think?
MOORE. A man wot means business. If I'd a bin with him last
night, it ain't psalm-singin' would have got us off. Psalm-
singin'? Muck! Let 'em try it on with me.
AINSLIE. Losh me, I heard a noise. (ALARM; THEY CROUCH INTO THE
SHADOW AND LISTEN.)
SMITH. All serene. (TO AINSLIE) Am I to cut that liver out of
you? Now, am I? (A WHISTLE.) 'St! here we are. (WHISTLES A
MODULATION, WHICH IS ANSWERED.)
SCENE II
To these BRODIE
MOORE. Waiting for you, Deacon.
BRODIE. I see. Everything ready?
SMITH. All a-growing and a-blowing.
BRODIE. Give me the light. (BRIEFLY EXAMINES TOOLS AND DOOR WITH
BULL'S EYE.) You, George, stand by, and hand up the pieces.
Ainslie, take the glim. Moore, out and watch.
MOORE. I didn't come here to do sentry-go, I didn't.
BRODIE. You came here to do as I tell you. (MOORE GOES UP
SLOWLY.) Second bunch, George. I know the lock. Steady with
the glim. (AT WORK.) No good. Give me the centrebit.
SMITH. Right. (WORK CONTINUES. AINSLIE DROPS LANTERN.)
BRODIE. Curse you! (THROTTLING AND KICKING HIM.) You shake,
and you shake, and you can't even hold a light for your betters.
Hey?
AINSLIE. Eh Deacon, Deacon . . .
SMITH. Now Ghost! (WITH LANTERN.)
BRODIE. 'St, Moore!
MOORE. Wot's the row?
BRODIE. Take you the light.
MOORE (TO AINSLIE). Wo' j' yer shakin' at? (KICKS HIM.)
BRODIE (TO AINSLIE). Go you, and see if you're good at keeping
watch. Inside the arch. And if you let a footfall pass, I'll
break your back. (AINSLIE RETIRES.) Steady with the light. (AT
WORK WITH CENTREBIT.) Hand up number four, George. (AT WORK
WITH PICKLOCK.) That has it.
SMITH. Well done our side.
BRODIE. Now the crow bar! (AT WORK.) That's it. Put down the
glim, Badger, and help at the wrench. Your whole weight, men!
Put your backs to it! (WHILE THEY WORK AT THE BAR, BRODIE STANDS
BY, DUSTING HIS HANDS WITH A POCKET-HANDKERCHIEF. AS THE DOOR
OPENS.) VOILA! In with you.
MOORE (ENTERING WITH LIGHT). Mucking fine work too, Deacon!
BRODIE. Take up the irons, George!
SMITH. How about the P(h)antom?
BRODIE. Leave him to me. I'll give him a look. (ENTERS
OFFICE.)
SMITH (FOLLOWING). Houp-la!
SCENE III
AINSLIE; afterwards BRODIE; afterwards HUNT and OFFICERS
AINSLIE. Ca' ye that mainners? Ye're grand gentry by your way
o't! Eh sirs, my hench! Ay, that was the Badger. Man, but
ye'll look bonnie hangin'! (A FAINT WHISTLE.) Lord's sake,
what's thon? Ay, it'll be Hunt an' his lads. (WHISTLE
REPEATED.) Losh me, what gars him whustle, whustle? Does he
think me deaf? (GOES UP. BRODIE ENTERS FROM OFFICE, STANDS AN
INSTANT, AND SEES HIM MAKING A SIGNAL THROUGH THE ARCH.)
BRODIE. Rats! Rats! (HIDES L. AMONG LUMBER. ENTER NOISELESSLY
THROUGH ARCH HUNT AND OFFICERS.)
HUNT. Birds caught?
AINSLIE. They're a' ben the house, mister.
HUNT. All three?
AINSLIE. The hale set, mister.
BRODIE. Liar!
HUNT. Mum, lads, and follow me. (EXIT, WITH HIS MEN, INTO
OFFICE. BRODIE SEEN WITH DAGGER.)
HUNT. In the King's name! }
MOORE. Muck! } (WITHIN.)
SMITH. Go it, Badger. }
HUNT. Take 'em alive, boys! }
AINSLIE. Eh, but that's awful. (THE DEACON LEAPS OUT, AND STABS
HIM. HE FALLS WITHOUT A CRY.)
BRODIE. Saved! (HE GOES OUT BY THE ARCH.)
SCENE IV
HUNT and OFFICERS; with SMITH and MOORE handcuffed. Signs of a
severe struggle
HUNT (ENTERING). Bring 'em along, lads! (LOOKING AT PRISONERS
WITH LANTERN.) Pleased to see you again, Badger. And you too,
George. But I'd rather have seen your principal. Where's he got
to?
MOORE. To hell, I hope.
HUNT. Always the same pretty flow of language, I see, Hump.
(LOOKING AT BURGLARY WITH LANTERN.) A very tidy piece of work,
Dook; very tidy! Much too good for you. Smacks of a fine
tradesman. It WAS the Deacon, I suppose?
SMITH. You ought to know G. S. better by this time, Jerry.
HUNT. All right, your Grace: we'll talk it over with the Deacon
himself. Where's the jackal? Here, you, Ainslie! Where are
you? By jingo, I thought as much. Stabbed to the heart and dead
as a herring!
SMITH. Bravo!
HUNT. More of the Deacon's work, I guess? Does him credit too,
don't it, Badger?
MOORE. Muck. Was that the thundering cove that peached?
HUNT. That was the thundering cove.
MOORE. And is he corpsed?
HUNT. I should just about reckon he was.
MOORE. Then, damme, I don't mind swinging!
HUNT. We'll talk about that presently. M'Intyre and Stewart,
you get a stretcher, and take that rubbish to the office. Pick
it up; it's only a dead informer. Hand these two gentlemen over
to Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, with Mr. Jerry Hunt's compliments.
Johnstone and Syme, you come along with me. I'll bring the
Deacon round myself.
ACT-DROP
ACT V.
TABLEAU VIII. THE OPEN DOOR
The Stage represents the Deacon's room, as in Tableau I. Fire
light. Stage dark. A pause. Then knocking at the door, C.
Cries without of 'WILLIE!' 'MR. BRODIE!' The door is burst open.
SCENE I
DOCTOR, MARY, a MAIDSERVANT with lights.
DOCTOR. The apartment is unoccupied.
MARY. Dead, and he not here!
DOCTOR. The bed has not been slept in. The counterpane is not
turned down.
MARY. It is not true; it cannot be true.
DOCTOR. My dear young lady, you must have misunderstood your
brother's language.
MARY. O no; that I did not. That I am sure I did not.
DOCTOR (LOOKING AT DOOR). The strange thing is . . . the bolt.
SERVANT. It's unco strange.
DOCTOR. Well, we have acted for the best.
SERVANT. Sir, I dinna think this should gang nae further.
DOCTOR. The secret is in our keeping. Affliction is enough
without scandal.
MARY. Kind heaven, what does it mean?
DOCTOR. I think there is no more to be done.
MARY. I am here alone, Doctor; you pass my uncle's door?
DOCTOR. The Procurator-Fiscal? I shall make it my devoir.
Expect him soon. (GOES OUT WITH MAID.)
MARY (HASTILY SEARCHES THE ROOM). No, he is not there. She was
right! O father, you can never know, praise God!
SCENE II
MARY, to whom JEAN and afterwards LESLIE
JEAN (AT DOOR). Mistress . . . .!
MARY. Ah! Who is there? Who are you?
JEAN. Is he no hame yet? I'm aye waitin' on him.
MARY. Waiting for him? Do you know the Deacon? You?
JEAN. I maun see him. Eh, lassie, it's life and death.
MARY. Death . . . O my heart!
JEAN. I maun see him, bonnie leddie. I'm a puir body, and no
fit to be seen speakin' wi' the likes o' you. But O lass, ye are
the Deacon's sister, and ye hae the Deacon's e'en, and for the
love of the dear kind Lord, let's in and hae a word wi' him ere
it be ower late. I'm bringin' siller.
MARY. Siller? You? For him? O father, father, if you could
hear! What are you? What are you . . . to him?
JEAN. I'll be the best frien' 'at ever he had; for, O dear
leddie, I wad gie my bluid to help him.
MARY. And the . . . . the child?
JEAN. The bairn?
MARY. Nothing! O nothing! I am in trouble, and I know not what
I say. And I cannot help you; I cannot help you if I would. He
is not here; and I believed he was; and ill . . . ill; and he is
not - he is . . . . O, I think I shall lose my mind!
JEAN. Ay, it's unco business.
MARY. His father is dead within there . . . dead, I tell you . .
. dead!
JEAN. It's mebbe just as weel.
MARY. Well? Well? Has it come to this? O Walter, Walter! come
back to me, or I shall die. (LESLIE ENTERS, C.)
LESLIE. Mary, Mary! I hoped to have spared you this. (TO
JEAN.) What - you? Is he not here?
JEAN. I'm aye waitin' on him.
LESLIE. What has become of him? Is he mad? Where is he?
JEAN. The Lord A'michty kens, Mr. Leslie. But I maun find him;
I maun find him.
SCENE III
MARY, LESLIE
MARY. O Walter, Walter! What does it mean?
LESLIE. You have been a brave girl all your life, Mary; you must
lean on me . . . you must trust in me . . . and be a brave girl
till the end.
MARY. Who is she? What does she want with HIM? And he . . .
where is he? Do you know that my father is dead, and the Deacon
not here? Where has he gone? He may be dead, too. Father,
brother . . . O God, it is more than I can bear!
LESLIE. Mary, my dear, dear girl . . . when will you be my wife?
MARY. O, do not speak . . . not speak . . . of it to-night. Not
to-night! O not to-night!
LESLIE. I know, I know dear heart! And do you think that I whom
you have chosen, I whose whole life is in your love - do you
think that I would press you now if there were not good cause?
MARY. Good cause! Something has happened. Something has
happened . . . . to him! Walter . . . ! Is he . . . . dead?
LESLIE. There are worse things in the world than death. There
is O . . . Mary, he is your brother!
MARY. What? Dishonour! . . . . The Deacon! . . . . My God!
LESLIE. My wife, my wife!
MARY. No, no! Keep away from me. Don't touch me. I'm not fit
. . . not fit to be near you. What has he done? I am his
sister. Tell me the worst. Tell me the worst at once.
LESLIE. That, if God wills, dear, that you shall never know.
Whatever it be, think that I knew it all, and only loved you
better; think that your true husband is with you, and you are not
to bear it alone.
MARY. My husband? . . . Never.
LESLIE. Mary . . . !
MARY. You forget, you forget what I am. I am his sister. I owe
him a lifetime of happiness and love; I owe him even you. And
whatever his fault, however ruinous his disgrace, he is my
brother - my own brother - and my place is still with him.
LESLIE. Your place is with me - is with your husband. With me,
with me; and for his sake most of all. What can you do for him
alone? how can you help him alone? It wrings my heart to think
how little. But together is different. Together . . . . I join
my strength, my will, my courage to your own, and together we may
save him.
MARY. All that is over. Once I was blessed among women. I was
my father's daughter, my brother loved me, I lived to be your
wife. Now . . . . ! My father is dead, my brother is shamed;
and you . . . O how could I face the world, how could I endure
myself, if I preferred my happiness to your honour?
LESLIE. What is my honour but your happiness? In what else does
it consist? Is it in denying me my heart? is it in visiting
another's sin upon the innocent? Could I do that, and be my
mother's son? Could I do that, and bear my father's name? Could
I do that, and have ever been found worthy of you?
MARY. It is my duty . . . my duty. Why will you make it so hard
for me? So hard, Walter so hard!
LESLIE. Do I pursue you only for your good fortune, your beauty,
the credit of your friends, your family's good name? That were
not love, and I love you. I love you, dearest, I love you.
Friend, father, brother, husband . . . I must be all these to
you. I am a man who can love well.
MARY. Silence . . . in pity! I cannot . . . . O, I cannot bear
it.
LESLIE. And say it was I who had fallen. Say I had played my
neck and lost it . . . that I were pushed by the law to the last
limits of ignominy and despair. Whose love would sanctify my
jail to me? whose pity would shine upon me in the dock? whose
prayers would accompany me to the gallows? Whose but yours?
Yours! . . . And you would entreat me - me! - to do what you
shrink from even in thought, what you would die ere you attempted
in deed!
MARY. Walter . . . on my knees . . . no more, no more!
LESLIE. My wife! my wife! Here on my heart! It is I that must
kneel . . . I that must kneel to you.
MARY. Dearest! . . . . Husband! You forgive him? O, you
forgive him?
LESLIE. He is my brother now. Let me take you to our father.
Come.
SCENE IV
After a pause, BRODIE, through the window
BRODIE. Saved! And the alibi! Man, but you've been near it
this time - near the rope, near the rope. Ah boy, it was your
neck, your neck you fought for. They were closing hell-doors
upon me, swift as the wind, when I slipped through and shot for
heaven! Saved! The dog that sold me, I settled him; and the
other dogs are staunch. Man, but your alibi will stand! Is the
window fast? The neighbours must not see the Deacon, the poor,
sick Deacon, up and stirring at this time o' night. Ay, the good
old room in the good, cozy old house . . . and the rat a dead
rat, and all saved. (HE LIGHTS THE CANDLES.) Your hand shakes,
sir? Fie! And you saved, and you snug and sick in your bed, and
it but a dead rat after all? (HE TAKES OFF HIS HANGER AND LAYS
IT ON THE TABLE.) Ay, it was a near touch. Will it come to the
dock? If it does! You've a tongue, and you've a head, and
you've an alibi; and your alibi will stand. (HE TAKES OFF HIS
COAT, TAKES OUT THE DAGGER, AND WITH A GESTURE OF STRIKING)
Home! He fell without a sob. 'He breaketh them against the
bosses of his buckler!' (LAYS THE DAGGER ON THE TABLE.) Your
alibi . . . ah Deacon, that's your life! . . . your alibi, your
alibi. (HE TAKES UP A CANDLE AND TURNS TOWARDS THE DOOR.) O!
. . . Open, open, open! judgment of God, the door is open!
SCENE V
BRODIE, MARY
BRODIE. Did you open the door?
MARY. I did.
BRODIE. You . . . . you opened the door?
MARY. I did open it
BRODIE. Were you . . . alone?
MARY. I was not. The servant was with me; and the doctor.
BRODIE. O . . . the servant . . . and the doctor. Very
true. Then it's all over the town by now. The servant and the
doctor. The doctor? What doctor? Why the doctor?
MARY. My father is dead. O Will, where have you been?
BRODIE. Your father is dead. O yes! He's dead, is he? Dead.
Quite right. Quite right . . . How did you open the door? It's
strange. I bolted it.
MARY. We could not help it, Will, now could we? The doctor
forced it. He had to, had he not?
BRODIE. The doctor forced it? The doctor? Was he here? He
forced it? He?
MARY. We did it for the best; it was I who did it . . . I, your
own sister. And O Will, my Willie, where have you been? You
have not been in any harm, any danger?
BRODIE. Danger? O my young lady, you have taken care of that.
It's not danger now, it's death. Death? Ah! Death! Death!
Death! (CLUTCHING THE TABLE. THEN, RECOVERING AS FROM A DREAM.)
Death? Did you say my father was dead? My father? O my God, my
poor old father! Is he dead, Mary? Have I lost him? is he gone?
O, Mary dear, and to think of where his son was!
MARY. Dearest, he is in heaven.
BRODIE. Did he suffer?
MARY. He died like a child. Your name . . . it was his last.
BRODIE. My name? Mine? O Mary, if he had known! He knows now.
He knows; he sees us now . . . sees me! Ay, and sees you, left
how lonely!
MARY. Not so, dear; not while you live. Wherever you are, I
shall not be alone, so you live.
BRODIE. While I live? I? The old house is ruined, and the old
master dead, and I! . . . O Mary, try and believe I did not
mean that it should come to this; try and believe that I was only
weak at first. At first? And now! The good old man dead, the
kind sister ruined, the innocent boy fallen, fallen . . . ! You
will be quite alone; all your old friends, all the old faces,
gone into darkness. The night (WITH A GESTURE) . . . it waits
for me. You will be quite alone.
MARY. The night!
BRODIE. Mary, you must hear. How am I to tell her, and the old
man just dead! Mary, I was the boy you knew; I loved pleasure, I
was weak; I have fallen . . . low . . . lower than you think.
A beginning is so small a thing! I never dreamed it would come
to this . . . . this hideous last night.
MARY. Willie, you must tell me, dear. I must have the truth .
. . the kind truth . . . at once . . . in pity.
BRODIE. Crime. I have fallen. Crime.
MARY. Crime?
BRODIE. Don't shrink from me. Miserable dog that I am, selfish
hound that has dragged you to this misery . . . you and all
that loved him . . . think only of my torments, think only of my
penitence, don't shrink from me.
MARY. I do not care to hear, I do not wish, I do not mind; you
are my brother. What do I care? How can I help you?
BRODIE. Help? help ME? You would not speak of it, not wish it,
if you knew. My kind good sister, my little playmate, my sweet
friend! was I ever unkind to you till yesterday? Not openly
unkind? you'll say that when I am gone.
MARY. If you have done wrong, what do I care? If you have
failed, does it change my twenty years of love and worship?
Never!
BRODIE. Yet I must make her understand . . . . !
MARY. I am your true sister, dear. I cannot fail, I will never
leave you, I will never blame you. Come! (GOES TO EMBRACE.)
BRODIE (RECOILING). No, don't touch me, not a finger, not that,
anything but that!
MARY. Willie, Willie!
BRODIE (TAKING THE BLOODY DAGGER FROM THE TABLE). See, do you
understand that?
MARY. Ah! What, what is it!
BRODIE. Blood. I have killed a man.
MARY. You? . . . .
BRODIE. I am a murderer; I was a thief before. Your brother . .
. the old man's only son!
MARY. Walter, Walter, come to me!
BRODIE. Now you see that I must die; now you see that I stand
upon the grave's edge, all my lost life behind me, like a horror
to think upon, like a frenzy, like a dream that is past. And
you, you are alone. Father, brother, they are gone from you; one
to heaven, one . . . . !
MARY. Hush, dear, hush! Kneel, pray; it is not too late to
repent. Think of our father dear; repent. (SHE WEEPS, STRAINING
TO HIS BOSOM.) O Willie, my darling boy, repent and join us.
SCENE VI
To these, LAWSON, LESLIE, JEAN
LAWSON. She kens a', thank the guid Lord!
BRODIE (TO MARY). I know you forgive me now; I ask no more.
That is a good man. (TO LESLIE.) Will you take her from my
hands? (LESLIE TAKES MARY.) Jean, are ye here to see the end?
JEAN. Eh man, can ye no fly? Could ye no say that it was me?
BRODIE. No, Jean, this is where it ends. Uncle, this is where
it ends. And to think that not an hour ago I still had hopes!
Hopes! Ay, not an hour ago I thought of a new life. You were
not forgotten, Jean. Leslie, you must try to forgive me . . .
you, too!
LESLIE. You are her brother.
BRODIE (TO LAWSON). And you?
LAWSON. My name-child and my sister's bairn!
BRODIE. You won't forget Jean, will you? nor the child?
LAWSON. That I will not.
MARY. O Willie, nor I.
SCENE VII
To these, HUNT
HUNT. The game's up, Deacon. I'll trouble you to come along
with me.
BRODIE (BEHIND THE TABLE). One moment, officer: I have a word
to say before witnesses ere I go. In all this there is but one
man guilty; and that man is I. None else has sinned; none else
must suffer. This poor woman (POINTING TO JEAN) I have used; she
never understood. Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, that is my dying
confession. (HE SNATCHES HIS HANGER FROM THE TABLE, AND RUSHES
UPON HUNT, WHO PARRIES, AND RUNS HIM THROUGH. HE REELS ACROSS
THE STAGE AND FALLS.) The new life . . . the new life! (HE
DIES.)
CURTAIN.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Play: BEAU AUSTIN
DEDICATED WITH ADMIRATION AND RESPECT TO GEORGE MEREDITH
BOURNEMOUTH: 1ST OCTOBER 1884.
PERSONS REPRESENTED
GEORGE FREDERICK AUSTIN, called 'Beau Austin' AEtat. 50
JOHN FENWICK, of Allonby Shaw " " 26
ANTHONY MUSGRAVE, Cornet in the Prince's Own " " 21
MENTEITH, the Beau's Valet " " 55
A ROYAL DUKE (Dumb show.)
DOROTHY MUSGRAVE, Anthony's Sister " " 25
MISS EVELINA FOSTER, her Aunt " " 45
BARBARA RIDLEY, her Maid " " 20
VISITORS TO THE WELLS
The Time is 1820. The Scene is laid at Tunbridge Wells. The
Action occupies a space of ten hours.
HAYMARKET THEATRE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3d, 1890
CAST
GEORGE FREDERICK AUSTIN MR. TREE
JOHN FENWICK MR. FRED TERRY
ANTHONY MUSGRAVE MR. EDMUND MAURICE
MENTEITH MR. BROOKFIELD
A ROYAL DUKE MR. ROBB HARWOOD
DOROTHY MUSGRAVE MRS. TREE
MISS EVELINA FOSTER MISS ROSE LECLERCQ
BARBARA RIDLEY MISS AYLWARD
VISITORS TO THE WELLS
PROLOGUE
SPOKEN BY MR. TREE IN THE CHARACTER OF BEAU AUSTIN
'To all and singular,' as Dryden says,
We bring a fancy of those Georgian days,
Whose style still breathed a faint and fine perfume
Of old-world courtliness and old-world bloom:
When speech was elegant and talk was fit
For slang had not been canonised as wit;
When manners reigned, when breeding had the wall,
And Women - yes! - were ladies first of all;
When Grace was conscious of its gracefulness,
And man - though Man! - was not ashamed to dress.
A brave formality, a measured ease,
Were his - and her's - whose effort was to please.
And to excel in pleasing was to reign
And, if you sighed, never to sigh in vain.
But then, as now - it may be, something more -
Woman and man were human to the core.
The hearts that throbbed behind that quaint attire
Burned with a plenitude of essential fire.
They too could risk, they also could rebel,
They could love wisely - they could love too well.
In that great duel of Sex, that ancient strife
Which is the very central fact of life,
They could - and did - engage it breath for breath,
They could - and did - get wounded unto death.
As at all times since time for us began
Woman was truly woman, man was man,
And joy and sorrow were as much at home
In trifling Tunbridge as in mighty Rome.
Dead - dead and done with! Swift from shine to shade
The roaring generations flit and fade.
To this one, fading, flitting, like the rest,
We come to proffer - be it worst or best -
A sketch, a shadow, of one brave old time;
A hint of what it might have held sublime;
A dream, an idyll, call it what you will,
Of man still Man, and woman - Woman still!
BEAU AUSTIN
MUSICAL INDUCTION: 'LASCIA CH'IO PIANGA' (RINALDO). HANDEL.
ACT I.
The Stage represents Miss Foster's apartments at the Wells.
Doors, L. and C.; a window, L. C., looking on the street; a table
R., laid for breakfast.
SCENE I
BARBARA; to her MISS FOSTER
BARBARA (OUT OF WINDOW). Mr. Menteith! Mr. Menteith! Mr.
Menteith! - Drat his old head! Will nothing make him hear? - Mr.
Menteith!
MISS FOSTER (ENTERING). Barbara! this is incredible: after all
my lessons, to be leaning from the window, and calling (for
unless my ears deceived me, you were positively calling!) into
the street.
BARBARA. Well, madam, just wait until you hear who it was. I
declare it was much more for Miss Dorothy and yourself than for
me; and if it was a little countrified, I had a good excuse.
MISS FOSTER. Nonsense, child! At least, who was it?
BARBARA. Miss Evelina, I was sure you would ask. Well, what do
you think? I was looking out of window at the barber's opposite
-
MISS FOSTER. Of which I entirely disapprove -
BARBARA. And first there came out two of the most beautiful -
the Royal livery, madam!
MISS FOSTER. Of course, of course: the Duke of York arrived
last night. I trust you did not hail the Duke's footmen?
BARBARA. O no, madam, it was after they were gone. Then, who
should come out - but you'll never guess!
MISS FOSTER. I shall certainly not try.
BARBARA. Mr. Menteith himself!
MISS FOSTER. Why, child, I never heard of him.
BARBARA. O madam, not the Beau's own gentleman?
MISS FOSTER. Mr. Austin's servant. No? Is it possible? By
that, George Austin must be here.
BARBARA. No doubt of that, madam; they're never far apart. He
came out feeling his chin, madam, so; and a packet of letters
under his arm, so; and he had the Beau's own walk to that degree
you couldn't tell his back from his master's.
MISS FOSTER. My dear Barbara, you too frequently forget
yourself. A young woman in your position must beware of levity.
BARBARA. Madam, I know it; but la, what are you to make of me?
Look at the time and trouble dear Miss Dorothy was always taking
- she that trained up everybody - and see what's come of it:
Barbara Ridley I was, and Barbara Ridley I am; and I don't do
with fashionable ways - I can't do with them; and indeed, Miss
Evelina, I do sometimes wish we were all back again on Edenside,
and Mr. Anthony a boy again, and dear Miss Dorothy her old self,
galloping the bay mare along the moor, and taking care of all of
us as if she was our mother, bless her heart!
MISS FOSTER. Miss Dorothy herself, child? Well, now you mention
it, Tunbridge of late has scarcely seemed to suit her
constitution. She falls away, has not a word to throw at a dog,
and is ridiculously pale. Well, now Mr. Austin has returned,
after six months of infidelity to the dear Wells, we shall all, I
hope, be brightened up. Has the mail come?
BARBARA. That it has, madam, and the sight of Mr. Menteith put
it clean out of my head. (WITH LETTERS.) Four for you, Miss
Evelina, two for me, and only one for Miss Dorothy. Miss Dorothy
seems quite neglected, does she not? Six months ago, it was a
different story.
MISS FOSTER. Well, and that's true, Barbara, and I had not
remarked it. I must take her seriously to task. No young lady
in her position should neglect her correspondence. (OPENING A
LETTER.) Here's from that dear ridiculous boy, the Cornet,
announcing his arrival for to-day.
BARBARA. O madam, will he come in his red coat?
MISS FOSTER. I could not conceive him missing such a chance.
Youth, child, is always vain, and Mr. Anthony is unusually young.
BARBARA. La, madam, he can't help that.
MISS FOSTER. My child, I am not so sure. Mr. Anthony is a great
concern to me. He was orphaned, to be sure, at ten years old;
and ever since he has been only as it were his sister's son.
Dorothy did everything for him: more indeed than I thought quite
ladylike, but I suppose I begin to be old-fashioned. See how she
worked and slaved - yes, slaved! - for him: teaching him
herself, with what pains and patience she only could reveal, and
learning that she might be able; and see what he is now: a
gentleman, of course, but, to be frank, a very commonplace one:
not what I had hoped of Dorothy's brother; not what I had dreamed
of the heir of two families - Musgrave and Foster, child! Well,
he may now meet Mr.Austin. He requires a Mr. Austin to embellish
and correct his manners. (OPENING ANOTHER LETTER.) Why,
Barbara, Mr. John Scrope and Miss Kate Dacre are to be married!
BARBARA. La, madam, how nice!
MISS FOSTER. They are: As I'm a sinful woman. And when will
you be married, Barbara? and when dear Dorothy? I hate to see
old maids a-making.
BARBARA. La, Miss Evelina, there's no harm in an old maid.
MISS FOSTER. You speak like a fool, child: sour grapes are all
very well but it's a woman's business to be married. As for
Dorothy, she is five-and-twenty, and she breaks my heart. Such a
match, too! Ten thousand to her fortune, the best blood in the
north, a most advantageous person, all the graces, the finest
sensibility, excellent judgment, the Foster walk; and all these
to go positively a-begging! The men seem stricken with
blindness. Why, child, when I came out (and I was the dear
girl's image!) I had more swains at my feet in a fortnight than
our Dorothy in - O, I cannot fathom it: it must be the girl's
own fault.
BARBARA. Why, madam, I did think it was a case with Mr. Austin.
MISS FOSTER. With Mr. Austin? why, how very rustic! The
attentions of a gentleman like Mr. Austin, child, are not
supposed to lead to matrimony. He is a feature of society: an
ornament: a personage: a private gentleman by birth, but a kind
of king by habit and reputation. What woman could he marry?
Those to whom he might properly aspire are all too far below him.
I have known George Austin too long, child, and I understand that
the very greatness of his success condemns him to remain
unmarried.
BARBARA. Sure, madam, that must be tiresome for him.
MISS FOSTER. Some day, child, you will know better than to think
so. George Austin, as I conceive him, and as he is regarded by
the world, is one of the triumphs of the other sex. I walked my
first minuet with him: I wouldn't tell you the year, child, for
worlds; but it was soon after his famous rencounter with Colonel
Villiers. He had killed his man, he wore pink and silver, was
most elegantly pale, and the most ravishing creature!
BARBARA. Well, madam, I believe that: he is the most beautiful
gentleman still.
SCENE II
To these, DOROTHY, L.
DOROTHY (ENTERING). Good-morning, aunt! Is there anything for
me? (SHE GOES EAGERLY TO TABLE, AND LOOKS AT LETTERS.)
MISS FOSTER. Good-morrow, niece. Breakfast, Barbara.
DOROTHY (WITH LETTER UNOPENED). Nothing.
MISS FOSTER. And what do you call that, my dear? (SITTING.) Is
John Fenwick nobody?
DOROTHY (LOOKING AT LETTER.) From John? O yes, so it is. (LAYS
DOWN LETTER UNOPENED, AND SITS TO BREAKFAST, BARBARA WAITING.)
MISS FOSTER (TO BARBARA, WITH PLATE). Thanks, child; now you may
give me some tea. Dolly, I must insist on your eating a good
breakfast: I cannot away with your pale cheeks and that
Patience-on-a Monument kind of look. (Toast, Barbara.) At
Edenside you ate and drank and looked like Hebe. What have you
done with your appetite?
DOROTHY. I don't know, aunt, I'm sure.
MISS FOSTER. Then consider, please, and recover it as soon as
you can: to a young lady in your position a good appetite is an
attraction - almost a virtue. Do you know that your brother
arrives this morning?
DOROTHY. Dear Anthony! Where is his letter, Aunt Evelina? I am
pleased that he should leave London and its perils, if only for a
day.
MISS FOSTER. My dear, there are moments when you positively
amaze. (Barbara, some PATE, if you please!) I beg you not to be
a prude. All women, of course, are virtuous; but a prude is
something I regard with abhorrence. The Cornet is seeing life,
which is exactly what he wanted. You brought him up surprisingly
well; I have always admired you for it; but let us admit - as
women of the world, my dear - it was no upbringing for a man.
You and that fine solemn fellow, John Fenwick, led a life that
was positively no better than the Middle Ages; and between the
two of you, poor Anthony (who, I am sure, was a most passive
creature!) was so packed with principle and admonition that I vow
and declare he reminded me of Issachar stooping between his two
burdens. It washigh time for him to be done with your
apron-string, my dear: he has all his wild oats to sow; and that
is an occupation which it is unwise to defer too long. By the
bye, have you heard the news? The Duke of York has done us a
service for which I was unprepared. (More tea, Barbara!) George
Austin, bringing the prince in his train, is with us once more.
DOROTHY. I knew he was coming.
MISS FOSTER. You knew, child? and did not tell? You are a
public criminal.
DOROTHY. I did not think it mattered, Aunt Evelina.
MISS FOSTER. O do not make-believe. I am in love with him
myself, and have been any time since Nelson and the Nile. As for
you, Dolly, since he went away six months ago, you have been
positively in the megrims. I shall date your loss of appetite
from George Austin's vanishing. No, my dear, our family require
entertainment: we must have wit about us, and beauty, and the
BEL AIR.
BARBARA. Well, Miss Dorothy, perhaps it's out of my place: but
I do hope Mr. Austin will come: I should love to have him see my
necklace on.
DOROTHY. Necklace? what necklace? Did he give you a necklace?
BARBARA. Yes, indeed, Miss, that he did: the very same day he
drove you in his curricle to Penshurst. You remember, Miss, I
couldn't go.
DOROTHY. I remember.
MISS FOSTER. And so do I. I had a touch of . . . Foster in the
blood: the family gout, dears! . . . And you, you ungrateful
nymph, had him a whole day to yourself, and not a word to tell me
when you returned.
DOROTHY. I remember. (RISING.) Is that the necklace, Barbara?
It does not suit you. Give it me.
BARBARA. La, Miss Dorothy, I wouldn't for the world.
DOROTHY. Come, give it me. I want it. Thank you: you shall
have my birthday pearls instead.
MISS FOSTER. Why, Dolly, I believe you're jealous of the maid.
Foster, Foster: always a Foster trick to wear the willow in
anger.
DOROTHY. I do not think, madam, that I am of a jealous habit.
MISS FOSTER. O, the personage is your excuse! And I can tell
you, child, that when George Austin was playing Florizel to the
Duchess's Perdita, all the maids in England fell a prey to green-
eyed melancholy. It was the TON, you see: not to pine for that
Sylvander was to resign from good society.
DOROTHY. Aunt Evelina, stop; I cannot endure to hear you. What
is he after all but just Beau Austin? What has he done - with
half a century of good health, what has he done that is either
memorable or worthy? Diced and danced and set fashions;
vanquished in a drawing-room, fought for a word; what else? As
if these were the meaning of life! Do not make me think so
poorly of all of us women. Sure, we can rise to admire a better
kind of man than Mr. Austin. We are not all to be snared with
the eye, dear aunt; and those that are - O! I know not whether I
more hate or pity them.
MISS FOSTER. You will give me leave, my niece: such talk is
neither becoming in a young lady nor creditable to your
understanding. The world was made a great while before Miss
Dorothy Musgrave; and you will do much better to ripen your
opinions, and in the meantime read your letter, which I perceive
you have not opened. (DOROTHY OPENS AND READS LETTER.) Barbara,
child, you should not listen at table.
BARBARA. Sure, madam, I hope I know my place.
MISS FOSTER. Then do not do it again.
DOROTHY. Poor John Fenwick! he coming here!
MISS FOSTER. Well, and why not? Dorothy, my darling child, you
give me pain. You never had but one chance, let me tell you
pointedly: and that was John Fenwick. If I were you, I would
not let my vanity so blind me. This is not the way to marry.
DOROTHY. Dear aunt, I shall never marry.
MISS FOSTER. A fiddlestick's end! every one must marry.
(RISING.) Are you for the Pantiles?
DOROTHY. Not to-day, dear,
MISS FOSTER. Well, well! have your wish, Dolorosa. Barbara,
attend and dress me.
SCENE III
DOROTHY
DOROTHY. How she tortures me, poor aunt, my poor blind aunt; and
I - I could break her heart with a word. That she should see
nothing, know nothing - there's where it kills. O, it is more
than I can bear . . . and yet, how much less than I deserve! Mad
girl, of what do I complain? that this dear innocent woman still
believes me good, still pierces me to the soul with trustfulness.
Alas, and were it otherwise, were her dear eyes opened to the
truth, what were left me but death? - He, too - she must still be
praising him, and every word is a lash upon my conscience. If I
could die of my secret: if I could cease - but one moment cease
- this living lie; if I could sleep and forget and be at rest! -
Poor John! (READING THE LETTER) he at least is guiltless; and yet
for my fault he too must suffer, he too must bear part in my
shame. Poor John Fenwick! Has he come back with the old story:
with what might have been, perhaps, had we stayed by Edenside?
Eden? yes, my Eden, from which I fell. O my old north country,
my old river - the river of my innocence, the old country of my
hopes - how could I endure to look on you now? And how to meet
John? - John, with the old love on his lips, the old, honest,
innocent, faithful heart! There was a Dorothy once who was not
unfit to ride with him, her heart as light as his, her life as
clear as the bright rivers we forded; he called her his Diana, he
crowned her so with rowan. Where is that Dorothy now? that
Diana? she that was everything to John? For O, I did him good;
I know I did him good; I will still believe I did him good: I
made him honest and kind and a true man; alas, and could not
guide myself! And now, how will he despise me! For he shall
know; if I die, he shall know all; I could not live, and not be
true with him. (SHE TAKES OUT THE NECKLACE AND LOOKS AT IT.)
That he should have bought me from my maid! George, George, that
you should have stooped to this! Basely as you have used me,
this is the basest. Perish the witness! (SHE TREADS THE TRINKET
UNDER FOOT.) Break, break like my heart, break like my hopes,
perish like my good name!
SCENE IV
To her, FENWICK, C.
FENWICK (AFTER A PAUSE). Is this how you receive me, Dorothy?
Am I not welcome? - Shall I go then?
DOROTHY (RUNNING TO HIM, WITH HANDS OUTSTRETCHED). O no, John,
not for me. (TURNING, AND POINTING TO THE NECKLACE.) But you
find me changed.
FENWICK (WITH A MOVEMENT TOWARDS THE NECKLACE). This?
DOROTHY. No, no, let it lie. That is a trinket - broken. But
the old Dorothy is dead.
FENWICK. Dead, dear? Not to me.
DOROTHY. Dead to you - dead to all men.
FENWICK. Dorothy, I loved you as a boy. There is not a meadow
on Edenside but is dear to me for your sake, not a cottage but
recalls your goodness, not a rock nor a tree but brings back
something of the best and brightest youth man ever had. You were
my teacher and my queen; I walked with you, I talked with you, I
rode with you; I lived in your shadow; I saw with your eyes. You
will never know, dear Dorothy, what you were to the dull boy you
bore with; you will never know with what romance you filled my
life, with what devotion, with what tenderness and honour. At
night I lay awake and worshipped you; in my dreams I saw you, and
you loved me; and you remember, when we told each other stories -
you have not forgotten, dearest - that Princess Hawthorn that was
still the heroine of mine: who was she? I was not bold enough
to tell, but she was you! You, my virgin huntress, my Diana, my
queen.
DOROTHY. O silence, silence - pity!
FENWICK. No, dear; neither for your sake nor mine will I be
silenced. I have begun; I must go on and finish, and put fortune
to the touch. It was from you I learned honour, duty, piety, and
love. I am as you made me, and I exist but to reverence and
serve you. Why else have I come here, the length of England, my
heart burning higher every mile, my very horse a clog to me? why,
but to ask you for my wife? Dorothy, you will not deny me.
DOROTHY. You have not asked me about this broken trinket?
FENWICK. Why should I ask? I love you.
DOROTHY. Yet I must tell you. Sit down. (SHE PICKS UP THE
NECKLACE, AND STANDS LOOKING AT IT. THEN, BREAKING DOWN.) O
John, John, it's long since I left home.
FENWICK. Too long, dear love. The very trees will welcome you.
DOROTHY. Ay, John, but I no longer love you. The old Dorothy is
dead, God pardon her!
FENWICK. Dorothy, who is the man?
DOROTHY. O poor Dorothy! O poor dead Dorothy! John, you found
me breaking this: me, your Diana of the Fells, the Diana of your
old romance by Edenside. Diana - O what a name for me! Do you
see this trinket? It is a chapter in my life. A chapter, do I
say? my whole life, for there is none to follow. John, you must
bear with me, you must help me. I have that to tell - there is a
secret - I have a secret, John - O, for God's sake, understand.
That Diana you revered - O John, John, you must never speak of
love to me again.
FENWICK. What do you say? How dare you?
DOROTHY. John, it is the truth. Your Diana, even she, she whom
you so believed in, she who so believed in herself, came out into
the world only to be broken. I met, here at the Wells, a man -
why should I tell you his name? I met him, and I loved him. My
heart was all his own; yet he was not content with that: he must
intrigue to catch me, he must bribe my maid with this. (THROWS
THE NECKLACE ON THE TABLE.) Did he love me? Well, John, he said
he did; and be it so! He loved, he betrayed, and he has left me.
FENWICK. Betrayed?
DOROTHY. Ay, even so; I was betrayed. The fault was mine that I
forgot our innocent youth, and your honest love.
FENWICK. Dorothy, O Dorothy!
DOROTHY. Yours is the pain; but, O John, think it is for your
good. Think in England how many true maids may be waiting for
your love, how many that can bring you a whole heart, and be a
noble mother to your children, while your poor Diana, at the
first touch, has proved all frailty. Go, go and be happy, and
let me be patient. I have sinned.
FENWICK. By God, I'll have his blood.
DOROTHY. Stop! I love him. (BETWEEN FENWICK AND DOOR, C.)
FENWICK. What do I care? I loved you too. Little he thought of
that, little either of you thought of that. His blood - I'll
have his blood!
DOROTHY. You shall never know his name.
FENWICK. Know it? Do you think I cannot guess? Do you think I
had not heard he followed you. Do you think I had not suffered -
O suffered! George Austin is the man. Dear shall he pay it!
DOROTHY (AT HIS FEET). Pity me; spare me, spare your Dorothy! I
love him - love him - love him!
FENWICK. Dorothy, you have robbed me of my happiness, and now
you would rob me of my revenge.
DOROTHY. I know it; and shall I ask, and you not grant?
FENWICK (RAISING HER). No, Dorothy, you shall ask nothing,
nothing in vain from me. You ask his life; I give it you, as I
would give you my soul; as I would give you my life, if I had any
left. My life is done; you have taken it. Not a hope, not an
end; not even revenge. (HE SITS.) Dorothy, you see your work.
DOROTHY. O God, forgive me.
FENWICK. Ay, Dorothy, He will, as I do.
DOROTHY. As you do? Do you forgive me, John?
FENWICK. Ay, more than that, poor soul. I said my life was
done, I was wrong; I have still a duty. It is not in vain you
taught me; I shall still prove to you that it was not in vain.
You shall soon find that I am no backward friend. Farewell.
MUSICAL INDUCTION: 'THE LASS OF RICHMOND HILL.'
ACT II.
The Stage represents George Austin's dressing-room. Elaborate
toilet-table, R., with chair; a cheval glass so arranged as to
correspond with glass on table. Breakfast-table, L., front.
Door, L. The Beau is discovered at table, in dressing-grown,
trifling with correspondence. MENTEITH is frothing chocolate.
SCENE I
AUSTIN, MENTEITH
MENTEITH. At the barber's, Mr. George, I had the pleasure of
meeting two of the Dook's gentlemen.
AUSTIN. Well, and was his Royal Highness satisfied with his
quarters?
MENTEITH. Quite so, Mr. George. Delighted, I believe.
AUSTIN. I am rejoiced to hear it. I wish I could say I was as
pleased with my journey, Menteith. This is the first time I ever
came to the Wells in another person's carriage; Duke or not, it
shall be the last, Menteith.
MENTEITH. Ah, Mr. George, no wonder. And how many times have we
made that journey back and forth?
AUSTIN. Enough to make us older than we look.
MENTEITH. To be sure, Mr. George, you do wear well.
AUSTIN. WE wear well, Menteith.
MENTEITH. I hear, Mr. George, that Miss Musgrave is of the
company.
AUSTIN. Is she so? Well, well! well, well!
MENTEITH. I've not seen the young lady myself, Mr. George; but
the barber tells me she's looking poorly.
AUSTIN. Poorly?
MENTEITH. Yes, Mr. George, poorly was his word.
AUSTIN. Well, Menteith, I am truly sorry. She is not the first.
MENTEITH. Yes, Mr. George. (A BELL. MENTEITH GOES OUT, AND RE-
ENTERS WITH CARD.)
AUSTIN (WITH CARD). Whom have we here? Anthony Musgrave?
MENTEITH. A fine young man, Mr. George; and with a look of the
young lady, but not so gentlemanly.
AUSTIN. You have an eye, you have an eye. Let him in.
SCENE II
AUSTIN, MENTEITH, ANTHONY
AUSTIN. I am charmed to have this opportunity, Mr. Musgrave.
You belong to my old corps, I think? And how does my good
friend, Sir Frederick? I had his line; but like all my old
comrades, he thinks last about himself, and gives me not of his
news.
ANTHONY. I protest, sir, this is a very proud moment. Your name
is still remembered in the regiment. (AUSTIN BOWS.) The Colonel
- he keeps his health, sir, considering his age (AUSTIN BOWS
AGAIN, AND LOOKS AT MENTEITH) - tells us young men you were a
devil of a fellow in your time.
AUSTIN. I believe I was - in my time. Menteith, give Mr.
Musgrave a dish of chocolate. So, sir, we see you at the Wells.
ANTHONY. I have but just alighted. I had but one thought, sir:
to pay my respects to Mr. Austin. I have not yet kissed my aunt
and sister.
AUSTIN. In my time - to which you refer - the ladies had come
first.
ANTHONY. The women? I take you, sir. But then you see, a man's
relatives don't count. And besides, Mr. Austin, between men of
the world, I am fairly running away from the sex: I am
positively in flight. Little Hortense of the Opera; you know;
she sent her love to you. She's mad about me, I think. You
never saw a creature so fond.
AUSTIN. Well, well, child! you are better here. In my time - to
which you have referred - I knew the lady. Does she wear well?
ANTHONY. I beg your pardon, sir!
AUSTIN. No offence, child, no offence. She was a very lively
creature. But you neglect your chocolate I see?
ANTHONY. We don't patronise it, Mr. Austin; we haven't for some
years: the service has quite changed since your time. You'd be
surprised.
AUSTIN. Doubtless. I am.
ANTHONY. I assure you, sir, I and Jack Bosbury of the
Fifty-Second -
AUSTIN. The Hampshire Bosburys? -
ANTHONY. I do not know exactly, sir. I believe he is related.
AUSTIN. Or perhaps - I remember a Mr. Bosbury, a cutter of
coats. I have the vanity to believe I formed his business.
ANTHONY. I - I hope not, sir. But as I was saying, I and this
Jack Bosbury, and the Brummagem Bantam - a very pretty light-
weight, sir - drank seven bottles of Burgundy to the three of us
inside the eighty minutes. Jack, sir, was a little cut; but me
and the Bantam went out and finished the evening on hot gin.
Life, sir, life! Tom Cribb was with us. He spoke of you, too,
Tom did: said you'd given him a wrinkle for his second fight
with the black man. No, sir, I assure you, you're not forgotten.
AUSTIN (BOWS). I am pleased to learn it. In my time, I had an
esteem for Mr. Cribb.
ANTHONY. O come, sir! but your time cannot be said to be over.
AUSTIN. Menteith, you hear?
MENTEITH. Yes, Mr. George.
ANTHONY. The Colonel told me that you liked to shake an elbow.
Your big main, sir, with Lord Wensleydale, is often talked about.
I hope I may have the occasion to sit down with you. I shall
count it an honour, I assure you.
AUSTIN. But would your aunt, my very good friend, approve?
ANTHONY. Why, sir, you do not suppose I am in leading-strings?
AUSTIN. You forget, child: a family must hang together. When I
was young - in my time - I was alone; and what I did concerned
myself. But a youth who has - as I think you have - a family of
ladies to protect, must watch his honour, child, and preserve his
fortune. You have no commands from Sir Frederick?
ANTHONY. None, sir, none.
AUSTIN. Shall I find you this noon upon the Pantiles? . . . I
shall be charmed. Commend me to your aunt and your fair sister.
Menteith?
MENTEITH. Yes, Mr. George. (SHOWS ANTHONY OUT.)
SCENE III
AUSTIN, MENTEITH, RETURNING
AUSTIN. Was I ever like that, Menteith?
MENTEITH. No, Mr. George, you was always a gentleman.
AUSTIN. Youth, my good fellow, youth.
MENTEITH. Quite so, Mr. George.
AUSTIN. Well, Menteith, we cannot make no mend. We cannot play
the jockey with Time. Age is the test: of wine, Menteith, and
men.
MENTEITH. Me and you and the old Hermitage, Mr. George, he-he!
AUSTIN. And the best of these, the Hermitage. But come: we
lose our day. Help me off with this. (MENTEITH TAKES OFF
AUSTIN'S DRESSING-GOWN; AUSTIN PASSES R. TO DRESSING-TABLE, AND
TAKES UP FIRST CRAVAT.)
AUSTIN. Will the hair do, Menteith?
MENTEITH. Never saw it lay better, Mr. George. (AUSTIN PROCEEDS
TO WIND FIRST CRAVAT. A BELL: EXIT MENTEITH. AUSTIN DROPS
FIRST CRAVAT IN BASKET AND TAKES SECOND.)
AUSTIN (WINDING AND SINGING) -
'I'd crowns resign To call her mine, Sweet Lass of Richmond
Hill!'
(SECOND CRAVAT A FAILURE. RE-ENTER MENTEITH WITH CARD.)
Fenwick? of Allonby Shaw? A good family, Menteith, but I don't
know the gentleman. (LAYS DOWN CARD, AND TAKES UP THIRD CRAVAT.)
Send him away with every consideration.
MENTEITH. To be sure, Mr. George. (HE GOES OUT. THIRD CRAVAT A
SUCCESS. RE-ENTER MENTEITH.) He says, Mr. George, that he has
an errand from Miss Musgrave.
AUSTIN (WITH WAISTCOAT). Show him in, Menteith, at once.
(SINGING AND FITTING WAISTCOAT AT GLASS) -
'I'd crowns resign To call her mine, Sweet Lass of Richmond
Hill!'
SCENE IV
AUSTIN, R. TO HIM MENTEITH AND FENWICK
MENTEITH (ANNOUNCING). Mr. Fenwick, Mr. George.
AUSTIN. At the name of Miss Musgrave, my doors fly always open.
FENWICK. I believe, sir, you are acquainted with my cousin,
Richard Gaunt?
AUSTIN. The county member? An old and good friend. But you
need not go so far afield: I know your good house of Allonby
Shaw since the days of the Black Knight. We are, in fact, and at
a very royal distance, cousins.
FENWICK. I desired, sir, from the nature of my business, that
you should recognise me for a gentleman.
AUSTIN. The preliminary, sir, is somewhat grave.
FENWICK. My business is both grave and delicate.
AUSTIN. Menteith, my good fellow. (EXIT MENTEITH.) Mr.
Fenwick, honour me so far as to be seated. (THEY SIT.) I await
your pleasure.
FENWICK. Briefly, sir, I am come, not without hope, to appeal to
your good heart.
AUSTIN. From Miss Musgrave?
FENWICK. No, sir, I abused her name, and am here upon my own
authority. Upon me the consequence.
AUSTIN. Proceed.
FENWICK. Mr. Austin, Dorothy Musgrave is the oldest and dearest
of my friends, is the lady whom for ten years it has been my hope
to make my wife. She has shown me reason to discard that hope
for another: that I may call her Mrs. Austin.
AUSTIN. In the best interests of the lady (RISING) I question if
you have been well inspired. You are aware, sir, that from such
interference there is but one issue: to whom shall I address my
friend?
FENWICK. Mr. Austin, I am here to throw myself upon your mercy.
Strange as my errand is, it will seem yet more strange to you
that I came prepared to accept at your hands any extremity of
dishonour and not fight. The lady whom it is my boast to serve
has honoured me with her commands. These are my law, and by
these your life is sacred.
AUSTIN. Then, sir (WITH HIS HAND UPON THE BELL), his
conversation becomes impossible. You have me at too gross a
disadvantage; and, as you are a gentleman and respect another, I
would suggest that you retire.
FENWICK. Sir, you speak of disadvantage; think of mine. All my
life long, with all the forces of my nature, I have loved this
lady. I came here to implore her to be my wife, to be my queen;
my saint she had been always! She was too noble to deceive me.
She told me what you know. I will not conceal that my first mood
wasof anger: I would have killed you like a dog. But, Mr.
Austin - bear with me awhile - I, on the threshold of my life,
who have made no figure in the world, nor ever shall now, who had
but one treasure, and have lost it - if I, abandoning revenge,
trampling upon jealousy, can supplicate you to complete my
misfortune - O Mr. Austin! you who have lived, you whose
gallantry is beyond the insolence of a suspicion, you who are a
man crowned and acclaimed, who are loved, and loved by such a
woman - you who excel me in every point of advantage, will you
suffer me to surpass you in generosity?
AUSTIN. You speak from the heart. (SITS.) What do you want
with me?
FENWICK. Marry her.
AUSTIN. Mr. Fenwick, I am the older man. I have seen much of
life, much of society, much of love. When I was young, it was
expected of a gentleman to be ready with his hat to a lady, ready
with his sword to a man; to honour his word and his king; to be
courteous with his equals, generous to his dependants, helpful
and trusty in friendship. But it was not asked of us to be
quixotic. If I had married every lady by whom it is my fortune -
not my merit - to have been distinguished, the Wells would scarce
be spacious enough for my establishment. You see, sir, that
while I respect your emotion, I am myself conducted by
experience. And besides, Mr. Fenwick, is not love a warfare? has
it not rules? have not our fair antagonists their tactics, their
weapons, their place of arms? and is there not a touch of -
pardon me the word! of silliness in one who, having fought, and
having vanquished, sounds a parley, and capitulates to his own
prisoner? Had the lady chosen, had the fortune of war been
other, 'tis like she had been Mrs. Austin. Now I . . . You know
the world.
FENWICK. I know, sir, that the world contains much cowardice.
To find Mr. Austin afraid to do the right, this surprises me.
AUSTIN. Afraid, child?
FENWICK. Yes, sir, afraid. You know her, you know if she be
worthy; and you answer me with - the world: the world which has
been at your feet: the world which Mr. Austin knows so well how
to value and is so able to rule.
AUSTIN. I have lived long enough, Mr. Fenwick, to recognise that
the world is a great power. It can make; but it can break.
FENWICK. Sir, suffer me: you spoke but now of friendship, and
spoke warmly. Have you forgotten Colonel Villiers?
AUSTIN. Mr. Fenwick, Mr. Fenwick, you forget what I have
suffered.
FENWICK. O sir, I know you loved him. And yet, for a random
word you quarrelled; friendship was weighed in vain against the
world's code of honour; you fought, and your friend fell. I have
heard from others how he lay long in agony, and how you watched
and nursed him, and it was in your embrace he died. In God's
name have you forgotten that? Was not this sacrifice enough? or
must the world, once again, step between Mr. Austin and his
generous heart?
AUSTIN. Good God, sir, I believe you are in the right; I
believe, upon my soul I believe, there is something in what you
say.
FENWICK. Something, Mr. Austin? O credit me, the whole
difference betwixt good and evil.
AUSTIN. Nay, nay, but there you go too far. There are many
kinds of good: honour is a diamond cut in a thousand facets, and
with the true fire in each. Thus, and with all our differences,
Mr. Fenwick, you and I can still respect, we can still admire
each other.
FENWICK. Bear with me still, sir, if I ask you what is the end
of life but to excel in generosity? To pity the weak, to comfort
the afflicted, to right where we have wronged, to be brave in
reparation - these noble elements you have; for of what besides
is the fabric of your dealing with Colonel Villiers? That is
man's chivalry to man. Yet to a suffering woman - a woman
feeble, betrayed, unconsoled - you deny your clemency, you refuse
your aid, you proffer injustice for atonement. Nay, you are so
disloyal to yourself that you can choose to be ungenerous and
unkind. Where, sir, is the honour? What facet of the diamond is
that?
AUSTIN. You forget, sir, you forget. But go on.
FENWICK. O sir, not I - not I but yourself forgets: George
Austin forgets George Austin. A woman loved by him, betrayed by
him, abandoned by him - that woman suffers; and a point of honour
keeps him from his place at her feet. She has played and lost,
and the world is with him if he deign to exact the stakes. Is
that the Mr. Austin whom Miss Musgrave honoured with her trust?
Then, sir, how miserably was she deceived!
AUSTIN. Child - child -
FENWICK. Mr. Austin, still bear with me, still follow me. O
sir, will you not picture that dear lady's life? Her years how
few, her error thus irreparable, what henceforth can be her
portion but remorse, the consciousness of self-abasement, the
shame of knowing that her trust was ill-bestowed? To think of
it: this was a queen among women; and this - this is George
Austin's work! Sir, let me touch your heart: let me prevail
with you to feel that 'tis impossible.
AUSTIN. I am a gentleman. What do you ask of me?
FENWICK. To be the man she loved: to be clement where the world
would have you triumph, to be of equal generosity with the
vanquished, to be worthy of her sacrifice and of yourself.
AUSTIN. Mr. Fenwick, your reproof is harsh -
FENWICK (INTERRUPTING HIM). O sir, be, just be just! -
AUSTIN. But it is merited, and I thank you for its utterance.
You tell me that the true victory comes when the fight is won:
that our foe is never so noble nor so dangerous as when she is
fallen, that the crowning triumph is that we celebrate over our
conquering selves. Sir, you are right. Kindness, ay kindness
after all. And with age, to become clement. Yes, ambition
first; then, the rounded vanity - victory still novel; and last,
as you say, the royal mood of the mature man; to abdicate for
others . . . Sir, you touched me hard about my dead friend; still
harder about my living duty; and I am not so young but I can take
a lesson. There is my hand upon it: she shall be my wife.
FENWICK. Ah, Mr. Austin, I was sure of it.
AUSTIN. Then, sir, you were vastly mistaken. There is nothing
of Beau Austin here. I have simply, my dear child, sate at the
feet of Mr. Fenwick.
FENWICK. Ah, sir, your heart was counsellor enough.
AUSTIN. Pardon me. I am vain enough to be the judge: there are
but two people in the world who could have wrought this change:
yourself and that dear lady. (TOUCHES BELL.) Suffer me to
dismiss you. One instant of toilet, and I follow. Will you do
me the honour to go before, and announce my approach? (ENTER
MENTEITH.)
FENWICK. Sir, if my admiration -
AUSTIN. Dear child, the admiration is the other way. (EMBRACES
HIM. MENTEITH SHOWS HIM OUT.)
SCENE V
AUSTIN
AUSTIN. Upon my word, I think the world is getting better. We
were none of us young men like that - in my time, to quote my
future brother. (HE SITS DOWN BEFORE THE MIRROR.) Well, here
ends Beau Austin. Paris, Rome, Vienna, London - victor
everywhere: and now he must leave his bones in Tunbridge Wells.
(LOOKS AT HIS LEG.) Poor Dolly Musgrave! a good girl after all,
and will make me a good wife; none better. The last - of how
many? - ay, and the best! Walks like Hebe. But still, here ends
Beau Austin. Perhaps it's time. Poor Dolly - was she looking
poorly? She shall have her wish. Well, we grow older, but we
grow no worse.
SCENE VI
AUSTIN, MENTEITH
AUSTIN. Menteith, I am going to be married.
MENTEITH. Well, Mr. George, but I am pleased to hear it. Miss
Musgrave is a most elegant lady.
AUSTIN. Ay, Mr. Menteith? and who told you the lady's name?
MENTEITH. Mr. George, you was always a gentleman.
AUSTIN. You mean I wasn't always? Old boy, you are in the
right. This shall be a good change for both you and me. We have
lived too long like a brace of truants: now is the time to draw
about the fire. How much is left of the old Hermitage?
MENTEITH. Hard upon thirty dozen, Mr. George, and not a bad cork
in the bin.
AUSTIN. And a mistress, Menteith, that's worthy of that wine.
MENTEITH. Mr. George, sir, she's worthy of you.
AUSTIN. Gad, I believe it. (SHAKES HANDS WITH HIM.)
MENTEITH (BREAKING DOWN). Mr. George, you've been a damned good
master to me, and I've been a damned good servant to you; we've
been proud of each other from the first; but if you'll excuse my
plainness, Mr. George, I never liked you better than to-day.
AUSTIN. Cheer up, old boy, the best is yet to come. Get out the
tongs, and curl me like a bridegroom. (SITS BEFORE
DRESSING-GLASS; MENTEITH PRODUCES CURLING IRONS AND PLIES THEM.
AUSTIN SINGS) -
'I'd crowns resign
To call her mine, S
weet Lass of Richmond Hill!'
DROP
MUSICAL INDUCTION: the 'Minuet' from 'DON GIOVANNI'
ACT III.
The stage represents Miss Foster's lodging as in Act I.
SCENE I
DOROTHY, R., at tambour; ANTHONY, C., bestriding chair; MISS
FOSTER, L.C.
ANTHONY. Yes, ma'am, I like my regiment: we are all gentlemen,
from old Fred downwards, and all of a good family. Indeed, so
are all my friends, except one tailor sort of fellow, Bosbury.
But I'm done with him. I assure you, Aunt Evelina, we are
Corinthian to the last degree. I wouldn't shock you ladies for
the world -
MISS FOSTER. Don't mind me, my dear; go on.
ANTHONY. Really, ma'am, you must pardon me: I trust I
understand what topics are to be avoided among females - And
before my sister, too! A girl of her age!
DOROTHY. Why, you dear, silly fellow, I'm old enough to be your
mother.
ANTHONY. My dear Dolly, you do not understand; you are not a man
of the world. But, as I was going on to say, there is no more
spicy regiment in the service.
MISS FOSTER. I am not surprised that it maintains its old
reputation. You know, my dear (TO DOROTHY), it was George
Austin's regiment.
DOROTHY. Was it, aunt?
ANTHONY. Beau Austin? Yes, it was; and a precious dust they
make about him still - a parcel of old frumps! That's why I went
to see him. But he's quite extinct: he couldn't be Corinthian
if he tried.
MISS FOSTER. I am afraid that even at your age George Austin
held a very different position from the distinguished Anthony
Musgrave.
ANTHONY. Come, ma'am, I take that unkindly. Of course I know
what you're at: of course the old put cut no end of a dash with
the Duchess.
MISS FOSTER. My dear child, I was thinking of no such thing;
THAT was immoral.
ANTHONY. Then you mean that affair at Brighton: when he cut the
Prince about Perdita Robinson.
MISS FOSTER. No, I had forgotten it.
ANTHONY. O, well, I know - that duel! But look here, Aunt
Evelina, I don't think you'd be much gratified after all if I
were to be broke for killing my commanding officer about a
quarrel at cards.
DOROTHY. Nobody asks you, Anthony, to imitate Mr. Austin. I
trust you will set yourself a better model. But you may choose a
worse. With all his faults, and all his enemies, Mr. Austin is a
pattern gentleman: You would not ask a man to be braver, and
there are few so generous. I cannot bear to hear him called in
fault by one so young. Better judges, dear, are better pleased.
ANTHONY. Hey-day! what's this?
MISS FOSTER. Why, Dolly, this is April and May. You surprise
me.
DOROTHY. I am afraid, indeed, madam, that you have much to
suffer from my caprice. (SHE GOES OUT, L.)
SCENE II
ANTHONY, MISS FOSTER
ANTHONY. What is the meaning of all this, ma'am? I don't like
it.
MISS FOSTER. Nothing, child, that I know. You spoke of Mr.
Austin, our dear friend, like a groom; and she, like any lady of
taste, took arms in his defence.
ANTHONY. No, ma'am, that won't do. I know the sex. You mark my
words, the girl has some confounded nonsense in her head, and
wants looking after.
MISS FOSTER. In my presence, Anthony, I shall ask you to speak
of Dorothy with greater respect. With your permission, your
sister and I will continue to direct our own affairs. When we
require the interference of so young and confident a champion,
you shall know. (CURTSIES, KISSES HER HAND, AND GOES OUT, L.)
SCENE III
ANTHONY
ANTHONY. Upon my word, I think Aunt Evelina one of the most
uncivil old women in the world. Nine weeks ago I came of age;
and they still treat me like a boy. I'm a recognised Corinthian,
too: take my liquor with old Fred, and go round with the
Brummagem Bantam and Jack Bosb- . . . O damn Jack Bosbury. If
his father was a tailor, he shall fight me for his ungentlemanly
conduct. However, that's all one. What I want is to make Aunt
Evelina understand that I'm not the man to be put down by an old
maid who's been brought up in a work-basket, begad! I've had
nothing but rebuffs all day. It's very remarkable. There was
that man Austin, to begin with. I'll be hanged if I can stand
him. I hear too much of him; and if I can only get a good excuse
to put him to the door, I believe it would give Dorothy and all
of us a kind of a position. After all, he's not a man to visit
in the house of ladies: not when I'm away, at least. Nothing in
it of course; but is he a man whose visits I can sanction?
SCENE IV
ANTHONY, BARBARA
BARBARA. Please, Mr. Anthony, Miss Foster said I was to show
your room.
ANTHONY. Ha! Baby? Now, you come here. You're a girl of
sense, I know.
BARBARA. La, Mr. Anthony, I hope I'm nothing of the kind.
ANTHONY. Come, come! that's not the tone I want: I'm serious.
Does this man Austin come much about the house?
BARBARA. O Mr. Anthony, for shame! Why don't you ask Miss
Foster?
ANTHONY. Now I wish you to understand: I'm the head of this
family. It's my business to look after my sister's reputation,
and my aunt's too, begad! That's what I'm here for: I'm their
natural protector. And what I want you, Barbara Ridley, to
understand - you whose fathers have served my fathers - is just
simply this: if you've any common gratitude, you're bound to
help me in the work. Now Barbara, you know me, and you know my
Aunt Evelina. She's a good enough woman; I'm the first to say
so. But who is she to take care of a young girl? She's ignorant
of the world to that degree she believes in Beau Austin! Now you
and I, Bab, who are not so high and dry, see through and through
him; we know that a man like that is no fit company for any
inexperienced girl.
BARBARA. O Mr. Anthony, don't say that. (WEEPING.)
ANTHONY. Hullo! what's wrong?
BARBARA. Nothing that I know of. O Mr. Anthony, I don't think
there can be anything.
ANTHONY. Think? Don't think? What's this?
BARBARA. O sir! I don't know, and yet I don't like it. Here's
my beautiful necklace all broke to bits: she took it off my very
neck, and gave me her birthday pearls instead; and I found it
afterwards on the table, all smashed to pieces; and all she
wanted it for was to take and break it. Why that? It frightens
me, Mr. Anthony, it frightens me.
ANTHONY (WITH NECKLACE). This? What has this trumpery to do
with us?
BARBARA. He gave it me: that's why she broke it.
ANTHONY. He? who?
BARBARA. Mr. Austin did; and I do believe I should not have
taken it, Mr. Anthony, but I thought no harm, upon my word of
honour. He was always here: that was six months ago; and
indeed, indeed, I thought they were to marry. How would I think
else with a born lady like Miss Dorothy?
ANTHONY. Why, Barbara, God help us all, what's this? You don't
mean to say that there was -
BARBARA. Here it is, as true as true: they were going for a
jaunt; and Miss Foster had her gout; and I was to go with them;
and he told me to make-believe I was ill; and I did; and I stayed
at home; and he gave me that necklace; and they went away
together; and, oh dear! I wish I'd never been born.
ANTHONY. Together? he and Dolly? Good Lord! my sister! And
since then?
BARBARA. We haven't seen him from that day to this, the wicked
villain; and, Mr. Anthony, he hasn't so much as written the poor
dear a word.
ANTHONY. Bab, Bab, Bab, this is a devil of a bad business; this
is a cruel bad business, Baby; cruel upon me, cruel upon all of
us; a family like mine. I'm a young man, Barbara, to have this
delicate affair to manage; but, thank God, I'm Musgrave to the
bone. He bribed a servant-maid, did he? I keep his bribe; it's
mine now; dear bought, by George! He shall have it in his teeth.
Shot Colonel Villiers, did he? we'll see how he faces Anthony
Musgrave. You're a good girl, Barbara; so far you've served the
family. You leave this to me. And, hark ye, dry your eyes and
hold your tongue: I'll have no scandal raised by you.
BARBARA. I do hope, sir, you won't use me against Miss Dorothy.
ANTHONY. That's my affair; your business is to hold your tongue.
Miss Dorothy has made her bed and must lie on it. Here's Jack
Fenwick. You can go.
SCENE V
ANTHONY, FENWICK
ANTHONY. Jack Fenwick, is that you? Come here, my boy. Jack,
you've given me many a thrashing, and I deserved 'em; and I'll
not see you made a fool of now. George Austin is a damned
villain, and Dorothy Musgrave is no girl for you to marry: God
help me that I should have to say it.
FENWICK. Good God, who told YOU?
ANTHONY. Ay, Jack; it's hard on me, Jack. But you'll stand my
friend in spite of this, and you'll take my message to the man,
won't you? For it's got to come to blood, Jack: there's no way
out of that. And perhaps your poor friend will fall, Jack; think
of that: like Villiers. And all for an unworthy sister.
FENWICK. Now, Anthony Musgrave, I give you fair warning; see you
take it: one word more against your sister, and we quarrel.
ANTHONY. You let it slip yourself, Jack: you know yourself
she's not a virtuous girl.
FENWICK. What do you know of virtue, whose whole boast is to be
vicious? How dare you draw conclusions? Dolt and puppy! you can
no more comprehend that angel's excellencies than she can stoop
to believe in your vices. And you talk morality? Anthony, I'm a
man who has been somewhat roughly tried: take care.
ANTHONY. You don't seem able to grasp the situation, Jack. It's
very remarkable; I'm the girl's natural protector; and you should
buckle-to and help, like a friend of the family. And instead of
that, begad! you turn on me like all the rest.
FENWICK. Now mark me fairly: Mr. Austin follows at my heels; he
comes to offer marriage to your sister - that is all you know,
and all you shall know; and if by any misplaced insolence of
yours this marriage should miscarry, you have to answer, not to
Mr. Austin only, but to me.
ANTHONY. It's all a most discreditable business, and I don't see
how you propose to better it by cutting my throat. Of course if
he's going to marry her, it's a different thing; but I don't
believe he is, or he'd have asked me. You think me a fool? Well
see they marry, or they'll find me a dangerous fool.
SCENE VI
TO THESE, AUSTIN, BARBARA ANNOUNCING
BARBARA. Mr. Austin. (SHE SHOWS AUSTIN IN, AND RETIRES.)
AUSTIN. You will do me the justice to acknowledge, Mr. Fenwick,
that I have been not long delayed by my devotion to the Graces.
ANTHONY. So, sir, I find you in my house -
AUSTIN. And charmed to meet you again. It went against my
conscience to separate so soon. Youth, Mr. Musgrave, is to us
older men a perpetual refreshment.
ANTHONY. You came here, sir, I suppose, upon some errand?
AUSTIN. My errand, Mr. Musgrave, is to your fair sister.
Beauty, as you know, comes before valour.
ANTHONY. In my own house, and about my own sister, I presume I
have the right to ask for something more explicit.
AUSTIN. The right, my dear sir, is beyond question; but it is
one, as you were going on to observe, on which no gentleman
insists.
FENWICK. Anthony, my good fellow, I think we had better go.
ANTHONY. I have asked a question.
AUSTIN. Which I was charmed to answer, but which, on repetition,
might begin to grow distasteful.
ANTHONY. In my own house -
FENWICK. For God's sake, Anthony!
AUSTIN. In your aunt's house, young gentleman, I shall be
careful to refrain from criticism. I am come upon a visit to a
lady: that visit I shall pay; when you desire (if it be possible
that you desire it) to resume this singular conversation, select
some fitter place. Mr. Fenwick, this afternoon, may I present
you to his Royal Highness?
ANTHONY. Why, sir, I believe you must have misconceived me. I
have no wish to offend: at least at present.
AUSTIN. Enough, sir. I was persuaded I had heard amiss. I
trust we shall be friends.
FENWICK. Come, Anthony, come: here is your sister.
(AS FENWICK AND ANTHONY GO OUT, C., ENTER DOROTHY, L.)
SCENE VII
AUSTIN, DOROTHY
DOROTHY. I am told, Mr. Austin, that you wish to see me.
AUSTIN. Madam, can you doubt of that desire? can you question my
sincerity?
DOROTHY. Sir, between you and me these compliments are worse
than idle: they are unkind. Sure, we are alone!
AUSTIN. I find you in an hour of cruelty, I fear. Yet you have
condescended to receive this poor offender; and having done so
much, you will not refuse to give him audience.
DOROTHY. You shall have no cause, sir, to complain of me. I
listen.
AUSTIN. My fair friend, I have sent myself - a poor ambassador -
to plead for your forgiveness. I have been too long absent; too
long, I would fain hope, madam, for you; too long for my honour
and my love. I am no longer, madam, in my first youth; but I may
say that I am not unknown. My fortune, originally small, has not
suffered from my husbandry. I have excellent health, an
excellent temper, and the purest ardour of affection for your
person. I found not on my merits, but on your indulgence. Miss
Musgrave, will you honour me with your hand in marriage?
DOROTHY. Mr. Austin, if I thought basely of marriage, I should
perhaps accept your offer. There was a time, indeed, when it
would have made me proudest among women. I was the more
deceived, and have to thank you for a salutary lesson. You chose
to count me as a cipher in your rolls of conquest; for six months
you left me to my fate; and you come here to-day - prompted, I
doubt not, by an honourable impulse - to offer this tardy
reparation. No: it is too late.
AUSTIN. Do you refuse?
DOROTHY. Yours is the blame: we are no longer equal. You have
robbed me of the right to marry any one but you; and do you think
me, then, so poor in spirit as to accept a husband on compulsion?
AUSTIN. Dorothy, you loved me once.
DOROTHY. Ay, you will never guess how much: you will never live
to understand how ignominious a defeat that conquest was. I
loved and trusted you: I judged you by myself; think, then, of
my humiliation, when, at the touch of trial, all your qualities
proved false, and I beheld you the slave of the meanest vanity -
selfish, untrue, base! Think, sir, what a humbling of my pride
to have been thus deceived: to have taken for my idol such a
commonplace imposture as yourself; to have loved - yes, loved -
such a shadow, such a mockery of man. And now I am unworthy to
be the wife of any gentleman; and you - look me in the face,
George - are you worthy to be my husband?
AUSTIN. No, Dorothy, I am not. I was a vain fool; I blundered
away the most precious opportunity; and my regret will be
lifelong. Do me the justice to accept this full confession of my
fault. I am here to-day to own and to repair it.
DOROTHY. Repair it? Sir you condescend too far.
AUSTIN. I perceive with shame how grievously I had misjudged
you. But now, Dorothy, believe me, my eyes are opened. I plead
with you, not as my equal, but as one in all ways better than
myself. I admire you, not in that trivial sense in which we men
are wont to speak of women, but as God's work: as a wise mind, a
noble soul, and a most generous heart, from whose society I have
all to gain, all to learn. Dorothy, in one word, I love you.
DOROTHY. And what, sir, has wrought this transformation? You
knew me of old, or thought you knew me? Is it in six months of
selfish absence that your mind has changed? When did that change
begin? A week ago? Sure, you would have written! To-day? Sir,
if this offer be anything more than fresh offence, I have a right
to be enlightened.
AUSTIN. Madam, I foresaw this question. So be it: I respect,
and I will not deceive you. But give me, first of all, a moment
for defence. There are few men of my habits and position who
would have done as I have done: sate at the feet of a young boy,
accepted his lessons, gone upon his errand: fewer still, who
would thus, at the crisis of a love, risk the whole fortune of
the soul - love, gratitude, even respect. Yet more than that!
For conceive how I respect you, if I, whose lifelong trade has
been flattery, stand before you and make the plain confession of
a truth that must not only lower me, but deeply wound yourself.
DOROTHY. What means - ?
AUSTIN. Young Fenwick, my rival for your heart, he it was that
sent me.
DOROTHY. He? O disgrace! He sent you! That was what he meant?
Am I fallen so low? Am I your common talk among men? Did you
dice for me? Did he kneel? O John, John, how could you! And
you, Mr. Austin, whither have you brought me down? shame heaping
upon shame - to what end! oh, to what end?
AUSTIN. Madam, you wound me: you look wilfully amiss. Sure,
any lady in the land might well be proud to be loved as you are
loved, with such nobility as Mr. Fenwick's, with such humility as
mine. I came, indeed, in pity, in good-nature, what you will.
(See, dearest lady, with what honesty I speak: if I win you, it
shall be with the unblemished truth.) All that is gone. Pity?
it is myself I pity. I offer you not love - I am not worthy. I
ask, I beseech of you: suffer me to wait upon you like a
servant, to serve you with my rank, my name, the whole devotion
of my life. I am a gentleman - ay, in spite of my fault - an
upright gentleman; and I swear to you that you shall order your
life and mine at your free will. Dorothy, at your feet, in
remorse, in respect, in love - O such love as I have never felt,
such love as I derided - I implore, I conjure you to be mine!
DOROTHY. Too late! too late.
AUSTIN. No, no, not too late: not too late for penitence, not
too late for love.
DOROTHY. Which do you propose? that I should abuse your
compassion, or reward your treachery? George Austin, I have been
your mistress, and I will never be your wife.
AUSTIN. Child, dear child, I have not told you all: there is
worse still: your brother knows; the boy as good as told me.
Dorothy, this is scandal at the door - O let that move you: for
that, if not for my sake, for that, if not for love, trust me,
trust me again.
DOROTHY. I am so much the more your victim: that is all, and
shall that change my heart? The sin must have its wages. This,
too, was done long ago: when you stooped to lie to me. The
shame is still mine, the fault still yours.
AUSTIN. Child, child, you kill me: you will not understand.
Can you not see? the lad will force me to a duel.
DOROTHY. And you will kill him? Shame after shame, threat upon
threat. Marry me, or you are dishonoured; marry me, or your
brother dies: and this is man's honour! But my honour and my
pride are different. I will encounter all misfortune sooner than
degrade myself by an unfaithful marriage. How should I kneel
before the altar, and vow to reverence as my husband you, you who
deceived me as my lover?
AUSTIN. Dorothy, you misjudge me cruelly; I have deserved it.
You will not take me for your husband; why should I wonder? You
are right. I have indeed filled your life with calamity: the
wages, ay, the wages, of my sin are heavy upon you. But I have
one more thing to ask of your pity; and O remember, child, who it
is that asks it: a man guilty in your sight, void of excuse, but
old, and very proud, and most unused to supplication. Dorothy
Musgrave, will you forgive George Austin?
DOROTHY. O, George!
AUSTIN. It is the old name: that is all I ask, and more than I
deserve. I shall remember, often remember, how and where it was
bestowed upon me for the last time. I thank you, Dorothy, from
my heart; a heart, child, that has been too long silent, but is
not too old, I thank God! not yet too old, to learn a lesson and
to accept a reproof. I will not keep you longer: I will go - I
am so bankrupt in credit that I dare not ask you to believe in
how much sorrow. But, Dorothy, my acts will speak for me with
more persuasion. If it be in my power, you shall suffer no more
through me: I will avoid your brother; I will leave this place,
I will leave England, to-morrow; you shall be no longer tortured
with the neighbourhood of your ungenerous lover. Dorothy,
farewell!
SCENE VIII
DOROTHY; TO WHOM, ANTHONY, L.
DOROTHY (ON HER KNEES, AND REACHING WITH HER HANDS.) George,
George! (ENTER ANTHONY.)
ANTHONY. Ha! what are you crying for?
DOROTHY. Nothing, dear! (RISING.)
ANTHONY. Is Austin going to marry you?
DOROTHY. I shall never marry.
ANTHONY. I thought as much. You should have come to me.
DOROTHY. I know, dear, I know; but there was nothing to come
about.
ANTHONY. It's a lie. You have disgraced the family. You went
to John Fenwick: see what he has made of it! But I will have
you righted: it shall be atoned in the man's blood.
DOROTHY. Anthony! And if I had refused him?
ANTHONY. You? refuse George Austin? You never had the chance.
DOROTHY. I have refused him.
ANTHONY. Dorothy, you lie. You would shield your lover; but
this concerns not you only: it strikes my honour and my father's
honour.
DOROTHY. I have refused him - refused him, I tell you - refused
him. The blame is mine; are you so mad and wicked that you will
not see?
ANTHONY. I see this: that man must die.
DOROTHY. He? never! You forget, you forget whom you defy; you
run upon your death.
ANTHONY. Ah, my girl, you should have thought of that before.
It is too late now.
DOROTHY. Anthony, if I beg you - Anthony, I have tried to be a
good sister; I brought you up, dear, nursed you when you were
sick, fought for you, hoped for you, loved you - think of it,
think of the dear past, think of our home and the happy winter
nights, the castles in the fire, the long shining future, the
love that was to forgive and suffer always - O you will spare,
you will spare me this.
ANTHONY. I will tell you what I will do, Dolly: I will do just
what you taught me - my duty: that, and nothing else.
DOROTHY. O Anthony, you also, you to strike me! Heavens, shall
I kill them - I - I, that love them, kill them! Miserable,
sinful girl! George, George, thank God, you will be far away! O
go, George, go at once!
ANTHONY. He goes the coward! Ay, is this more of your
contrivance? Madam, you make me blush. But to-day at least I
know where I can find him. This afternoon, on the Pantiles, he
must dance attendance on the Duke of York. Already he must be
there; and there he is at my mercy. DOROTHY. Thank God, you are
deceived: he will not fight. He promised me that; thank God I
have his promise for that.
ANTHONY. Promise! Do you see this? (PRODUCING NECKLACE) the
thing he bribed your maid with? I shall dash it in his teeth
before the Duke and before all Tunbridge. Promise, you poor
fool? what promise holds against a blow? Get to your knees and
pray for him; for, by the God above, if he has any blood in his
body, one of us shall die before to-night. (HE GOES OUT.)
DOROTHY. Anthony, Anthony! . . . O my God, George will kill him.
MUSIC: 'CHE FARO,' AS THE DROP FALLS.
DROP.
MUSICAL INDUCTION: 'Gavotte;' 'IPHIGENIE EN AULIDE.' GLUCK
ACT IV.
The Stage represents the Pantiles: the alleys fronting the
spectators in parallel lines. At the back, a stand of musicians,
from which the 'Gavotte' is repeated on muted strings. The music
continues nearly through Scene I. Visitors walking to and fro
beneath the lines. A seat in front, L.
SCENE I
MISS FOSTER, BARBARA, MENTEITH; VISITORS
MISS FOSTER (ENTERING; ESCORTED BY MENTEITH, AND FOLLOWED BY
BARBARA). And so, Menteith, here you are once more. And vastly
pleased I am to see you, my good fellow, not only for your own
sake, but because you harbinger the Beau. (SITS, L.; MENTEITH
STANDING OVER HER.)
MENTEITH. Honoured madam, I have had the pleasure to serve Mr.
George for more than thirty years. This is a privilege - a very
great privilege. I have beheld him in the first societies,
moving among the first rank of personages; and none, madam, none
outshone him.
BARBARA. I assure you, madam, when Mr. Menteith took me to the
play, he talked so much of Mr. Austin that I couldn't hear a word
of Mr. Kean.
MISS FOSTER. Well, well, and very right. That was the old
school of service, Barbara, which you would do well to imitate.
This is a child, Menteith, that I am trying to form.
MENTEITH. Quite so, madam.
MISS FOSTER. And are we soon to see our princely guest,
Menteith?
MENTEITH. His Royal Highness, madam? I believe I may say quite
so. Mr. George will receive our gallant prince upon the Pantiles
(LOOKING AT HIS WATCH) in, I should say, a matter of twelve
minutes from now. Such, madam, is Mr. George's order of the day.
BARBARA. I beg your pardon, madam, I am sure, but are we really
to see one of His Majesty's own brothers? That will be pure! O
madam, this is better than Carlisle.
MISS FOSTER. The wood-note wild: a loyal Cumbrian, Menteith.
MENTEITH. Eh? Quite so, madam.
MISS FOSTER. When she has seen as much of the Royal Family as
you, my good fellow, she will find it vastly less entertaining.
MENTEITH. Yes, madam, indeed; In these distinguished circles,
life is but a slavery. None of the best set would relish
Tunbridge without Mr. George; Tunbridge and Mr. George (if you'll
excuse my plainness, madam) are in a manner of speaking
identified; and indeed it was the Dook's desire alone that
brought us here.
BARBARA. What? the Duke? O dear! was it for that?
MENTEITH. Though, to be sure, madam, Mr. George would always be
charmed to find himself (BOWING) among so many admired members of
his own set.
MISS FOSTER. Upon my word, Menteith, Mr. Austin is as fortunate
in his servant as his reputation.
MENTEITH. Quite so, madam. But let me observe that the
opportunities I have had of acquiring a knowledge of Mr. George's
character have been positively unrivalled. Nobody knows Mr.
George like his old attendant. The goodness of that gentleman -
but, madam, you will soon be equally fortunate, if, as I
understand, it is to be a match.
MISS FOSTER. I hope, Menteith, you are not taking leave of your
senses. Is it possible you mean my niece?
MENTEITH. Madam, I have the honour to congratulate you. I put a
second curl in Mr. George's hair on purpose.
SCENE II
TO THESE, AUSTIN. MENTEITH FALLS BACK, AND AUSTIN TAKES HIS
PLACE IN FRONT OF MISS FOSTER, HIS ATTITUDE A COUNTERPART OF
MENTEITH'S.
AUSTIN. Madam, I hasten to present my homage.
MISS FOSTER. A truce to compliments! Menteith, your charming
fellow there, has set me positively crazy. Dear George Austin,
is it true? can it be true?
AUSTIN. Madam, if he has been praising your niece he has been
well inspired. If he was speaking, as I spoke an hour ago
myself, I wish, Miss Foster, that he had held his tongue. I have
indeed offered myself to Miss Dorothy, and she, with the most
excellent reason, has refused me.
MISS FOSTER. Is it possible? why, my dear George Austin . . . .
then I suppose it is John Fenwick after all!
AUSTIN. Not one of us is worthy.
MISS FOSTER. This is the most amazing circumstance. You take my
breath away. My niece refuse George Austin? why, I give you my
word, I thought she had adored you. A perfect scandal: it
positively must not get abroad.
AUSTIN. Madam, for that young lady I have a singular regard.
Judge me as tenderly as you can, and set it down, if you must, to
an old man's vanity - for, Evelina, we are no longer in the
heyday of our youth - judge me as you will: I should prefer to
have it known.
MISS FOSTER. Can you? George Austin, you? My youth was
nothing; I was a failure; but for you? no, George, you never can,
you never must be old. You are the triumph of my generation,
George, and of our old friendship too. Think of my first dance
and my first partner. And to have this story - no, I could not
bear to have it told of you.
AUSTIN. Madam, there are some ladies over whom it is a boast to
have prevailed; there are others whom it is a glory to have
loved. And I am so vain, dear Evelina, that even thus I am proud
to link my name with that of Dorothy Musgrave.
MISS FOSTER. George, you are changed. I would not know you.
AUSTIN. I scarce know myself. But pardon me, dear friend
(TAKING HIS WATCH), in less than four minutes our illustrious
guest will descend amongst us; and I observe Mr. Fenwick, with
whom I have a pressing business. Suffer me, dear Evelina! -
SCENE III
To these, FENWICK. MISS FOSTER remains seated, L. AUSTIN goes
R. to FENWICK, whom he salutes with great respect
AUSTIN. Mr. Fenwick, I have played and lost. That noble lady,
justly incensed at my misconduct, has condemned me. Under the
burden of such a loss, may I console myself with the esteem of
Mr. Fenwick?
FENWICK. She refused you? Pardon me, sir, but was the fault not
yours?
AUSTIN. Perhaps to my shame, I am no novice, Mr. Fenwick; but I
have never felt nor striven as to-day. I went upon your errand;
but, you may trust me, sir, before I had done I found it was my
own. Until to-day I never rightly valued her; sure, she is fit
to be a queen. I have a remorse here at my heart to which I am a
stranger. Oh! that was a brave life, that was a great heart that
I have ruined.
FENWICK. Ay, sir, indeed.
AUSTIN. But, sir, it is not to lament the irretrievable that I
intrude myself upon your leisure. There is something to be done,
to save, at least to spare, that lady. You did not fail to
observe the brother?
FENWICK. No, sir, he knows all; and being both intemperate and
ignorant -
AUSTIN. Surely. I know. I have to ask you then to find what
friends you can among this company; and if you have none, to make
them. Let everybody hear the news. Tell it (if I may offer the
suggestion) with humour: how Mr. Austin, somewhat upon the wane,
but still filled with sufficiency, gloriously presumed and was
most ingloriously set down by a young lady from the north: the
lady's name a secret, which you will permit to be divined. The
laugh - the position of the hero - will make it circulate; - you
perceive I am in earnest; - and in this way I believe our young
friend will find himself forestalled.
FENWICK. Mr. Austin, I would not have dared to ask so much of
you; I will go further: were the positions changed, I should
fear to follow your example.
AUSTIN. Child, child, you could not afford it.
SCENE IV
To there, the ROYAL DUKE, C.; then, immediately, ANTHONY, L.
FENWICK crosses to MISS FOSTER, R. AUSTIN accosts the DUKE, C.,
in dumb show; the muted strings take up a new air, Mozart's
'Anglaise'; couples passing under the limes, and forming a group
behind AUSTIN and the DUKE. ANTHONY in front, L., watches
AUSTIN, who, as he turns from the DUKE, sees him, and comes
forward with extended hand.
AUSTIN. Dear child, let me present you to his Royal Highness.
ANTHONY (WITH NECKLACE). Mr. Austin, do you recognise the bribe
you gave my sister's maid?
AUSTIN. Hush, sir, hush! you forget the presence of the Duke.
ANTHONY. Mr. Austin, you are a coward and a scoundrel.
AUSTIN. My child, you will regret these words: I refuse your
quarrel.
ANTHONY. You do? Take that. (HE STRIKES AUSTIN ON THE MOUTH.
AT THE MOMENT OF THE BLOW -)
SCENE V
TO THESE, DOROTHY, L. U. E. DOROTHY, UNSEEN BY AUSTIN, SHRIEKS.
SENSATION. MUSIC STOPS. TABLEAU
AUSTIN (RECOVERING HIS COMPOSURE). Your Royal Highness, suffer
me to excuse the disrespect of this young gentleman. He has so
much apology, and I have, I hope, so good a credit, as incline me
to accept this blow. But I must beg of your Highness, and,
gentlemen, all of you here present, to bear with me while I will
explain what is too capable of misconstruction. I am the
rejected suitor of this young gentleman's sister; of Miss Dorothy
Musgrave: a lady whom I singularly honour and esteem; a word
from whom (if I could hope that word) would fill my life with
happiness. I was not worthy of that lady; when I was defeated in
fair field, I presumed to make advances through her maid. See in
how laughable a manner fate repaid me! The waiting-girl derided,
the mistress denied, and now comes in this very ardent champion
who publicly insults me. My vanity is cured; you will judge it
right, I am persuaded, all of you, that I should accept my proper
punishment in silence; you, my Lord Duke, to pardon this young
gentleman; and you, Mr. Musgrave, to spare me further
provocation, which I am determined to ignore.
DOROTHY (RUSHING FORWARD, FALLING AT AUSTIN'S KNEES, AND SEIZING
HIS HAND). George, George, it was for me. My hero! take me!
What you will!
AUSTIN (IN AN AGONY). My dear creature, remember that we are in
public. (RAISING HER.) Your Royal Highness, may I present you
Mrs. George Frederick Austin? (THE CURTAIN FALLS ON A FEW BARS
OF THE 'LASS OF RICHMOND HILL.')
THE END
----------------------------------------------------------
Play: ADMIRAL GUINEA
DEDICATED WITH AFFECTION AND ESTEEM TO ANDREW LANG BY THE
SURVIVORS OF THE WALRUS
SAVANNAH, this 27TH day of SEPTEMBER 1884
PERSONS REPRESENTED
JOHN GAUNT, called 'ADMIRAL GUINEA,' once Captain of the Slaver
ARETHUSA.
ARETHUSA GAUNT, his Daughter.
DAVID PEW, a Blind Beggar, once Boatswain of the ARETHUSA
KIT FRENCH, a Privateersman.
MRS. DRAKE, Landlady of the ADMIRAL BENBOW Inn.
The Scene is laid in the neighbourhood of Barnstaple. The Time
is about the year 1760. The action occupies part of a day and
night.
NOTE. - PASSAGES SUGGESTED FOR OMISSION IN REPRESENTATION ARE
ENCLOSED IN SQUARE BRACKETS, THUS [ ].
ADMIRAL GUINEA
ACT I.
The Stage represents a room in the Admiral Guinea's house:
fireplace, arm-chair, and table with Bible, L., towards the
front; door C., with window on each side, the window on the R.,
practicable; doors, R. and L., back; corner cupboard, a brass-
strapped sea-chest fixed to the wall and floor, R.; cutlasses,
telescopes, sextant, quadrant, a calendar, and several maps upon
the wall; a ship clock; three wooden chairs; a dresser against
wall, R. C.; on the chimney-piece the model of a brig and several
shells. The centre bare of furniture. Through the widows and
the door, which is open, green trees and a small field of sea.
SCENE I
ARETHUSA IS DISCOVERED, DUSTING
ARETHUSA. Ten months and a week to-day! Now for a new mark.
Since the last, the sun has set and risen over the fields and the
pleasant trees at home, and on Kit's lone ship and the empty sea.
Perhaps it blew; perhaps rained; (AT THE CHART) perhaps he was
far up here to the nor'ard, where the icebergs sail; perhaps at
anchor among these wild islands of the snakes and buccaneers. O,
you big chart, if I could see him sailing on you! North and
South Atlantic; such a weary sight of water and no land; never an
island for the poor lad to land upon. But still, God's there.
(SHE TAKES DOWN THE TELESCOPE TO DUST IT.) Father's spy-glass
again; and my poor Kit perhaps with such another, sweeping the
great deep!
SCENE II
ARETHUSA; to her, KIT, C. [He enters on tiptoe, and she does not
see or hear him]
ARETHUSA (DUSTING TELESCOPE). At sea they have less dust at
least: that's so much comfort.
KIT. Sweetheart, ahoy!
ARETHUSA. Kit!
KIT. Arethusa.
ARETHUSA. My Kit! Home again - O my love! - home again to me!
KIT. As straight as wind and tide could carry me!
ARETHUSA. O Kit, my dearest. O Kit - O! O!
KIT. Hey? Steady, lass: steady, I say. For goodness' sake,
ease it off.
ARETHUSA. I will, Kit - I will. But you came so sudden.
KIT. I thought ten months of it about preparation enough.
ARETHUSA. Ten months and a week: you haven't counted the days
as I have. Another day gone, and one day nearer to Kit: that
has been my almanac. How brown you are! how handsome!
KIT. A pity you can't see yourself! Well, no, I'll never be
handsome: brown I may be, never handsome. But I'm better than
that, if the proverb's true; for I'm ten hundred thousand fathoms
deep in love. I bring you a faithful sailor. What! you don't
think much of that for a curiosity? Well, that's so: you're
right; the rarity is in the girl that's worth it ten times over.
Faithful? I couldn't help it if I tried! No, sweetheart, and I
fear nothing: I don't know what fear is, but just of losing you.
(STARTING.) Lord, that's not the Admiral?
ARETHUSA. Aha, Mr. Dreadnought! you see you fear my father.
KIT. That I do. But, thank goodness, it's nobody. Kiss me:
no, I won't kiss you: kiss ME. I'll give you a present for
that. See!
ARETHUSA. A wedding-ring!
KIT. My mother's. Will you take it?
ARETHUSA. Yes, will I - and give myself for it.
KIT. Ah, if we could only count upon your father! He's a man
every inch of him; but he can't endure Kit French.
ARETHUSA. He hasn't learned to know you, Kit, as I have, nor yet
do you know him. He seems hard and violent; at heart he is only
a man overwhelmed with sorrow. Why else, when he looks at me and
does not know that I observe him, should his face change, and
fill with such tenderness, that I could weep to see him? Why,
when he walks in his sleep, as he does almost every night, his
eyes open and beholding nothing, why should he cry so pitifully
on my mother's name? Ah, if you could hear him then, you would
say yourself: here is a man that has loved; here is a man that
will be kind to lovers.
KIT. Is that so? Ay, it's a hard thing to lose your wife; ay,
that must cut the heart indeed. But for all that, my lass, your
father is keen for the doubloons.
ARETHUSA. Right, Kit: and small blame to him. There is only
one way to be honest, and the name of that is thrift.
KIT. Well, and that's my motto. I've left the ship; no more
letter of marque for me. Good-bye to Kit French, privateersman's
mate; and how-d'ye-do to Christopher, the coasting skipper. I've
seen the very boat for me: I've enough to buy her, too; and to
furnish a good house, and keep a shot in the locker for bad luck.
So far, there's nothing to gainsay. So far it's hopeful enough;
but still there's Admiral Guinea, you know - and the plain truth
is that I'm afraid of him.
ARETHUSA. Admiral Guinea? Now Kit, if you are to be true lover
of mine, you shall not use that name. His name is Captain Gaunt.
As for fearing him, Kit French, you're not the man for me, if you
fear anything but sin. He's a stern man because he's in the
right.
KIT. He is a man of God; I am what he calls a child of
perdition. I was a privateersman - serving my country, I say;
but he calls it pirate. He is thrifty and sober; he has a
treasure, they say, and it lies so near his heart that he tumbles
up in his sleep to stand watch over it. What has a harum-scarum
dog like me to expect from a man like him? He won't see I'm
starving for a chance to mend; 'Mend,' he'll say; 'I'll be shot
if you mend at the expense of my daughter;' and the worst of it
is, you see, he'll be right.
ARETHUSA. Kit, if you dare to say that faint-hearted word again,
I'll take my ring off. What are we here for but to grow better
or grow worse? Do you think Arethusa French will be the same as
Arethusa Gaunt?
KIT. I don't want her better.
ARETHUSA. Ah, but she shall be!
KIT. Hark, here he is! By George, it's neck or nothing now.
Stand by to back me up.
SCENE III
TO THESE, GAUNT, C.
KIT (WITH ARETHUSA'S HAND). Captain Gaunt, I have come to ask
you for your daughter.
GAUNT. Hum. (HE SITS IN HIS CHAIR, L.)
KIT. I love her, and she loves me, sir. I've left the
privateering. I've enough to set me up and buy a tidy sloop -
Jack Lee's; you know the boat, Captain; clinker built, not four
years old, eighty tons burthen, steers like a child. I've put my
mother's ring on Arethusa's finger; and if you'll give us your
blessing, I'll engage to turn over a new leaf, and make her a
good husband.
GAUNT. In whose strength, Christopher French?
KIT. In the strength of my good, honest love for her: as you
did for her mother, and my father for mine. And you know,
Captain, a man can't command the wind; but (excuse me, sir) he
can always lie the best course possible, and that's what I'll do,
so God help me.
GAUNT. Arethusa, you at least are the child of many prayers;
your eyes have been unsealed; and to you the world stands naked,
a morning watch for duration, a thing spun of cobwebs for
solidity. In the presence of an angry God, I ask you: have you
heard this man?
ARETHUSA. Father, I know Kit, and I love him.
GAUNT. I say it solemnly, this is no Christian union. To you,
Christopher French, I will speak nothing of eternal truths: I
will speak to you the language of this world. You have been
trained among sinners who gloried in their sin: in your whole
life you never saved one farthing; and now, when your pockets are
full, you think you can begin, poor dupe, in your own strength.
You are a roysterer, a jovial companion; you mean no harm - you
are nobody's enemy but your own. No doubt you tell this girl of
mine, and no doubt you tell yourself, that you can change.
Christopher, speaking under correction, I defy you! You ask me
for this child of many supplications, for this brand plucked from
the burning: I look at you; I read you through and through; and
I tell you - no! (STRIKING TABLE WITH HIS FIST.)
KIT. Captain Gaunt, if you mean that I am not worthy of her, I'm
the first to say so. But, if you'll excuse me, sir, I'm a young
man, and young men are no better'n they ought to be; it's known;
they're all like that; and what's their chance? To be married to
a girl like this! And would you refuse it to me? Why, sir, you
yourself, when you came courting, you were young and rough; and
yet I'll make bold to say that Mrs. Gaunt was a happy woman, and
the saving of yourself into the bargain. Well, now, Captain
Gaunt, will you deny another man, and that man a sailor, the very
salvation that you had yourself?
GAUNT. Salvation, Christopher French, is from above.
KIT. Well, sir, that is so; but there's means, too; and what
means so strong as the wife a man has to strive and toil for, and
that bears the punishment whenever he goes wrong? Now, sir, I've
spoke with your old shipmates in the Guinea trade. Hard as
nails, they said, and true as the compass: as rough as a slaver,
but as just as a judge. Well, sir, you hear me plead: I ask you
for my chance; don't you deny it to me.
GAUNT. You speak of me? In the true balances we both weigh
nothing. But two things I know: the depth of iniquity, how foul
it is; and the agony with which a man repents. Not until seven
devils were cast out of me did I awake; each rent me as it
passed. Ay, that was repentance. Christopher, Christopher, you
have sailed before the wind since first you weighed your anchor,
and now you think to sail upon a bowline? You do not know your
ship, young man: you will go to le'ward like a sheet of paper; I
tell you so that know - I tell you so that have tried, and
failed, and wrestled in the sweat of prayer, and at last, at
last, have tasted grace. But, meanwhile, no flesh and blood of
mine shall lie at the mercy of such a wretch as I was then, or as
you are this day. I could not own the deed before the face of
heaven if I sanctioned this unequal yoke. Arethusa, pluck off
that ring from off your finger. Christopher French, take it, and
go hence.
KIT. Arethusa, what do you say?
ARETHUSA. O Kit, you know my heart. But he is alone, and I am
his only comfort; and I owe all to him; and shall I not obey my
father? But, Kit, if you will let me, I will keep your ring.
Go, Kit; go, and prove to my father that he was mistaken; go and
win me. And O, Kit, if ever you should weary, come to me - no,
do not come! but send a word - and I shall know all, and you
shall have your ring. (GAUNT OPENS HIS BIBLE AND BEGINS TO
READ.)
KIT. Don't say that, don't say such things to me; I sink or swim
with you. (TO GAUNT.) Old man, you've struck me hard; give me a
good word to go with. Name your time; I'll stand the test. Give
me a spark of hope, and I'll fight through for it. Say just this
- 'Prove I was mistaken,' and by George, I'll prove it.
GAUNT (LOOKING UP). I make no such compacts. Go, and swear not
at all.
ARETHUSA. Go, Kit! I keep the ring.
SCENE IV
ARETHUSA, GAUNT
ARETHUSA. Father, what have we done that you should be so cruel?
GAUNT (LAYING DOWN BIBLE, AND RISING). Do you call me cruel?
You speak after the flesh. I have done you this day a service
that you will live to bless me for upon your knees.
ARETHUSA. He loves me, and I love him: you can never alter
that; do what you will, father, that can never change. I love
him, I believe in him, I will be true to him.
GAUNT. Arethusa, you are the sole thing death has left me on
this earth; and I must watch over your carnal happiness and your
eternal weal. You do not know what this implies to me. Your
mother - my Hester - tongue cannot tell, nor heart conceive the
pangs she suffered. If it lies in me, your life shall not be
lost on that same reef of an ungodly husband. (GOES OUT, C.)
SCENE V
ARETHUSA
ARETHUSA. I thought the time dragged long and weary when I knew
that Kit was homeward bound, all the white sails a-blowing out
towards England, and my Kit's face turned this way? (SHE BEGINS
TO DUST.) Sure, if my mother were here, she would understand and
help us; she would understand a young maid's heart, though her
own had never an ache; and she would love my Kit. (PUTTING BACK
THE TELESCOPE.) To think she died: husband and child - and so
much love - she was taken from them all. Ah, there is no parting
but the grave! And Kit and I both live, and both love each
other; and here am I cast down? O, Arethusa, shame! And your
love home from the deep seas, and loving you still; and the sun
shining; and the world all full of hope? O, hope, you're a good
word!
SCENE VI
ARETHUSA; TO HER, PEW
PEW (SINGING WITHOUT) -
'Time for us to go!
Time for us to go!
And we'll keep the brig three pints away,
For it's time for us to go.'
ARETHUSA. Who comes here? a seaman by his song, and father out!
(SHE TRIES THE AIR) 'Time for us to go!' It sounds a wild kind
of song. (TAP-TAP; PEW PASSES THE WINDOW.) O, what a face - and
blind!
PEW (ENTERING). Kind Christian friends, take pity on a poor
blind mariner, as lost his precious sight in the defence of his
native country, England, and God bless King George!
ARETHUSA. What can I do for you, sailor?
PEW. Good Christian lady, help a poor blind mariner to a
mouthful of meat. I've served His Majesty in every quarter of
the globe; I've spoke with 'Awke and glorious Anson, as I might
with you; and I've tramped it all night long, upon my sinful
feet, and with a empty belly.
ARETHUSA. You shall not ask bread and be denied by a sailor's
daughter and a sailor's sweetheart; and when my father returns he
shall give you something to set you on your road.
PEW. Kind and lovely lady, do you tell me that you are in a
manner of speaking alone? or do my ears deceive a poor blind
seaman?
ARETHUSA. I live here with my father, and my father is abroad.
PEW. Dear, beautiful, Christian lady, tell a poor blind man your
honoured name, that he may remember it in his poor blind prayers.
ARETHUSA. Sailor, I am Arethusa Gaunt.
PEW. Sweet lady, answer a poor blind man one other question:
are you in a manner of speaking related to Cap'n John Gaunt?
Cap'n John as in the ebony trade were known as Admiral Guinea?
ARETHUSA. Captain John Gaunt is my father.
PEW (DROPPING THE BLIND MAN'S WHINE). Lord, think of that now!
They told me this was where he lived, and so it is. And here's
old Pew, old David Pew, as was the Admiral's own bo'sun,
colloguing in his old commander's parlour, with his old
commander's gal (SEIZES ARETHUSA). Ah, and a bouncer you are,
and no mistake.
ARETHUSA. Let me go! how dare you?
PEW. Lord love you, don't you struggle, now, don't you. (SHE
ESCAPES INTO FRONT R. CORNER, WHERE HE KEEPS HER IMPRISONED.)
Ah, well, we'll get you again, my lovely woman. What a arm
you've got - great god of love - and a face like a peach! I'm a
judge, I am. (SHE TRIES TO ESCAPE; HE STOPS HER.) No, you
don't; O, I can hear a flea jump! [But it's here where I miss my
deadlights. Poor old Pew; him as the ladies always would have
for their fancy man and take no denial; here you are with your
commander's daughter close aboard, and you can't so much as guess
the colour of her lovely eyes. (SINGING) -
'Be they black like ebony;
Or be they blue like to the sky.'
Black like the Admiral's? or blue like his poor dear wife's? Ah,
I was fond of that there woman, I was: the Admiral was jealous
of me.] Arethusa, my dear, - my heart, what a 'and and arm you
HAVE got; I'll dream o' that 'and and arm, I will! - but as I was
a-saying, does the Admiral ever in a manner of speaking refer to
his old bo'sun David Pew? him as he fell out with about the black
woman at Lagos, and almost slashed the shoulder off of him one
morning before breakfast?
ARETHUSA. You leave this house.
PEW. Hey? (HE CROSSES AND SEIZES HER AGAIN) Don't you fight, my
lovely one: now don't make old blind Pew forget his manners
before a female. What! you will? Stop that, or I'll have the
arm right out of your body. (HE GIVES HER ARM A WRENCH.)
ARETHUSA. O! help, help!
PEW. Stash your patter, damn you. (ARETHUSA GIVES IN.) Ah, I
thought it: Pew's way, Pew's way. Now, look you here, my lovely
woman. If you sling in another word that isn't in answer to my
questions, I'll pull your j'ints out one by one. Where's the
Commander?
ARETHUSA. I have said: he is abroad.
PEW. When's he coming aboard again?
ARETHUSA. At any moment.
PEW. Does he keep his strength?
ARETHUSA. You'll see when he returns. (HE WRENCHES HER ARM
AGAIN.) Ah!
PEW. Is he still on piety?
ARETHUSA. O, he is a Christian man!
PEW. A Christian man, is he? Where does he keep his rum?
ARETHUSA. Nay, you shall steal nothing by my help.
PEW. No more I shall (BECOMING AMOROUS). You're a lovely woman,
that's what you are; how would you like old Pew for a sweetheart,
hey? He's blind, is Pew, but strong as a lion; and the sex is
his 'ole delight. Ah, them beautiful, beautiful lips! A kiss!
Come!
ARETHUSA. Leave go, leave go!
PEW. Hey? you would?
ARETHUSA. Ah! (SHE THRUSTS HIM DOWN, AND ESCAPES TO DOOR, R.)
SCENE VII
PEW (PICKING HIMSELF UP). Ah, she's a bouncer, she is! Where's
my stick? That's the sort of female for David Pew. Didn't she
fight? and didn't she struggle? and shouldn't I like to twist her
lovely neck for her? Pew's way with 'em all: the prettier they
was, the uglier he were to 'em. Pew's way: a way he had with
him; and a damned good way too. (LISTENS AT L. DOOR.) That's
her bedroom, I reckon; and she's double-locked herself in. Good
again: it's a crying mercy the Admiral didn't come in. But you
always loses your 'ed, Pew, with a female: that's what charms
'em. Now for business. The front door. No bar; only a big lock
(TRYING KEYS FROM HIS POCKET). Key one; no go. Key two; no go.
Key three; ah, that does it. Ah! (FEELING KEY) him with the
three wards and the little 'un: good again! Now if I could only
find a mate in this rotten country 'amlick: one to be eyes to
me; I can steer, but I can't conn myself, worse luck! If I could
only find a mate! And to-night, about three bells in the middle
watch, old Pew will take a little cruise, and lay aboard his
ancient friend the Admiral; or, barring that, the Admiral's old
sea-chest - the chest he kept the shiners in aboard the brig.
Where is it, I wonder? in his berth, or in the cabin here? It's
big enough, and the brass bands is plain to feel by. (SEARCHING
ABOUT WITH STICK.) Dresser - chair - (KNOCKING HIS HEAD ON THE
CUPBOARD.) Ah! - O, corner cupboard. Admiral's chair -
Admiral's table - Admiral's - hey! what's this? - a book -
sheepskin - smells like a 'oly Bible. Chair (HIS STICK JUST
AVOIDS THE CHEST). No sea-chest. I must have a mate to see for
me, to see for old Pew: him as had eyes like a eagle!
Meanwhile, rum. Corner cupboard, of course (TAP-TAPPING). Rum -
rum - rum. Hey? (HE LISTENS.) Footsteps. Is it the Admiral?
(WITH THE WHINE.) Kind Christian friends -
SCENE VIII
PEW; to him GAUNT
GAUNT. What brings you here?
PEW. Cap'n, do my ears deceive me? or is this my old commander?
GAUNT. My name is John Gaunt. Who are you, my man, and what's
your business?
PEW. Here's the facks, so help me. A lovely female in this
house was Christian enough to pity the poor blind; and lo and
belold! who should she turn out to be but my old commander's
daughter! 'My dear,' says I to her, 'I was the Admiral's own
particular bo'sun.' - 'La, sailor,' she says to me, 'how glad
he'll be to see you!' - 'Ah,' says I, 'won't he just - that's
all.' - 'I'll go and fetch him,' she says; 'you make yourself at
'ome.' And off she went; and, Commander, here I am.
GAUNT (SITTING DOWN). Well?
PEW. Well, Cap'n?
GAUNT. What do you want?
PEW. Well, Admiral, in a general way, what I want in a manner of
speaking is money and rum. (A PAUSE.)
GAUNT. David Pew, I have known you a long time.
PEW. And so you have; aboard the old ARETHUSA; and you don't
seem that cheered up as I'd looked for, with an old shipmate
dropping in, one as has been seeking you two years and more - and
blind at that. Don't you remember the old chantie? -
'Time for us to go,
Time for us to go,
And when we'd clapped the hatches on,
'Twas time for us to go.
What a note you had to sing, what a swaller for a pannikin of
rum, and what a fist for the shiners! Ah, Cap'n, they didn't
call you Admiral Guinea for nothing. I can see that old
sea-chest of yours - her with the brass bands, where you kept
your gold dust and doubloons: you know! - I can see her as well
this minute as though you and me was still at it playing put on
the lid of her . . . You don't say nothing, Cap'n? . . . Well,
here it is: I want money and I want rum. You don't know what it
is to want rum, you don't: it gets to that p'int, that you would
kill a 'ole ship's company for just one guttle of it. What?
Admiral Guinea, my old Commander, go back on poor old Pew? and
him high and dry? [Not you! When we had words over the negro
lass at Lagos, what did you do? fair dealings was your word:
fair as between man and man; and we had it out with p'int and
edge on Lagos sands. And you're not going back on your word to
me, now I'm old and blind? No, no! belay that, I say. Give me
the old motto: Fair dealings, as between man and man.]
GAUNT. David Pew, it were better for you that you were sunk in
fifty fathom. I know your life; and first and last, it is one
broadside of wickedness. You were a porter in a school, and beat
a boy to death; you ran for it, turned slaver, and shipped with
me, a green hand. Ay, that was the craft for you: that was the
right craft, and I was the right captain; there was none worse
that sailed to Guinea. Well, what came of that? In five years'
time you made yourself the terror and abhorrence of your
messmates. The worst hands detested you; your captain - that was
me, John Gaunt, the chief of sinners - cast you out for a Jonah.
[Who was it stabbed the Portuguese and made off inland with his
miserable wife? Who, raging drunk on rum, clapped fire to the
baracoons and burned the poor soulless creatures in their
chains?] Ay, you were a scandal to the Guinea coast, from Lagos
down to Calabar? and when at last I sent you ashore, a marooned
man - your shipmates, devils as they were, cheering and rejoicing
to be quit of you - by heaven, it was a ton's weight off the
brig!
PEW. Cap'n Gaunt, Cap'n Gaunt, these are ugly words.
GAUNT. What next? You shipped with Flint the Pirate. What you
did then I know not; the deep seas have kept the secret: kept
it, ay, and will keep against the Great Day. God smote you with
blindness, but you heeded not the sign. That was His last mercy;
look for no more. To your knees, man, and repent! Pray for a
new heart; flush out your sins with tears; flee while you may
from the terrors of the wrath to come.
PEW. Now, I want this clear: Do I understand that you're going
back on me, and you'll see me damned first?
GAUNT. Of me you shall have neither money nor strong drink: not
a guinea to spend in riot; not a drop to fire your heart with
devilry.
PEW. Cap'n, do you think it wise to quarrel with me? I put it
to you now, Cap'n, fairly, as between man and man - do you think
it wise?
GAUNT. I fear nothing. My feet are on the Rock. Begone! (HE
OPENS THE BIBLE AND BEGINS TO READ.)
PEW (AFTER A PAUSE). Well, Cap'n, you know best, no doubt; and
David Pew's about the last man, though I says it, to up and
thwart an old Commander. You've been 'ard on David Pew, Cap'n:
'ard on the poor blind; but you'll live to regret it - ah, my
Christian friend, you'll live to eat them words up. But there's
no malice here: that ain't Pew's way; here's a sailor's hand
upon it . . . . You don't say nothing? (GAUNT TURNS A PAGE.)
Ah, reading, was you? Reading, by thunder! Well, here's my
respecks (SINGING) -
'Time for us to go, Time for us to go, When the money's out, and
the liquor's done, Why, it's time for us to go.
(HE GOES TAPPING UP TO DOOR, TURNS ON THE THRESHOLD, AND LISTENS.
GAUNT TURNS A PAGE. PEW, WITH A GRIMACE, STRIKES HIS HAND UPON
THE POCKET WITH THE KEYS, AND GOES.)
DROP.
ACT II.
The Stage represents the parlour of the 'Admiral Benbow' inn.
Fire-place, R., with high-backed settles on each side; in front
of these, and facing the audience, R., a small table laid with a
cloth. Tables, L., with glasses, pipes, etc. Broadside ballads
on the wall. Outer door of inn, with the half-door in L., corner
back; door, R., beyond the fire-place; window with red half-
curtains; spittons; candles on both the front tables; night
without.
SCENE I
PEW; afterwards MRS. DRAKE, out and in.
PEW (ENTERING). Kind Christian friends - (LISTENING; THEN
DROPPING THE WHINE.) Hey? nobody! Hey? A grog-shop not two
cable-lengths from the Admiral's back-door, and the Admiral not
there? I never knew a seaman brought so low: he ain't but the
bones of the man he used to be. Bear away for the New Jerusalem,
and this is what you run aground on, is it? Good again; but it
ain't Pew's way; Pew's way is rum. - Sanded floor. Rum is his
word, and rum his motion. - Settle - chimbley - settle again -
spittoon - table rigged for supper. Table-glass. (DRINKS
HEELTAP.) Brandy and water; and not enough of it to wet your eye;
damn all greediness, I say. Pot (DRINKS), small beer - a drink
that I ab'or like bilge! What I want is rum. (CALLING, AND
RAPPING WITH STICK ON TABLE.) Halloa, there! House, ahoy!
MRS. DRAKE (WITHOUT). Coming, sir, coming. (SHE ENTERS, R.)
What can I do - ? (SEEING PEW.) Well I never did! Now,
beggar-man, what's for you?
[PEW. Rum, ma'am, rum; and a bit o' supper.
MRS. DRAKE. And a bed to follow, I shouldn't wonder!
PEW. AND a bed to follow: IF you please.]
MRS. DRAKE. This is the 'ADMIRAL BENBOW,' a respectable house,
and receives none but decent company; and I'll ask you to go
somewhere else, for I don't like the looks of you.
PEW. Turn me away? Why, Lord love you, I'm David Pew - old
David Pew - him as was Benbow's own particular cox'n. You
wouldn't turn away old Pew from the sign of his late commander's
'ed? Ah, my British female, you'd have used me different if
you'd seen me in the fight! [There laid old Benbow, both his
legs shot off, in a basket, and the blessed spy-glass at his eye
to that same hour: a picter, ma'am, of naval daring: when a
round shot come, and took and knocked a bucketful of shivers
right into my poor daylights. 'Damme,' says the Admiral, 'is
that old Pew, MY old Pew?' he says. - 'It's old Pew, sir,' says
the first lootenant, 'worse luck,' he says. - 'Then damme,' says
Admiral Benbow, 'if that's how they serve a lion-'arted seaman,
damme if I care to live,' he says; and, ma'am, he laid down his
spy-glass.]
MRS. DRAKE. Blind man, I don't fancy you, and that's the truth;
and I'll thank you to take yourself off.
PEW. Thirty years have I fought for country and king, and now in
my blind old age I'm to be sent packing from a measly
public-'ouse? Mark ye, ma'am, if I go, you take the
consequences. Is this a inn? Or haint it? If it is a inn, then
by act of parleyment, I'm free to sling my 'ammick. Don't you
forget: this is a act of parleyment job, this is. You look out.
MRS. DRAKE. Why, what's to do with the man and his acts of
parliament? I don't want to fly in the face of an act of
parliament, not I. If what you say is true -
PEW. True? If there's anything truer than a act of parleyment -
Ah! you ask the beak. True? I've that in my 'art as makes me
wish it wasn't.
MRS. DRAKE. I don't like to risk it. I don't like your looks,
and you're more sea-lawyer than seaman to my mind. But I'll tell
you what: if you can pay, you can stay. So there.
PEW. No chink, no drink? That's your motto, is it? Well,
that's sense. Now, look here, ma'am, I ain't beautiful like you;
but I'm good, and I'll give you warrant for it. Get me a noggin
of rum, and suthin' to scoff, and a penny pipe, and a half-a-foot
of baccy; and there's a guinea for the reckoning. There's plenty
more in the locker; so bear a hand, and be smart. I don't like
waiting; it ain't my way. (EXIT MRS. DRAKE, R. PEW SITS AT THE
TABLE, R. THE SETTLE CONCEALS HIM FROM ALL THE UPPER PART OF THE
STAGE.)
MRS. DRAKE (RE-ENTERING). Here's the rum, sailor.
PEW (DRINKS). Ah, rum! That's my sheet-anchor: rum and the
blessed Gospel. Don't you forget that, ma'am: rum and the
Gospel is old Pew's sheet-anchor. You can take for another while
you're about it; and, I say, short reckonings make long friends,
hey? Where's my change?
MRS. DRAKE. I'm counting it now. There, there it is, and thank
you for your custom. (SHE GOES OUT, R.)
PEW (CALLING AFTER HER). Don't thank me, ma'am; thank the act of
parleyment! Rum, fourpence; two penny pieces and a Willi'm-and-
Mary tizzy makes a shilling; and a spade half-guinea is eleven
and six (RE-ENTER MRS. DRAKE WITH SUPPER, PIPE, ETC.); and a
blessed majesty George the First crown-piece makes sixteen and
six; and two shilling bits is eighteen and six; and a new
half-crown makes - no it don't! O, no! Old Pew's too smart a
hand to be bammed with a soft half-tusheroon.
MRS. DRAKE (CHANGING PIECE). I'm sure I didn't know it, sailor.
PEW (TRYING NEW COIN BETWEEN HIS TEETH). In course you didn't,
my dear; but I did, and I thought I'd mention it. Is that my
supper, hey? Do my nose deceive me? (SNIFFING AND FEELING.)
Cold duck? sage and onions? a round of double Gloster? and that
noggin o' rum? Why, I declare if I'd stayed and took pot-luck
with my old commander, Cap'n John Gaunt, he couldn't have beat
this little spread, as I've got by act of parleyment.
MRS. DRAKE (AT KNITTING). Do you know the captain, sailor?
PEW. Know him? I was that man's bos'un, ma'am. In the Guinea
trade, we was known as 'Pew's Cap'n,' and 'Gaunt's Bo'sun,' one
for other like. We was like two brothers, ma'am. And a
excellent cold duck, to be sure; and the rum lovely.
MRS. DRAKE. If you know John Gaunt, you know his daughter
Arethusa.
PEW. What? Arethusa? Know her, says you? know her? Why, Lord
love you, I was her god-father. ['Pew,' says Jack Gaunt to me,
'Pew,' he says, 'you're a man,' he says; 'I like a man to be a
man,' says he, 'and damme,' he says, 'I like YOU; and sink me,'
says he, 'if you don't promise and vow in the name of that
new-born babe,' he says, 'why damme, Pew,' says he, 'you're not
the man I take you for.'] Yes, ma'am, I named that female; with
my own 'ands I did; Arethusa, I named her; that was the name I
give her; so now you know if I speak true. And if you'll be as
good as get me another noggin of rum, why, we'll drink her 'elth
with three times three. (EXIT MRS. DRAKE: PEW EATING. MRS.
DRAKE RE-ENTERING WITH RUM.)
[MRS. DRAKE. If what you say be true, sailor (and I don't say it
isn't, mind!), it's strange that Arethusa and that godly man her
father have never so much as spoke your name.
PEW. Why, that's so! And why, says you? Why, when I dropped in
and paid my respecks this morning, do you think she knew me? No
more'n a babe unborn! Why, ma'am, when I promised and vowed for
her, I was the picter of a man-o'-war's man, I was: eye like a
eagle; walked the deck in a hornpipe, foot up and foot down;
v'ice as mellow as rum; 'and upon 'art, and all the females took
dead aback at the first sight, Lord bless 'em! Know me? Not
likely. And as for me, when I found her such a lovely woman - by
the feel of her 'and and arm! - you might have knocked me down
with a feather. But here's where it is, you see: when you've
been knocking about on blue water for a matter of two-and-forty
year, shipwrecked here, and blown up there, and everywhere out of
luck, and given over for dead by all your messmates and
relations, why, what it amounts to is this: nobody knows you,
and you hardly know yourself, and there you are; and I'll trouble
you for another noggin of rum.
MRS. DRAKE. I think you've had enough.
PEW. I don't; so bear a hand. (EXIT MRS. DRAKE; PEW EMPTIES THE
GLASS.) Rum, ah, rum, you're a lovely creature; they haven't
never done you justice. (PROCEEDS TO FILL AND LIGHT PIPE;
RE-ENTER MRS. DRAKE WITH RUM.)] And now, ma'am, since you're so
genteel and amicable-like, what about my old commander? Is he,
in a manner of speaking, on half pay? or is he living on his
fortune, like a gentleman slaver ought?
MRS. DRAKE. Well, sailor, people talk, you know.
PEW. I know, ma'am; I'd have been rolling in my coach, if they'd
have held their tongues.
MRS. DRAKE. And they do say that Captain Gaunt, for so pious a
man, is little better than a miser.
PEW. Don't say it, ma'am; not to old Pew. Ah, how often have I
up and strove with him! 'Cap'n, live it down,' says I. 'Ah,
Pew,' says he, 'you're a better man than I am,' he says; 'but
dammne,' he says, 'money,' he says, 'is like rum to me.'
(INSINUATING.) And what about a old sea-chest, hey? a old
sea-chest, strapped with brass bands?
MRS. DRAKE. Why, that'll be the chest in his parlour, where he
has it bolted to the wall, as I've seen with my own eyes; and so
might you, if you had eyes to see with.
PEW. No, ma'am, that ain't good enough; you don't bam old Pew.
You never was in that parlour in your life.
MRS. DRAKE. I never was? Well, I declare!
PEW. Well then, if you was, where's the chest? Beside the
chimbley, hey? (WINKING.) Beside the table with the 'oly Bible?
MRS. DRAKE. No, sailor, you don't get any information out of me.
PEW. What, ma'am? Not to old Pew? Why, my god-child showed it
me herself, and I told her where she'd find my name - P, E, W,
Pew - cut out on the starn of it; and sure enough she did. Why,
ma'am, it was his old money-box when he was in the Guinea trade;
and they do say he keeps the rhino in it still.
MRS. DRAKE. No, sailor, nothing out of me! And if you want to
know, you can ask the Admiral himself! (SHE CROSSES, L.)
PEW. Hey? Old girl fly? Then I reckon I must have a mate, if
it was the parish bull.
SCENE II
TO THESE, KIT, A LITTLE DRUNK
KIT (LOOKING IN OVER HALF-DOOR). Mrs. Drake! Mother! Where are
you? Come and welcome the prodigal!
MRS. DRAKE (COMING FORWARD TO MEET HIM AS HE ENTERS; PEW REMAINS
CONCEALED BY THE SETTLE, SMOKING, DRINKING, AND LISTENING). Lord
bless us and save us, if it ain't my boy! Give us a kiss.
KIT. That I will, and twenty if you like, old girl. (KISSES
HER.)
MRS. DRAKE. O Kit, Kit, you've been at those other houses, where
the stuff they give you, my dear, it is poison for a dog.
[KIT. Round with friends, mother: only round with friends.
MRS. DRAKE. Well, anyway, you'll take a glass just to settle it,
from me. (SHE BRINGS THE BOTTLE, AND FILLS FOR HIM.) There,
that's pure; that'll do you no harm.] But O, Kit, Kit, I thought
you were done with all this Jack-a-shoring.
KIT. What cheer, mother? I'm only a sheet in the wind; and
who's the worse for it but me?
MRS. DRAKE. Ah, and that dear young lady; and her waiting and
keeping single these two years for the love of you!
KIT. She, mother? she's heart of oak, she's true as steel, and
good as gold; and she has my ring on her finger, too. But
where's the use? The Admiral won't look at me.
MRS. DRAKE. Why not? You're as good a man as him any day.
KIT. Am I? He says I'm a devil, and swears that none of his
flesh and blood - that's what he said, mother! - should lie at my
mercy. That's what cuts me. If it wasn't for the good stuff
I've been taking aboard, and the jolly companions I've been
seeing it out with, I'd just go and make a hole in the water, and
be done with it, I would, by George!
MRS. DRAKE. That's like you men. Ah, we know you, we that keeps
a public-house - we know you, good and bad: you go off on a
frolic and forget; and you never think of the women that sit
crying at home.
KIT. Crying? Arethusa cry? Why, dame, she's the
bravest-hearted girl in all broad England! Here, fill the glass!
I'll win her yet. I drink to her; here's to her bright eyes, and
here's to the blessed feet she walks upon!
PEW (LOOKING ROUND THE CORNER OF THE SETTLE). Spoke like a
gallant seaman, every inch. Shipmate, I'm a man as has suffered,
and I'd like to shake your fist, and drink a can of flip with
you.
KIT (COMING DOWN). Hullo, my hearty! who the devil are you?
Who's this, mother?
MRS. DRAKE. Nay, I know nothing about him. (SHE GOES OUT, R.)
PEW. Cap'n, I'm a brother seaman, and my name is Pew, old David
Pew, as you may have heard of in your time, he having sailed
along of 'Awke and glorious Benbow, and a right-'and man to both.
KIT. Benbow? Steady, mate! D'ye mean to say you went to sea
before you were born?
PEW. See now! The sign of this here inn was running in my 'ed,
I reckon. Benbow, says you? no, not likely! Anson, I mean;
Anson and Sir Edward 'Awke: that's the pair: I was their
right-'and man.
KIT. Well, mate, you may be all that, and more; but you're a rum
un to look at, anyhow.
PEW. Right you are, and so I am. But what is looks? It's the
'art that does it: the 'art is the seaman's star; and here's old
David Pew's, a matter of fifty years at sea, but tough and sound
as the British Constitootion.
KIT. You're right there, Pew. Shake hands upon it. And you're
a man they're down upon, just like myself, I see. We're a pair
of plain, good-hearted, jolly tars; and all these 'longshore
fellows cock a lip at us, by George. What cheer, mate?
ARETHUSA (WITHOUT). Mrs. Drake! Mrs. Drake!
PEW. What, a female? hey? a female? Board her board her, mate!
I'm dark. (HE RETIRES AGAIN BEHIND, TO TABLE, R., BEHIND
SETTLE.)
ARETHUSA (WITHOUT). Mrs. Drake!
MRS. DRAKE (RE-ENTERING AND RUNNING TO DOOR). Here I am, my
dear; come in.
SCENE III
TO THESE, ARETHUSA
ARETHUSA. Ah, Kit, I've found you. I thought you would lodge
with Mrs. Drake.
KIT. What? are you looking for your consort? Whistle, I'm your
dog; I'll come to you. I've been toasting you fathom deep, my
beauty; and with every glass I love you dearer.
ARETHUSA. Now Kit, if you want to please my father, this is not
the way. Perhaps he thinks too much of the guineas: well,
gather them - if you think me worth the price. Go you to your
sloop, clinker built, eighty tons burthen - you see I remember,
Skipper Kit! I don't deny I like a man of spirit; but if you
care to please Captain Gaunt, keep out of taverns; and if you
could carry yourself a bit more - more elderly!
[KIT. Can I? Would I? Ah, just couldn't and just won't I,
then!
MRS. DRAKE. I hope, madam, you don't refer to my house; a
publican I may be, but tavern is a word that I don't hold with;
and here there's no bad drink, and no loose company; and as for
my blessedest Kit, I declare I love him like my own.
ARETHUSA. Why, who could help it, Mrs. Drake?]
KIT. Arethusa, you're an angel. Do I want to please Captain
Gaunt? Why, that's as much as ask whether I love you. [I don't
deny that his words cut me; for they did. But as for wanting to
please him, if he was deep as the blue Atlantic, I would beat it
out. And elderly, too? Aha, you witch, you're wise! Elderly?
You've set the course; you leave me alone to steer it.
Matrimony's my port, and love is my cargo.] That's a likely
question, ain't it, Mrs. Drake? Do I want to please him!
Elderly, says you? Why, see here: Fill up my glass, and I'll
drink to Arethusa on my knees.
ARETHUSA. Why, you stupid boy, do you think that would please
him?
KIT. On my knees I'll drink it! (AS HE KNEELS AND DRAINS THE
GLASS, GAUNT ENTERS, AND HE SCRAMBLES TO HIS FEET.)
SCENE IV
TO THESE, GAUNT
GAUNT. Arethusa, this is no place for you.
ARETHUSA. No, father.
GAUNT. I wish you had been spared this sight; but look at him,
child, since you are here; look at God's image, so debased. And
you, young man (TO KIT), you have proved that I was right. Are
you the husband for this innocent maid?
KIT. Captain Gaunt, I have a word to say to you. Terror is your
last word; you're bitter hard upon poor sinners, bitter hard and
black - you that were a sinner yourself. These are not the true
colours: don't deceive yourself; you're out of your course.
[GAUNT. Heaven forbid that I should be hard, Christopher. It is
not I; it's God's law that is of iron. Think! if the blow were
to fall now, some cord to snap within you, some enemy to plunge a
knife into your heart; this room, with its poor taper light, to
vanish; this world to disappear like a drowning man into the
great ocean; and you, your brain still whirling, to be snatched
into the presence of the eternal Judge: Christopher French, what
answer would you make? For these gifts wasted, for this rich
mercy scorned, for these high-handed bravings of your better
angel, - what have you to say?
KIT. Well, sir, I want my word with you, and by your leave I'll
have it out.
ARETHUSA. Kit, for pity's sake!
KIT. Arethusa, I don't speak to you, my dear: you've got my
ring, and I know what that means. The man I speak to is Captain
Gaunt. I came to-day as happy a man as ever stepped, and with as
fair a look-out. What did you care? what was your reply? None
of your flesh and blood, you said, should lie at the mercy of a
wretch like me! Am I not flesh and blood that you should trample
on me like that? Is that charity, to stamp the hope out of a
poor soul?]
GAUNT. You speak wildly; or the devil of drink that is in you
speaks instead.
KIT. You think me drunk? well, so I am, and whose fault is it
but yours? It was I that drank; but you take your share of it,
Captain Gaunt: you it was that filled the can.
GAUNT. Christopher French, I spoke but for your good, your good
and hers. 'Woe unto him' - these are the dreadful words - 'by
whom offences shall come: it were better - ' Christopher, I can
but pray for both of us.
KIT. Prayers? Now I tell you freely, Captain Gaunt, I don't
value your prayers. Deeds are what I ask; kind deeds and words -
that's the true-blue piety: to hope the best and do the best,
and speak the kindest. As for you, you insult me to my face; and
then you'll pray for me? What's that? Insult behind my back is
what I call it! No, sir; you're out of the course; you're no
good man to my view, be you who you may.
MRS. DRAKE. O Christopher! To Captain Gaunt?
ARETHUSA. Father, father, come away!
KIT. Ah, you see? She suffers too; we all suffer. You spoke
just now of a devil; well, I'll tell you the devil you have: the
devil of judging others. And as for me, I'll get as drunk as
Bacchus.
GAUNT. Come!
SCENE V
PEW, MRS. DRAKE, KIT
PEW (COMING OUT AND WAVING HIS PIPE). Commander, shake! Hooray
for old England! If there's anything in the world that goes to
old Pew's 'art, it's argyment. Commander, you handled him like a
babby, kept the weather gauge, and hulled him every shot.
Commander, give it a name, and let that name be rum!
KIT. Ay, rum's the sailor's fancy. Mrs. Drake, a bottle and
clean glasses.
MRS. DRAKE. Kit French, I wouldn't. Think better of it, there's
a dear! And that sweet girl just gone!
PEW. Ma'am, I'm not a 'ard man; I'm not the man to up and force
a act of parleyment upon a helpless female. But you see here:
Pew's friends is sacred. Here's my friend here, a perfeck
seaman, and a man with a 'ed upon his shoulders, and a man that,
damme, I admire. He give you a order, ma'am: - march!
MRS. DRAKE. Kit, don't you listen to that blind man; he's the
devil wrote upon his face.
PEW. Don't you insinuate against my friend. HE ain't a child, I
hope? HE knows his business? Don't you get trying to go a
lowering of my friend in his own esteem.
MRS. DRAKE. Well, I'll bring it, Kit; but it's against the
grain. (EXIT.)
KIT. I say, old boy, come to think of it, why should we? It's
been glasses round with me all day. I've got my cargo.
PEW. You? and you just argy'd the 'ed off of Admiral Guinea? O
stash that! I stand treat, if it comes to that!
KIT. What! Do I meet with a blind seaman and not stand him?
That's not the man I am!
MRS. DRAKE (RE-ENTERING WITH BOTTLE AND GLASSES). There!
PEW. Easy does it, ma'am.
KIT. Mrs. Drake, you had better trot.
MRS. DRAKE. Yes, I'll trot; and I trot with a sick heart, Kit
French, to leave you drinking your wits away with that low blind
man. For a low man you are - a low blind man - and your clothes
they would disgrace a scarecrow. I'll go to my bed, Kit; and O,
dear boy, go soon to yours - the old room, you know; it's ready
for you - and go soon and sleep it off; for you know, dear, they,
one and all, regret it in the morning; thirty years I've kept
this house, and one and all they did regret it, dear.
PEW. Come now, you walk!
MRS. DRAKE. O, it's not for your bidding. You a seaman? The
ship for you to sail in is the hangman's cart. - Good-night, Kit
dear, and better company!
SCENE VI
PEW, KIT. They sit at the other table, L.
PEW. Commander, here's HER 'ealth!
KIT. Ay, that's the line: HER health! But that old woman there
is a good old woman, Pew.
PEW. So she is, Commander. But there's no woman understands a
seaman; now you and me, being both bred to it, we splice by
natur'. As for A. G., if argyment can win her, why, she's yours.
If I'd a-had your 'ed for argyment, damme, I'd a-been a Admiral,
I would! And if argyment won't win her, well, see here, you put
your trust in David Pew.
KIT. David Pew, I don't know who you are, David Pew; I never
heard of you; I don't seem able to clearly see you. Mrs. Drake,
she's a smart old woman, Pew, and she says you've the devil in
your face.
PEW. Ah, and why, says you? Because I up and put her in her
place, when she forgot herself to you, Commander.
KIT. Well, Pew, that's so; you stood by me like a man. Shake
hands, Pew; and we'll make a night of it, or we'll know why, old
boy!
PEW. That's my way. That's Pew's way, that is. That's Pew's
way all over. Commander, excuse the liberty; but when I was your
age, making allowance for a lowlier station and less 'ed for
argyment, I was as like you as two peas. I know it by the v'ice
(SINGS) -
'We hadn't been three days at sea before we saw a sail,
So we clapped on every stitch would stand, although it blew a
gale,
And we walked along full fourteen knots, for the barkie she did
know
As well as ever a soul on board, 'twas time for us to go.'
Chorus, Cap'n!
PEW AND KIT (IN CHORUS) -
'Time for us to go,
Time for us to go,
As well as ever a soul on board,
'Twas time for us to go.'
PEW (SINGS) -
'We carried away the royal yard, and the stunsail boom was gone;
Says the skipper, "They may go or stand, I'm damned if I don't
crack on;
So the weather braces we'll round in, and the trysail set also,
And we'll keep the brig three p'ints away, for it's time for us
to go.
Give it mouth, Commander!
PEW AND KIT (IN CHORUS) -
'Time for us to go,
Time for us to go,
And we'll keep the brig three p'ints away,
For it's time for us to go.'
PEW. I ain't sung like that since I sang to Admiral 'Awke, the
night before I lost my eyes, I ain't. 'Sink me!' says he, says
Admiral 'Awke, my old commander (TOUCHING HIS HAT), 'sink me!' he
says, 'if that ain't 'art-of-oak,' he says: ''art-of-oak,' says
he, 'and a pipe like a bloody blackbird!' Commander, here's my
respecks, and the devil fly away with Admiral Guinea!
KIT. I say, Pew, how's this? How do you know about Admiral
Guinea? I say, Pew, I begin to think you know too much.
PEW. I ax your pardon; but as a man with a 'ed for argyment -
and that's your best p'int o' sailing, Commander; intelleck is
your best p'int - as a man with a 'ed for argyment, how do I make
it out?
KIT. Aha, you're a sly dog, you're a deep dog, Pew; but you
can't get the weather of Kit French. How do I make it out? I'll
tell you. I make it out like this: Your name's Pew, ain't it?
Very well. And you know Admiral Guinea, and that's his name, eh?
Very well. Then you're Pew; and the Admiral's the Admiral; and
you know the Admiral; and by George, that's all. Hey? Drink
about, boys, drink about!
PEW. Lord love you, if I'd a-had a 'ed like yours! Why the
Admiral was my first cap'n. I was that man's bo'sun, I was,
aboard the ARETHUSA; and we was like two brothers. Did you never
hear of Guinea-land and the black ivory business? (SINGS) -
'A quick run to the south we had, and when we made the Bight
We kept the offing all day long and crossed the bar at night.
Six hundred niggers in the hold and seventy we did stow,
And when we'd clapped the hatches on, 'twas time for us to go.'
Lay forward, lads!
KIT AND PEW (IN CHORUS) -
'Time for us to go,' etc.
KIT. I say, Pew, I like you; you're a damned ugly dog; but I
like you. But look ye here, Pew: fair does it, you know, or we
part company this minute. If you and the Ad - the Admirable were
like brothers on the Guinea coast, why aren't you like brothers
here?
PEW. Ah, I see you coming. What a 'ed! what a 'ed! Since Pew
is a friend of the family, says you, why didn't he sail in and
bear a hand, says you, when you was knocking the Admiral's ship
about his ears in argyment?
KIT. Well, Pew, now you put a name to it, why not?
PEW. Ah, why not? There I recko'nise you. [Well, see here:
argyment's my weakness, in a manner of speaking; I wouldn't
a-borne down and spiled sport, not for gold untold, no, not for
rum, I wouldn't! And besides, Commander, I put it to you, as
between man and man, would it have been seaman-like to let on and
show myself to a old shipmate, when he was yard-arm to yard-arm
with a craft not half his metal, and getting blown out of water
every broadside? Would it have been 'ansome? I put it to you,
as between man and man.
KIT. Pew, I may have gifts; but I never thought of that. Why,
no: not seaman-like. Pew, you've a heart; that's what I like
you for.
PEW. Ah, that I have: you'll see. I wanted - now you follow me
- I wanted to keep square with Admiral Guinea.] Why? says you.
Well, put it that I know a fine young fellow when I sees him; and
put it that I wish him well; and put it, for the sake of
argyment, that the father of that lovely female's in my power.
Aha? Pew's Power! Why, in my 'ands he's like this pocket
'andke'cher. Now, brave boy, do you see?
KIT. No, Pew, my head's gone; I don't see.
PEW. Why, cheer up, Commander! You want to marry this lovely
female?
KIT. Ay, that I do; but I'm not fit for her, Pew; I'm a drunken
dog, and I'm not fit for her.
PEW. Now, Cap'n, you'll allow a old seaman to be judge: one as
sailed with 'Awke and blessed Benb- with 'Awke and noble Anson.
You've been open and above-board with me, and I'll do the same by
you: it being the case that you're hard hit about a lovely
woman, which many a time and oft it has happened to old Pew; and
him with a feeling 'art that bleeds for you, Commander; why look
here: I'm that girl's godfather; promised and vowed for her, I
did; and I like you; and you're the man for her; and, by the
living Jacob, you shall splice!
KIT. David Pew, do you mean what you say?
PEW. Do I mean what I say? Does David Pew? Ask Admiral 'Awke!
Ask old Admiral Byng in his coffin, where I laid him with these
lands! Pew does, is what those naval commanders would reply.
Mean it? I reckon so.
KIT. Then, shake hands. You're an honest man, Pew - old Pew! -
and I'll make your fortune. But there's something else, if I
could keep the run of it. O, ah! But CAN you? That's the
point. Can you; don't you see?
PEW. Can I? You leave that to me; I'll bring you to your
moorings; I'm the man that can, and I'm him that will. But only,
look here, let's understand each other. You're a bold blade,
ain't you? You won't stick at a trifle for a lovely female?
You'll back me up? You're a man, ain't you? a man, and you'll
see me through and through it, hey? Come; is that so? Are you
fair and square and stick at nothing?
KIT. Me, Pew? I'll go through fire and water.
PEW. I'll risk it. - Well, then, see here, my son: another
swallow and we jog.
KIT. No, not to-night, Pew, not to-night!
PEW. Commander, in a manner of speaking, wherefore?
KIT. Wherefore, Pew? 'Cause why, Pew? 'Cause I'm drunk, and be
damned to you!
PEW. Commander, I ax your pardon; but, saving your presence,
that's a lie. What? drunk? a man with a 'ed for argyment like
that? just you get up, and steady yourself on your two pins, and
you'll be as right as ninepence.
[KIT. Pew, before we budge, let me shake your flipper again.
You're heart of oak, Pew, sure enough; and if you can bring the
Adam - Admirable about, why, damme, I'll make your fortune! How
you're going to do it, I don't know; but I'll stand by; and I
know you'll do it if anybody can. But I'm drunk, Pew; you can't
deny that: I'm as drunk as a Plymouth fiddler, Pew; and how
you're going to do it is a mystery to me.
PEW. Ah, you leave that to me. All I want is what I've got:
your promise to stand by and bear a hand (PRODUCING A DARK
LANTERN).] Now, here, you see, is my little glim; it ain't for
me, because I'm blind, worse luck! and the day and night is the
blessed same to David Pew. But you watch. You put the candle
near me. Here's what there ain't mony blind men could do, take
the pick o' them! (LIGHTING A SCREW OF PAPER, AND WITH THAT, THE
LANTERN). Hey? That's it. Hey? Go and pity the poor blind!
KIT (WHILE PEW BLOWS OUT THE CANDLES). But I say, Pew, what do
you want with it?
PEW. To see by, my son. (HE SHUTS THE LANTERN AND PUTS IT IN
HIS POCKET. STAGE QUITE DARK. MOONLIGHT AT WINDOW.) All
ship-shape? No sparks about? No? Come, then, lean on me and
heave ahead for the lovely female. (SINGING SOTTO VOCE) -
'Time for us to go, Time for us to go, And when we'd clapped the
hatches on, 'Twas time for us to go.'
DROP
ACT III.
The Stage represents the Admiral's house, as in Act I. GAUNT
seated, is reading aloud; ARETHUSA sits at his feet. Candles
SCENE I
ARETHUSA, GAUNT
[GAUNT (READING). 'And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee,
or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest,
I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people
shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I
die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more
also, if aught but death part thee and me.' (HE CLOSES THE
BOOK.) Amen.
ARETHUSA. Amen. Father, there spoke my heart.]
GAUNT. Arethusa, the Lord in his mercy has seen right to vex us
with trials of many kinds. It is a little matter to endure the
pangs of the flesh: the smart of wounds, the passion of hunger
and thirst, the heaviness of disease; and in this world I have
learned to take thought for nothing save the quiet of your soul.
It is through our affections that we are smitten with the true
pain, even the pain that kills.
ARETHUSA. And yet this pain is our natural lot. Father, I fear
to boast, but I know that I can bear it. Let my life, then, flow
like common lives, each pain rewarded with some pleasure, each
pleasure linked with some pain: nothing pure whether for good or
evil: and my husband, like myself and all the rest of us, only a
poor, kind-hearted sinner, striving for the better part. What
more could any woman ask?
GAUNT. Child, child, your words are like a sword. What would
she ask? Look upon me whom, in the earthly sense, you are
commanded to respect. Look upon me: do I bear a mark? is there
any outward sign to bid a woman avoid and flee from me?
ARETHUSA. I see nothing but the face I love.
GAUNT. There is none: nor yet on the young man Christopher,
whose words still haunt and upbraid me. Yes, I am hard; I was
born hard, born a tyrant, born to be what I was, a slaver
captain. But to-night, and to save you, I will pluck my heart
out of my bosom. You shall know what makes me what I am; you
shall hear, out of my own life, why I dread and deprecate this
marriage. Child, do you remember your mother?
ARETHUSA. Remember her? Ah, if she had been here to-day!
GAUNT. It is thirteen years since she departed, and took with
her the whole sunshine of my life. Do you remember the manner of
her departure? You were a child, and cannot; but I can and do.
Remember? shall I ever forget? Here or hereafter, ever forget!
Ten years she was my wife, and ten years she lay a-dying.
Arethusa, she was a saint on earth; and it was I that killed her.
ARETHUSA. Killed her? my mother? You?
GAUNT. Not with my hand; for I loved her. I would not have hurt
one hair upon her head. But she got her death by me, as sure as
by a blow.
ARETHUSA. I understand - I can see: you brood on trifles,
misunderstandings, unkindnesses you think them; though my mother
never knew of them, or never gave them a second thought. It is
natural, when death has come between.
GAUNT. I married her from Falmouth. She was comely as the roe;
I see her still - her dove's eyes and her smile! I was older
than she; and I had a name for hardness, a hard and wicked man;
but she loved me - my Hester! - and she took me as I was. O how
I repaid her trust! Well, our child was born to us; and we named
her after the brig I had built and sailed, the old craft whose
likeness - older than you, girl - stands there above our heads.
And so far, that was happiness. But she yearned for my
salvation; and it was there I thwarted her. My sins were a
burden upon her spirit, a shame to her in this world, her terror
in the world to come. She talked much and often of my leaving
the devil's trade I sailed in. She had a tender and a Christian
heart, and she would weep and pray for the poor heathen creatures
that I bought and sold and shipped into misery, till my
conscience grew hot within me. I've put on my hat, and gone out
and made oath that my next cargo should be my last; but it never
was, that oath was never kept. So I sailed again and again for
the Guinea coast, until the trip came that was to be my last
indeed. Well, it fell out that we had good luck trading, and I
stowed the brig with these poor heathen as full as she would
hold. We had a fair run westward till we were past the line; but
one night the wind rose and there came a hurricane, and for seven
days we were tossed on the deep seas, in the hardest straits, and
every hand on deck. For several days they were battened down:
all that time we heard their cries and lamentations, but worst at
the beginning; and when at last, and near dead myself, I crept
below - O! some they were starved, some smothered, some dead of
broken limbs; and the hold was like a lazar-house in the time of
the anger of the Lord!
ARETHUSA. O!
GAUNT. It was two hundred and five that we threw overboard: two
hundred and five lost souls that I had hurried to their doom. I
had many die with me before; but not like that - not such a
massacre as that; and I stood dumb before the sight. For I saw I
was their murderer - body and soul their murderer; and, Arethusa,
my Hester knew it. That was her death-stroke: it felled her.
She had long been dying slowly; but from the hour she heard that
story, the garment of the flesh began to waste and perish, the
fountains of her life dried up; she faded before my face; and in
two months from my landing - O Hester, Hester, would God I had
died for thee!
ARETHUSA. Mother! O poor soul! O poor father! O father, it
was hard on you.
GAUNT. The night she died, she lay there, in her bed. She took
my hand. 'I am going,' she said, 'to heaven. For Christ's
sake,' she said, 'come after me, and bring my little maid. I'll
be waiting and wearying till you come;' and she kissed my hand,
the hand that killed her. At that I broke out calling on her to
stop, for it was more than I could bear. But no, she said she
must still tell me of my sins, and how the thought of them had
bowed down her life. 'And O!' she said, 'if I couldn't prevail
on you alive, let my death.' . . . Well, then, she died. What
have I done since then? I've laid my course for Hester. Sin,
temptation, pleasure, all this poor shadow of a world, I saw them
not: I saw my Hester waiting, waiting and wearying. I have made
my election sure; my sins I have cast them out. Hester, Hester,
I will come to you, poor waiting one; and I'll bring your little
maid: ay, dearest soul, I'll bring your little maid safe with
me!
ARETHUSA. O teach me how! Show me the way! only show me. - O
mother, mother! - If it were paved with fire, show me the way,
and I will walk it bare-foot!
GAUNT. They call me a miser. They say that in this sea-chest of
mine I hoard my gold. (HE PASSES R. TO CHEST, TAKES OUT KEY, AND
UNLOCKS IT.) They think my treasure and my very soul are locked
up here. They speak after the flesh, but they are right. See!
ARETHUSA. Her watch? the wedding ring? O father, forgive me!
GAUNT. Ay, her watch that counted the hours when I was away;
they were few and sorrowful, my Hester's hours; and this poor
contrivance numbered them. The ring - with that I married her.
This chain, it's of Guinea gold; I brought it home for her, the
year before we married, and she wore it to her wedding. It was a
vanity: they are all vanities; but they are the treasure of my
soul. Below here, see, her wedding dress. Ay, the watch has
stopped: dead, dead. And I know that my Hester died of me; and
day and night, asleep and awake, my soul abides in her
remembrance.
ARETHUSA. And you come in your sleep to look at them. O poor
father! I understand - I understand you now.
GAUNT. In my sleep? Ay? do I so? My Hester!
ARETHUSA. And why, why did you not tell me? I thought - I was
like the rest! - I feared you were a miser. O, you should have
told me; I should have been so proud - so proud and happy. I
knew you loved her; but not this, not this.
GAUNT. Why should I have spoken? It was all between my Hester
and me.
ARETHUSA. Father, may I speak? May I tell you what my heart
tells me? You do not understand about my mother. You loved her
- O, as few men can love. And she loved you: think how she
loved you! In this world, you know - you have told me - there is
nothing perfect. All we men and women have our sins; and they
are a pain to those that love us, and the deeper the love, the
crueller the pain. That is life; and it is life we ask, not
heaven; and what matter for the pain, if only the love holds on?
Her love held: then she was happy! Her love was immortal; and
when she died, her one grief was to be parted from you, her one
hope to welcome you again.
GAUNT. And you, Arethusa: I was to bring her little maid.
ARETHUSA. God bless her, yes, and me! But, father, can you not
see that she was blessed among women?
GAUNT. Child, child, you speak in ignorance; you touch upon
griefs you cannot fathom.
ARETHUSA. No, dearest, no. She loved you, loved you and died of
it. Why else do women live? What would I ask but just to love
my Kit and die for him, and look down from heaven, and see him
keep my memory holy and live the nobler for my sake?
GAUNT. Ay, do you so love him?
ARETHUSA. Even as my mother loved my father.
GAUNT. Ay? Then we will see. What right have I - You are your
mother's child: better, tenderer, wiser than I. Let us seek
guidance in prayer. Good-night, my little maid.
ARETHUSA. O father, I know you at last.
SCENE II
GAUNT and ARETHUSA go out, L., carrying the candles. Stage dark.
A distant clock chimes the quarters, and strikes one. Then, the
tap-tapping of Pew's stick is hear without; the key is put into
the lock; and enter PEW, C., he pockets key, and is followed by
KIT, with dark lantern
PEW. Quiet, you lubber! Can't you foot it soft, you that has
daylights and a glim?
KIT. All right, old boy. How the devil did we get through the
door? Shall I knock him up?
PEW. Stow your gab (SEIZING HIS WRIST). Under your breath!
KIT. Avast that! You're a savage dog, aren't you?
PEW. Turn on that glim.
KIT. It's as right as a trivet, Pew. What next? By George,
Pew, I'll make your fortune.
PEW. Here, now, look round this room, and sharp. D'ye see a old
sea-chest?
KIT. See it, Pew? why, d'ye think I'm blind?
PEW. Take me across, and let me feel of her. Mum; catch my
hand. Ah, that's her (FEELING THE CHEST), that's the Golden
Mary. Now, see here, my bo, if you've the pluck of a weevil in a
biscuit, this girl is yours; if you hain't, and think to sheer
off, I'm blind, but I'm deadly.
KIT. You'll keep a civil tongue in your head all the same. I'll
take threats from nobody, blind or not. Let's knock up the
Admiral and be done with it. What I want is to get rid of this
dark lantern. It makes me feel like a housebreaker, by George.
PEW (SEATED ON CHEST). You follow this. I'm sick of drinking
bilge, when I might be rolling in my coach, and I'm dog-sick of
Jack Gaunt. Who's he to be wallowing in gold, when a better man
is groping crusts in the gutter and spunging for rum? Now, here
in this blasted chest is the gold to make men of us for life:
gold, ay, gobs of it; and writin's too - things that if I had the
proof of 'em I'd hold Jack Gaunt to the grindstone till his face
was flat. I'd have done it single-handed; but I'm blind, worse
luck: I'm all in the damned dark here, poking with a stick -
Lord, burn up with lime the eyes that saw it! That's why I raked
up you. Come, out with your iron, and prise the lid off. You
shall touch your snack, and have the wench for nothing; ay, and
fling her in the street, when done.
KIT. So you brought me here to steal did you?
PEW. Ay did I; and you shall. I'm a biter: I bring blood.
KIT. Now, Pew, you came here on my promise, or I'd kill you like
a rat. As it is, out of that door! One, two, three (DRAWING HIS
CUTLASS), and off!
PEW (LEAPING AT HIS THROAT, AND WITH A GREAT VOICE). Help!
murder! thieves!
SCENE III
To these, ARETHUSA, GAUNT, with lights. Stage light. PEW has
KIT down, and is throttling him
PEW. I've got him, Cap'n. What, kill my old commander, and rob
him of his blessed child? Not with old Pew!
GAUNT. Get up, David: can't you see you're killing him?
Unhand, I say.
ARETHUSA. In heaven's name, who is it?
PEW. It's a damned villain, my pretty; and his name, to the best
of my belief, is French.
ARETHUSA. Kit? Kit French? Never!
KIT (RISING). He's done for me. (FALLS ON CHEST.)
[PEW. Don't you take on about him, ducky; he ain't worth it.
Cap'n Gaunt, I took him and I give him up. You was 'ard on me
this morning, Cap'n: this is my way - Pew's way, this is - of
paying of you out.
ARETHUSA. Father, this is the blind man that came while you were
abroad. Sure you'll not listen to HIM. And you, Kit, you, what
is this?
KIT. Captain Gaunt, that blind devil has half-throttled me. He
brought me here - I can't speak - he has almost killed me - and
I'd been drinking too.
GAUNT. And you, David Pew, what do you say?]
PEW. Cap'n, the rights of it is this. Me and that young man
there was partaking in a friendly drop of rum at the ADMIRAL
BENBOW inn; and I'd just proposed his blessed Majesty, when the
young man he ups and says to me: 'Pew,' he says, 'I like you,
Pew: you're a true seaman,' he says; 'and I'm one as sticks at
nothing; and damme, Pew,' he says, 'I'll make your fortune.'
[Can he deny as them was his words? Look at him, you as has
eyes: no, he cannot. 'Come along of me,' he says, 'and damme,
I'll make your fortune.'] Well, Cap'n, he lights a dark lantern
(which you'll find it somewhere on the floor, I reckon), and out
we goes, me follerin' his lead, as I thought was 'art-of-oak and
a true-blue mariner; and the next I knows is, here we was in
here, and him a-askin' me to 'old the glim, while he prised the
lid off of your old sea-chest with his cutlass.
GAUNT. The chest? (HE LEAPS, R., AND EXAMINES CHEST.) Ah!
PEW. Leastways, I was to 'elp him, by his account of it, while
he nailed the rhino, and then took and carried off that lovely
maid of yours; for a lovely maid she is, and one as touched old
Pew's 'art Cap'n, when I 'eard that, my blood biled. 'Young
man,' I says, 'you don't know David Pew,' I says; and with that I
ups and does my dooty by him, cutlass and all, like a lion-'arted
seaman, though blind. [And then in comes you, and I gives him
up: as you know for a fack is true, and I'll subscribe at the
Assizes. And that, if you was to cut me into junks, is the
truth, the 'ole truth, and nothing but the truth, world without
end, so help me, amen; and if you'll 'and me over the 'oly Bible,
me not having such a thing about me at the moment, why, I'll put
a oath upon it like a man.]
ARETHUSA. Father, have you heard?
[GAUNT. I know this man, Arethusa, and the truth is not in him.
ARETHUSA. Well, and why do we wait? We know Kit, do we not?
KIT. Ay, Captain, you know the pair of us, and you can see his
face and mine.]
GAUNT. Christopher, the facts are all against you. I find you
here in my house at midnight: you who at least had eyes to see,
and must have known whither you were going. It was this man, not
you, who called me up: and when I came in, it was he who was
uppermost and who gave you up to justice. This unsheathed
cutlass is yours; there hangs the scabbard, empty; and as for the
dark lantern, of what use is light to the blind? and who could
have trimmed and lighted it but you?
PEW. Ah, Cap'n, what a 'ed for argyment!
KIT. And now, sir, now that you have spoken, I claim the liberty
to speak on my side.
GAUNT. Not so. I will first have done with this man. David
Pew, it were too simple to believe your story as you tell it; but
I can find no testimony against you. From whatever reason,
assuredly you have done me service. Here are five guineas to set
you on your way. Begone at once; and while it is yet time, think
upon your repentance.
PEW. Cap'n, here's my respecks. You've turned a pious man,
Cap'n; it does my 'art good to 'ear you. But you ain't the only
one. O no! I came about and paid off on the other tack before
you, I reckon: you ask the Chaplain of the Fleet else, as called
me on the quarter-deck before old Admiral 'Awke himself (TOUCHING
HIS HAT), my old commander. ['David Pew,' he says,
'five-and-thirty year have I been in this trade, man and boy,'
that chaplain says, 'and damme, Pew,' says he, 'if ever I seen
the seaman that could rattle off his catechism within fifty mile
of you. Here's five guineas out of my own pocket,' he says; 'and
what's more to the pint,' he says, 'I'll speak to my reverend
brother-in-law, the Bishop of Dover,' he says; 'and if ever you
leave the sea, and wants a place as beadle, why damme,' says he,
'you go to him, for you're the man for him, and him for you.'
GAUNT. David Pew, you never set your foot on a King's ship in
all your life. There lies the road.
PEW. Ah, you was always a 'ard man, Cap'n, and a 'ard man to
believe, like Didymus the 'Ebrew prophet. But it's time for me
to go, and I'll be going. My service to you, Cap'n: and I kiss
my 'and to that lovely female.
'Time for us to go,
Time for us to go, A
nd when we'd clapped the hatches on,
'Twas time for us to go.'
SCENE IV
KIT, ARETHUSA, GAUNT
ARETHUSA. Now, Kit?
KIT. Well, sir, and now?
GAUNT. I find you here in my house at this untimely and unseemly
hour; I find you there in company with one who, to my assured
knowledge, should long since have swung in the wind at Execution
Dock. What brought you? Why did you open my door while I slept
to such a companion? Christopher French, I have two treasures.
One (LAYING HIS HAND ON ARETHUSA'S SHOULDER) I know you covet.
Christopher, is this your love?
KIT. Sir, I have been fooled and trapped. That man declared he
knew you, declared he could make you change your mind about our
marriage. I was drunk, sir, and I believed him: heaven knows I
am sober now, and can see my folly; but I believed him then, and
followed him. He brought me here, he told me your chest was full
of gold that would make men of us for life. At that I saw my
fault, sir, and drew my cutlass; and he, in the wink of an eye,
roared out for help, leaped at my throat like a weasel and had me
rolling on the floor. He was quick, and I, as I tell you, sir,
was off my balance.
GAUNT. Is this man, Pew, your enemy?
KIT. No sir; I never saw him till to-night.
GAUNT. Then, if you must stand the justice of your country, come
to the proof with a better plea. What? lantern and cutlass
yours; you the one that knew the house; you the one that saw; you
the one overtaken and denounced; and you spin me a galley yarn
like that? If that is all your defence, you'll hang, sir, hang.
ARETHUSA. Ah! Father, I give him up: I will never see him,
never speak to him, never think of him again; I take him from my
heart; I give myself wholly up to you and to my mother; I will
obey you in every point - O, not at a word merely - at a finger
raised! I will do all this; I will do anything - anything you
bid me; I swear it in the face of heaven. Only - Kit! I love
him, father, I love him. Let him go.
[GAUNT. Go?
ARETHUSA. You let the other. Open the door again - for my sake,
father - in my mother's name - O, open the door and let him go.]
KIT. Let me go? My girl, if you had cast me out is morning,
good and well: I would have left you, though it broke my heart.
But it's a changed story now; now I'm down on my luck, and you
come and stab me from behind. I ask no favour, and I'll take
none; I stand here on my innocence, and God helping me I'll clear
my good name, and get your love again, if it's love worth having.
[Now, Captain Gaunt, I've said my say, and you may do your
pleasure. I am my father's son, and I never feared to face the
truth.
GAUNT. You have spoken like a man, French, and you may go. I
leave you free.
KIT. Nay, sir, not so: not with my will. I'm accused and
counted guilty; the proofs are against me; the girl I love has
turned upon me. I'll accept no mercy at your hands.] Captain
Gaunt, I am your prisoner.
ARETHUSA. Kit, dear Kit -
GAUNT. Silence! Young man, I have offered you liberty without
bond or condition. You refuse. You shall be judged. Meanwhile
(OPENING THE DOOR, R.), you will go in here. I keep your
cutlass. The night brings counsel: to-morrow shall decide. (HE
LOCKS KIT IN, LEAVING THE KEY IN THE DOOR.)
SCENE V
GAUNT, ARETHUSA, afterwards PEW
ARETHUSA. Father, you believe in him; you do; I know you do.
GAUNT. Child, I am not given to be hasty. I will pray and sleep
upon this matter. (A KNOCKING AT THE DOOR, C.) Who knocks so
late? (HE OPENS.)
PEW (ENTERING). Cap'n, shall I fetch the constable?
GAUNT. No.
PEW. No? Have ye killed him?
GAUNT. My man, I'll see you into the road. (HE TAKES PEW BY THE
ARM, AND GOES OUT WITH HIM.)
SCENE VI
ARETHUSA
ARETHUSA. (LISTENS; THEN RUNNING TO DOOR, R.) Kit - dearest!
wait! I will come to you soon.
(GAUNT RE-ENTERS, C., AS THE DROP FALLS.)
ACT IV.
The Stage represents the Admiral's house, as in Acts I. and III.
A chair, L., in front. As the curtain rises, the Stage is dark.
Enter ARETHUSA, L., with candle; she lights another; and passes
to door, R., which she unbolts. Stage light
SCENE I
ARETHUSA, KIT
ARETHUSA. Come, dear Kit, come!
KIT. Well, I'm here.
ARETHUSA. O Kit, you are not angry with me.
KIT. Have I reason to be pleased?
ARETHUSA. Kit, I was wrong. Forgive me.
KIT. O yes. I forgive you. I suppose you meant it kindly; but
there are some kindnesses a man would rather die than take a gift
of. When a man is accused, Arethusa, it is not that he fears the
gallows - it's the shame that cuts him. At such a time as that,
the way to help was to stand to your belief. You should have
nailed my colours to the mast, not spoke of striking them. If I
were to be hanged to-morrow, and your love there, and a free
pardon and a dukedom on the other side - which would I choose?
ARETHUSA. Kit, you must judge me fairly. It was not my life
that was at stake, it was yours. Had it been mine - mine, Kit -
what had you done, then?
KIT. I am a downright fool; I saw it inside out. Why, give you
up, by George!
ARETHUSA. Ah, you see! Now you understand. It was all pure
love. When he said that word - O! - death and that disgrace! .
. . But I know my father. He fears nothing so much as the
goodness of his heart; and yet it conquers. He would pray, he
said: and to-night, and by the kindness of his voice, I knew he
was convinced already. All that is wanted, is that you should
forgive me.
KIT. Arethusa, if you looked at me like that I'd forgive you
piracy on the high seas. I was only sulky; I was boxed up there
in the black dark, and couldn't see my hand. It made me pity
that blind man, by George!
ARETHUSA. O, that blind man! The fiend! He came back, Kit:
did you hear him? he thought we had killed you - you!
KIT. Well, well, it serves me right for keeping company with
such a swab.
ARETHUSA. One thing puzzles me: how did you get in? I saw my
father lock the door.
KIT. Ah, how? That's just it. I was a sheet in the wind, you
see. How did we? He did it somehow. . . . By George, he had a
key! He can get in again.
ARETHUSA. Again? that man!
KIT. Ay, can he! Again! When he likes!
ARETHUSA. Kit, I am afraid. O Kit, he will kill my father.
KIT. Afraid. I'm glad of that. Now, you'll see I'm worth my
salt at something. Ten to one he's back to Mrs. Drake's. I'll
after, and lay him aboard.
ARETHUSA. O Kit, he is too strong for you.
KIT. Arethusa, that's below the belt! Never you fear; I'll give
a good account of him.
ARETHUSA (TAKING CUTLASS FROM THE WALL). You'll be none the
worse for this, dear.
KIT. That's so (MAKING CUTS). All the same, I'm half ashamed to
draw on a blind man; it's too much odds. (HE LEAPS SUDDENLY
AGAINST THE TABLE.) Ah!
ARETHUSA. Kit! Are you ill?
KIT. My head's like a humming top; it serves me right for
drinking.
ARETHUSA. O, and the blind man! (SHE RUNS, L., TO THE CORNER
CUPBOARD, BRINGS A BOTTLE AND GLASS, AND FILLS AND OFFERS GLASS.)
Here, lad, drink that.
KIT. To you! That's better. (BOTTLE AND GLASS REMAIN ON
GAUNT'S TABLE.)
ARETHUSA. Suppose you miss him?
KIT. Miss him! The road is straight; and I can hear the tap-
tapping of that stick a mile away.
ARETHUSA (LISTENING). St! my father stirring in his room!
KIT. Let me get clear; tell him why when I'm gone. The door - ?
ARETHUSA. Locked!
KIT. The window!
ARETHUSA. Quick, quick! (SHE UNFASTENS R. WINDOW, BY WHICH KIT
GOES OUT.)
SCENE II
ARETHUSA, GAUNT ENTERING L.
ARETHUSA. Father, Kit is gone . . . . He is asleep.
AUNT. Waiting, waiting and wearying. The years, they go so
heavily, my Hester still waiting! (HE GOES R. TO CHEST, WHICH HE
OPENS.) That is your chain; it's of Guinea gold; I brought it
you from Guinea. (TAKING OUT CHAIN.) You liked it once; it
pleased you long ago; O, why not now - why will you not be happy
now? . . . I swear this is my last voyage; see, I lay my hand
upon the Holy Book and swear it. One more venture - for the
child's sake, Hester; you don't think upon your little maid.
ARETHUSA. Ah, for my sake, it was for my sake!
GAUNT. Ten days out from Lagos. That's a strange sunset, Mr.
Yeo. All hands shorten sail! Lay aloft there, look smart! . .
. What's that? Only the negroes in the hold . . . . . . . Mr.
Yeo, she can't live long at this; I have a wife and child in
Barnstaple. . . . Christ, what a sea! Hold on, for God's sake -
hold on fore and aft! Great God! (AS THOUGHT THE SEA WERE MAKING
A BREACH OVER THE SHIP AT THE MOMENT).
ARETHUSA. O!
GAUNT. They seem quieter down below there . . . No water - no
light - no air - seven days battened down, and the seas mountain
high, and the ship labouring hell-deep! Two hundred and five,
two hundred and five, two hundred and five - all to eternal
torture!
ARETHUSA. O pity him, pity him! Let him sleep, let him forget!
Let her prayers avail in heaven, and let him rest!
GAUNT. Hester, no, don't smile at me. Rather tears! I have
seen you weep - often, often; two hundred and five times. Two
hundred and five! (WITH RING. Hester, here is your ring (HE
TRIES TO PUT THE RING ON HIS FINGER). How comes it in my hand?
Not fallen off again? O no, impossible! it was made smaller,
dear, it can't have fallen off! Ah, you waste away. You must
live, you must, for the dear child's sake, for mine, Hester, for
mine! Ah, the child. Yes. Who am I to judge? Poor Kit French!
And she, your little maid, she's like you, Hester, and she will
save him! How should a man be saved without a wife?
ARETHUSA. O father, if you could but hear me thank and bless
you! (THE TAPPING OF PEW'S STICK IS HEARD APPROACHING. GAUNT
PASSES L. FRONT AND SITS.)
GAUNT (BEGINNING TO COUNT THE TAPS). One - two - two hundred and
five
ARETHUSA (LISTENING). God help me, the blind man! (SHE RUNS TO
DOOR, C.; THE KEY IS PUT INTO THE LOCK FROM WITHOUT, AND THE DOOR
OPENS.)
SCENE III
ARETHUSA (AT BACK OF STAGE BY THE DOOR); GAUNT (FRONT L.); TO
THESE, PEW, C.
PEW (SOTTO VOCE). All snug. (COMING DOWN.) So that was you, my
young friend Christopher, as shot by me on the road; and so you
was hot foot after old Pew? Christopher, my young friend, I
reckon I'll have the bowels out of that chest, and I reckon
you'll be lagged and scragged for it. (AT THESE WORDS ARETHUSA
LOCKS THE DOOR, AND TAKES THE KEY.) What's that? All still.
There's something wrong about this room. Pew, my 'art of oak,
you're queer to-night; brace up, and carry off. Where's the
tool? (PRODUCING KNIFE.) Ah, here she is; and now for the
chest; and the gold; and rum - rum - rum. What! Open? . . .
old clothes, by God! . . . He's done me; he's been before me;
he's bolted with the swag; that's why he ran: Lord wither and
waste him forty year for it! O Christopher, if I had my fingers
on your throat! Why didn't I strangle the soul out of him? I
heard the breath squeak in his weasand; and Jack Gaunt pulled me
off. Ah, Jack, that's another I owe you. My pious friend, if I
was God Almighty for five minutes! (GAUNT RISES AND BEGINS TO
PACE THE STAGE LIKE A QUARTERDECK, L.) What's that? A man's
walk. He don't see me, thank the blessed dark! But it's time to
slip, my bo. (HE GROPES HIS WAY STEALTHILY TILL HE COMES TO
GAUNT'S TABLE, WHERE HE BURNS HIS HAND IN THE CANDLE.) A candle
- lighted - then it's bright as day! Lord God, doesn't he see
me? It's the horrors come alive. (GAUNT DRAWS NEAR AND TURNS
AWAY.) I'll go mad, mad! (HE GROPES TO THE DOOR, STOPPING AND
STARTING.) Door. (HIS VOICE RISING FOR THE FIRST TIME, SHARP
WITH TERROR.) Locked? Key gone? Trapped! Keep off - keep off
of me - keep away! (SOTTO VOCE AGAIN.) Keep your head, Lord
have mercy, keep your head. I'm wet with sweat. What devil's
den is this? I must out - out! (HE SHAKES THE DOOR VEHEMENTLY.)
No? Knife it is then - knife - knife - knife! (HE MOVES WITH
THE KNIFE RAISED TOWARDS GAUNT, INTENTLY LISTENING, AND CHANGING
HIS DIRECTION AS GAUNT CHANGES HIS POSITION ON THE STAGE.)
ARETHUSA (RUSHING TO INTERCEPT HIM). Father, father, wake!
GAUNT. Hester, Hester! (HE TURNS, IN TIME TO SEE ARETHUSA
GRAPPLE PEW IN THE CENTRE OF THE STAGE, AND PEW FORCE HER DOWN.)
ARETHUSA. Kit! Kit!
PEW (WITH THE KNIFE RAISED). Pew's way!
SCENE IV
TO THESE, KIT
(He leaps through window, R., and cuts PEW down. At the same
moment, GAUNT, who has been staring helplessly at his daughter's
peril, fully awakes.)
GAUNT. Death and blood! (KIT, HELPING ARETHUSA, HAS LET FALL
THE CUTLASS. GAUNT PICKS IT UP AND RUNS ON PEW.) Damned
mutineer, I'll have your heart out! (HE STOPS, STANDS STARING,
DROPS CUTLASS, FALLS UPON HIS KNEES.) God forgive me! Ah, foul
sins, would you blaze forth again? Lord, close your ears!
Hester, Hester, hear me not! Shall all these years and tears be
unavailing?
ARETHUSA. Father, I am not hurt.
GAUNT. Ay, daughter, but my soul - my lost soul!
PEW (RISING ON HIS ELBOW). Rum? You've done me. For God's
sake, rum. (ARETHUSA POURS OUT A GLASS, WHICH KIT GIVES TO HIM.)
Rum? This ain't rum; it's fire! (WITH GREAT EXCITEMENT.)
What's this? I don't like rum? (FEEBLY.) Ay, then, I'm a dead
man, and give me water.
GAUNT. Now even his sins desert him.
PEW (DRINKING WATER). Jack Gaunt, you've always been my rock
ahead. It's thanks to you I've got my papers, and this time I'm
shipped for Fiddler's Green. Admiral, we ain't like to meet
again, and I'll give you a toast: Here's Fiddler's Green, and
damn all lubbers! (SEIZING GAUNT'S ARM.) I say - fair dealings,
Jack! - none of that heaven business: Fiddler's Green's my port,
now, ain't it?
GAUNT. David, you've hove short up, and God forbid that I
deceive you. Pray, man, pray; for in the place to which you are
bound there is no mercy and no hope.
PEW. Ay, my lass, you're black, but your blood's red, and I'm
all a-muck with it. Pass the rum, and be damned to you. (TRYING
TO SING) -
'Time for us to go,
Time for us - '
(HE DIES.)
GAUNT. But for the grace of God, there lies John Gaunt!
Christopher, you have saved my child; and I, I, that was blinded
with self-righteousness, have fallen. Take her, Christopher; but
O, walk humbly!
CURTAIN
----------------------------------------------------------
Play: MACAIRE - A MELODRAMATIC FARCE IN THREE ACTS
PERSONS REPRESENTED
ROBERT MACAIRE.
BERTRAND.
DUMONT, Landlord of the AUBERGE DES ADRETS.
CHARLES, a Gendarme, Dumont's supposed son.
GORIOT.
THE MARQUIS, Charles's Father.
THE BRIGADIER of Gendarmerie.
THE CURATE.
THE NOTARY.
A WAITER.
ERNESTINE, Goriot's Daughter.
ALINE.
MAIDS, PEASANTS (MALE AND FEMALE), GENDARMES.
The Scene is laid in the Courtyard of the AUBERGE DES ADRETS, on
the frontier of France and Savoy. The time 1800. The action
occupies an interval of from twelve to fourteen hours: from four
in the afternoon till about five in the morning.
NOTE. - THE TIME BETWEEN THE ACTS SHOULD BE AS BRIEF AS POSSIBLE,
AND THE PIECE PLAYED, WHERE IT IS MERELY COMIC, IN A VEIN OF
PATTER.
MACAIRE
ACT I.
The Stage represents the courtyard of the Auberge des Adrets. It
is surrounded by the buildings of the inn, with a gallery on the
first story, approached, C., by a straight flight of stairs. L.
C., the entrance doorway. A little in front of this, a small
grated office, containing business table, brass-bound cabinet,
and portable cash-box. In front, R. and L., tables and benches;
one,L., partially laid for a considerable party.
SCENE I
ALINE and MAIDS; to whom FIDDLERS; afterwards DUMONT and CHARLES.
As the curtain rises, the sound of the violins is heard
approaching. ALINE and the inn servants, who are discovered
laying the table, dance up to door L. C., to meet the FIDDLERS,
who enter likewise dancing to their own music. Air: 'Haste to
the Wedding.' The FIDDLERS exeunt playing into house, R. U. E.
ALINE and MAIDS dance back to table, which they proceed to
arrange.
ALINE. Well, give me fiddles: fiddles and a wedding feast. It
tickles your heart till your heels make a runaway match of it. I
don't mind extra work, I don't, so long as there's fun about it.
Hand me up that pile of plates. The quinces there, before the
bride. Stick a pink in the Notary's glass: that's the girl he's
courting.
DUMONT (ENTERING; WITH CHARLES). Good girls, good girls!
Charles, in ten minutes from now what happy faces will smile
around that board!
CHARLES. Sir, my good fortune is complete; and most of all in
this, that my happiness has made my father happy.
DUMONT. Your father? Ah, well, upon that point we shall have
more to say.
CHARLES. What more remains that has not been said already? For
surely, sir, there are few sons more fortunate in their father:
and, since you approve of this marriage, may I not conceive you
to be in that sense fortunate in your son?
DUMONT. Dear boy, there is always a variety of considerations.
But the moment is ill chosen for dispute; to-night, at least, let
our felicity be unalloyed. (LOOKING OFF L. C.) Our guests
arrive: here is our good Curate, and here our cheerful Notary.
CHARLES. His old infirmity, I fear.
DUMONT. But Charles - dear boy! - at your wedding feast! I
should have taken it unneighbourly had he come strictly sober.
SCENE II
To these, by the door L. C., the CURATE and the NOTARY, arm in
arm; the latter owl-like and titubant.
CURATE. Peace be on this house!
NOTARY (SINGING). 'Prove an excuse for the glass.'
DUMONT. Welcome, excellent neighbours! The Church and the Law.
CURATE. And you, Charles, let me hope your feelings are in
solemn congruence with this momentous step.
NOTARY (DIGGING CHARLES IN THE RIBS). Married? Lovely bride?
Prove an excuse!
DUMONT (TO CURATE). I fear our friend? perhaps? as usual? eh?
CURATE. Possibly: I had not yet observed it.
DUMONT. Well, well, his heart is good.
CURATE. He doubtless meant it kindly.
NOTARY. Where's Aline?
ALINE. Coming, sir! (NOTARY MAKES FOR HER.)
CURATE (CAPTURING HIM). You will infallibly expose yourself to
misconstruction. (TO CHARLES.) Where is your commanding
officer?
CHARLES. Why, sir, we have quite an alert. Information has been
received from Lyons that the notorious malefactor, Robert
Macaire, has broken prison, and the Brigadier is now scouring the
country in his pursuit. I myself am instructed to watch the
visitors to our house.
DUMONT. That will do, Charles: you may go. (EXIT CHARLES.)
You have considered the case I laid before you?
NOTARY. Considered a case?
DUMONT. Yes, yes. Charles, you know, Charles. Can he marry?
under these untoward and peculiar circumstances, can he marry?
NOTARY. Now, lemme tell you: marriage is a contract to which
there are two constracting parties. That being clear, I am
prepared to argue categorically that your son Charles - who, it
appears, is not your son Charles - I am prepared to argue that
one party to a contract being null and void, the other party to a
contract cannot by law oblige or constrain the first party to
constract or bind himself to any contract, except the other party
be able to see his way clearly to constract himself with him. I
donno if I make myself clear?
DUMONT. No.
NOTARY. Now, lemme tell you: by applying justice of peace might
possibly afford relief.
DUMONT. But how?
NOTARY. Ay, there's the rub.
DUMONT. But what am I to do? He's not my son, I tell you:
Charles is not my son.
NOTARY. I know.
DUMONT. Perhaps a glass of wine would clear him?
NOTARY. That's what I want. (THEY GO OUT, L. U. E.)
ALINE. And now, if you've done deranging my table, to the cellar
for the wine, the whole pack of you. (MANET SOLA, CONSIDERING
TABLE.) There: it's like a garden. If I had as sweet a table
for my wedding, I would marry the Notary.
SCENE III
The Stage remains vacant. Enter, by door L. C., MACAIRE,
followed by BERTRAND with bundle; in the traditional costume.
MACAIRE. Good! No police.
BERTRAND (LOOKING OFF, L. C.). Sold again!
MACAIRE. This is a favoured spot, Bertrand: ten minutes from
the frontier: ten minutes from escape. Blessings on that
frontier line! The criminal hops across, and lo! the reputable
man. (READING) 'AUBERGE DES ADRETS, by John Paul Dumont.' A
table set for company; this is fate: Bertrand, are we the first
arrivals? An office; a cabinet; a cash-box - aha! and a
cash-box, golden within. A money-box is like a Quaker beauty:
demure without, but what a figure of a woman! Outside gallery:
an architectural feature I approve; I count it a convenience both
for love and war: the troubadour - twang-twang; the craftsmen -
(MAKES AS IF TURNING KEY.) The kitchen window: humming with
cookery; truffles, before Jove! I was born for truffles. Cock
your hat: meat, wine, rest, and occupation; men to gull, women
to fool, and still the door open, the great unbolted door of the
frontier!
BERTRAND. Macaire, I'm hungry.
MACAIRE. Bertrand, excuse me, you are a sensualist. I should
have left you in the stone-yard at Lyons, and written no
passport but my own. Your soul is incorporate with your
stomach. Am I not hungry, too? My body, thanks to immortal
Jupiter, is but the boy that holds the kite-string; my
aspirations and designs swim like the kite sky-high, and overlook
an empire.
BERTRAND. If I could get a full meal and a pound in my pocket I
would hold my tongue.
MACAIRE. Dreams, dreams! We are what we are; and what are we?
Who are you? who cares? Who am I? myself. What do we come from?
an accident. What's a mother? an old woman. A father? the
gentleman who beats her. What is crime? discovery. Virtue?
opportunity. Politics? a pretext. Affection? an affectation.
Morality? an affair of latitude. Punishment? this side the
frontier. Reward? the other. Property? plunder. Business?
other people's money - not mine, by God! and the end of life to
live till we are hanged.
BERTRAND. Macaire, I came into this place with my tail between
my legs already, and hungry besides; and then you get to
flourishing, and it depresses me worse than the chaplain in the
jail.
MACAIRE. What is a chaplain? A man they pay to say what you
don't want to hear.
BERTRAND. And who are you after all? and what right have you to
talk like that? By what I can hear, you've been the best part of
your life in quod; and as for me, since I've followed you, what
sort of luck have I had? Sold again! A boose, a blue fright,
two years' hard, and the police hot-foot after us even now.
MACAIRE. What is life? A boose and the police.
BERTRAND. Of course, I know you're clever; I admire you down to
the ground, and I'll starve without you. But I can't stand it,
and I'm off. Good-bye: good luck to you, old man! and if you
want the bundle -
MACAIRE. I am a gentleman of a mild disposition and, I thank my
maker, elegant manners; but rather than be betrayed by such a
thing as you are, with the courage of a hare, and the manners, by
the Lord Harry, of a jumping-Jack - (HE SHOWS HIS KNIFE.)
BERTRAND. Put it up, put it up: I'll do what you want.
MACAIRE. What is obedience? fear. So march straight, or look
for mischief. It's not BON TON, I know, and far from friendly.
But what is friendship? convenience. But we lose time in this
amiable dalliance. Come, now an effort of deportment: the head
thrown back, a jaunty carriage of the leg; crook gracefully the
elbow. Thus. 'Tis better. (CALLING.) House, house here!
BERTRAND. Are you mad? We haven't a brass farthing.
MACAIRE. Now! - But before we leave!
SCENE IV
TO THESE, DUMONT
DUMONT. Gentlemen, what can a plain man do for your service?
MACAIRE. My good man, in a roadside inn one cannot look for the
impossible. Give one what small wine and what country fare you
can produce.
DUMONT. Gentlemen, you come here upon a most auspicious day, a
red-letter day for me and my poor house, when all are welcome.
Suffer me, with all delicacy, to inquire if you are not in
somewhat narrow circumstances?
MACAIRE. My good creature, you are strangely in error; one is
rolling in gold.
BERTRAND. And very hungry.
DUMONT. Dear me, and on this happy occasion I had registered a
vow that every poor traveller should have his keep for nothing,
and a pound in his pocket to help him on his journey.
MACAIRE. A pound in his pocket? }
BERTRAND. Keep for nothing? } ASIDE.
MACAIRE. Bitten! }
BERTRAND. Sold again! }
DUMONT. I will send you what we have: poor fare, perhaps, for
gentlemen like you.
SCENE V
MACAIRE, BERTRAND; AFTERWARDS CHARLES, WHO APPEARS ON THE
GALLERY, AND COMES DOWN.
BERTRAND. I told you so. Why will you fly so high?
MACAIRE. Bertrand, don't crush me. A pound: a fortune! With a
pound to start upon - two pounds, for I'd have borrowed yours -
three months from now I might have been driving in my barouche,
with you behind it, Bertrand, in a tasteful livery.
BERTRAND (SEEING CHARLES). Lord, a policeman!
MACAIRE. Steady! What is a policeman? Justice's blind eye.
(TO CHARLES.) I think, sir, you are in the force?
CHARLES. I am, sir, and it was in that character -
MACAIRE. Ah, sir, a fine service!
CHARLES. It is, sir, and if your papers -
MACAIRE. You become your uniform. Have you a mother? Ah, well,
well!
CHARLES. My duty, sir -
MACAIRE. They tell me one Macaire - is not that his name,
Bertrand? - has broken jail at Lyons?
CHARLES. He has, sir, and it is precisely for that reason -
MACAIRE. Well, good-bye. (SHAKING CHARLES BY THE HAND AND
LEADING HIM TOWARDS THE DOOR, L. U. E.) Sweet spot, sweet spot.
The scenery is . . . (KISSES HIS FINGER-TIPS. EXIT CHARLES).
And now, what is a policeman?
BERTRAND. A bobby.
SCENE VI
MACAIRE, BERTRAND; TO WHOM ALINE WITH TRAY; AND AFTERWARDS MAIDS
ALINE (ENTERING WITH TRAY, AND PROCEEDING TO LAY TABLE, L.) My
men, you are in better luck than usual. It isn't every day you
go shares in a wedding feast.
MACAIRE. A wedding? Ah, and you're the bride.
ALINE. What makes you fancy that?
MACAIRE. Heavens, am I blind?
ALINE. Well, then, I wish I was.
MACAIRE. I take you at the word: have me.
ALINE. You will never be hanged for modesty.
MACAIRE. Modesty is for the poor: when one is rich and nobly
born, 'tis but a clog. I love you. What is your name?
ALINE. Guess again, and you'll guess wrong. (ENTER THE OTHER
SERVANTS WITH WINE BASKETS.) Here, set the wine down. No, that
is the old Burgundy for the wedding party. These gentlemen must
put up with a different bin. (SETTING WINE BEFORE MACAIRE AND
BERTRAND, WHO ARE AT TABLE, L.)
MACAIRE (DRINKING). Vinegar, by the supreme Jove!
BERTRAND. Sold again!
MACAIRE. Now, Bertrand, mark me. (BEFORE THE SERVANTS HE
EXCHANGES THE BOTTLE FOR THE ONE IN FRONT OF DUMONT'S PLACE AT
THE HEAD OF THE OTHER TABLE.) Was it well done?
BERTRAND. Immense.
MACAIRE (EMPTYING HIS GLASS INTO BERTRAND'S). There, Bertrand,
you may finish that. Ha! music?
SCENE VII
To these, from the inn, L. U. E., DUMONT, CHARLES, the CURATE,
the NOTARY jigging: from the inn, R. U. E., FIDDLERS playing and
dancing; and through door L. C., GORIOT, ERNESTINE, PEASANTS,
dancing likewise. Air: 'Haste to the Wedding.' As the parties
meet, the music ceases.
DUMONT. Welcome, neighbours! welcome friends! Ernestine, here
is my Charles, no longer mine. A thousand welcomes. O the gay
day! O the auspicious wedding! (CHARLES, ERNESTINE, DUMONT,
GORIOT, CURATE, AND NOTARY SIT TO THE WEDDING FEAST; PEASANTS,
FIDDLERS, AND MAIDS, GROUPED AT BACK, DRINKING FROM THE BARREL.)
O, I must have all happy around me.
GORIOT. Then help the soup.
DUMONT. Give me leave: I must have all happy. Shall these poor
gentlemen upon a day like this drink ordinary wine? Not so: I
shall drink it. (TO MACAIRE, WHO IS JUST ABOUT TO FILL HIS
GLASS) Don't touch it, sir! Aline, give me that gentleman's
bottle and take him mine: with old Dumont's compliments.
MACAIRE. What?
BERTRAND. Change the bottle?
MACAIRE. Bitten! } ASIDE.
BERTRAND. Sold again. }
DUMONT. Yes, all shall be happy.
GORIOT. I tell 'ee, help the soup!
DUMONT (BEGINS TO HELP SOUP. THEN, DROPPING LADLE.) One word:
a matter of detail: Charles is not my son. (ALL EXCLAIM.) O
no, he is not my son. Perhaps I should have mentioned it before.
CHARLES. I am not your son, sir?
DUMONT. O no, far from it.
GORIOT. Then who the devil's son be he?
DUMONT. O, I don't know. It's an odd tale, a romantic tale: it
may amuse you. It was twenty years ago, when I kept the GOLDEN
HEAD at Lyons: Charles was left upon my doorstep in a covered
basket, with sufficient money to support the child till he should
come of age. There was no mark upon the linen, nor any clue but
one: an unsigned letter from the father of the child, which he
strictly charged me to preserve. It was to prove his identity:
he, of course, would know the contents, and he only; so I keep it
safe in the third compartment of my cash-box, with the ten
thousand francs I've saved for his dowry. Here is the key; it's
a patent key. To-day the poor boy is twenty-one, to-morrow to be
married. I did perhaps hope the father would appear: there was
a Marquis coming; he wrote me for a room; I gave him the best,
Number Thirteen, which you have all heard of: I did hope it
might be he, for a Marquis, you know, is always genteel. But no,
you see. As for me, I take you all to witness I'm as innocent of
him as the babe unborn.
MACAIRE. Ahem! I think you said the linen bore an M?
DUMONT. Pardon me: the markings were cut off.
MACAIRE. True. The basket white, I think?
DUMONT. Brown, brown.
MACAIRE. Ah! brown - a whitey-brown.
GORIOT. I tell 'ee what, Dumont, this is all very well; but in
that case, I'll be danged if he gets my daater. (GENERAL
CONSTERNATION.)
DUMONT. O Goriot, let's have happy faces!
GORIOT. Happy faces be danged! I want to marry my daater; I
want your son. But who be this? I don't know, and you don't
know, and he don't know. He may be anybody; by Jarge, he may be
nobody! (EXCLAMATIONS.)
CURATE. The situation is crepuscular.
ERNESTINE. Father, and Mr. Dumont (and you too, Charles), I wish
to say one word. You gave us leave to fall in love; we fell in
love; and as for me, my father, I will either marry Charles, or
die a maid.
CHARLES. And you, sir, would you rob me in one day of both a
father and a wife?
DUMONT (WEEPING). Happy faces, happy faces!
GORIOT. I know nothing about robbery; but she cannot marry
without my consent, and that she cannot get.
DUMONT. O dear, O dear! }
ALINE. What spoil the wedding? } TOGETHER.
ERNESTINE. O father! }
CHARLES. Sir, sir, you would not - }
GORIOT (EXASPERATED). I wun't, and what's more I shan't.
NOTARY. I donno if I make myself clear?
DUMONT. Goriot, do let's have happy faces!
GORIOT. Fudge! Fudge!! Fudge!!!
CURATE. Possibly on application to this conscientious jurist,
light may be obtained.
ALL. The Notary; yes, yes; the Notary!
DUMONT. Now, how about this marriage?
NOTARY. Marriage is a contract, to which there are two
constracting parties, John Doe and Richard Roe. I donno if I
make myself clear?
ALINE. Poor lamb!
CURATE. Silence, my friend; you will expose yourself to
misconstruction.
MACAIRE (TAKING THE STAGE). As an entire stranger in this
painful scene, will you permit a gentleman and a traveller to
interject one word? There sits the young man, full, I am sure,
of pleasing qualities; here the young maiden, by her own
confession bashfully consenting to the match; there sits that
dear old gentleman, a lover of bright faces like myself, his own
now dimmed with sorrow; and here - (may I be allowed to add?) -
here sits this noble Roman, a father like myself, and like myself
the slave of duty. Last you have me - Baron Henri-Frederic de
Latour de Main de la Tonnerre de Brest, the man of the world and
the man of delicacy. I find you all - permit me the expression -
gravelled. A marriage and an obstacle. Now, what is marriage?
The union of two souls, and, wha is possibly more romantic, the
fusion of two dowries. What is an obstacle? the devil. And
this obstacle? to me, as a man of family, the obstacle seems
grave; but to me, as a man and a brother, what is it but a word?
O my friend (TO GORIOT), you whom I single out as the victim of
the same noble failings with myself - of pride of birth, of pride
of honesty - O my friend, reflect. Go now apart with your
dishevelled daughter, your tearful son-in-law, and let their
plaints constrain you. Believe me, when you come to die, you
will recall with pride this amiable weakness.
GORIOT. I shan't, and what's more I wun't. (CHARLES AND
ERNESTINE LEAD HIM UP STAGE, PROTESTING. ALL RISE, EXCEPT
NOTARY.)
DUMONT (FRONT R., SHAKING HANDS WITH MACAIRE). Sir, you have a
noble nature. (MACAIRE PICKS HIS POCKET.) Dear me, dear me, and
you are rich.
MACAIRE. I own, sir, I deceived you: I feared some wounding
offer, and my pride replied. But to be quite frank with you, you
behold me here, the Baron Henri-Frederic de Latour de Main de la
Tonnerre de Brest, and between my simple manhood and the infinite
these rags are all.
DUMONT. Dear me, and with this noble pride, my gratitude is
useless. For I, too, have delicacy: I understand you could not
stoop to take a gift.
MACAIRE. A gift? a small one? never!
DUMONT. And I will never wound you by the offer.
MACAIRE. Bitten. }
BERTRAND. Sold again. } ASIDE.
GORIOT (TAKING THE STAGE). But, look'ee here, he can't marry.
MACAIRE. Hey? }
DUMONT. Ah! }
ALINE. Hey day! }
CURATE. Wherefore? } TOGETHER.
ERNESTINE. Oh! }
CHARLES. Ah! }
GORIOT. Not without his veyther's consent! And he hasn't got
it; and what's more, he can't get it: and what's more, he
hasn't got a veyther to get it from. It's the law of France.
ALINE. Then the law of France ought to be ashamed of itself.
ERNESTINE. O, couldn't we ask the Notary again?
CURATE. Indubitably you may ask him.
MACAIRE. Can't they marry? }
DUMONT. Can't he marry? }
ALINE. Can't she marry? } TOGETHER.
ERNESTINE. Can't we marry? }
CHARLES. Can't I marry? }
GORIOT. Bain't I right? }
NOTARY. Constracting parties.
CURATE. Possibly to-morrow at an early hour he may be more
perspicuous.
GORIOT. Ay, before he've time to get at it.
NOTARY. Unoffending jurisconsult overtaken by sorrow. Possibly
by applying justice of peace might afford relief.
MACAIRE. Bravo! }
DUMONT. Excellent! } TOGETHER.
CHARLES. Let's go at once! }
ALINE. The very thing! }
ERNESTINE. Yes, this minute!
GORIOT. I'll go. I don't mind getting advice, but I wun't take
it.
MACAIRE. My friends, one word: I perceive by your downcast
looks that you have not recognised the true nature of your
responsibility as citizens of time. What is care? impiety.
Joy? the whole duty of man. Here is an opportunity of duty it
were sinful to forego. With a word, I could lighten your hearts;
but I prefer to quicken your heels, and send you forth on your
ingenuous errand with happy faces and smiling thoughts, the
physicians of your own recovery. Fiddlers, to your catgut! Up,
Bertrand, and show them how one foots it in society; forward,
girls, and choose me every one the lad she loves; Dumont, benign
old man, lead forth our blushing Curate; and you, O bride,
embrace the uniform of your beloved, and help us dance in your
wedding-day. (DANCE, IN THE COURSE OF WHICH MACAIRE PICKS
DUMONT'S POCKET OF HIS KEYS, SELECTS THE KEY OF THE CASH-BOX, AND
RETURNS THE OTHERS TO HIS POCKET. IN THE END, ALL DANCE OUT:
THE WEDDING-PARTY, HEADED BY FIDDLERS, L. C; THE MAIDS AND ALINE
INTO THE INN, R. U. E. MANET BERTRAND AND MACAIRE.)
SCENE VIII
MACAIRE, BERTRAND, who instantly takes a bottle from the
wedding-table, and sits with it, L.
MACAIRE. Bertrand, there's a devil of a want of a father here.
BERTRAND. Ay, if we only knew where to find him.
MACAIRE. Bertrand, look at me: I am Macaire; I am that father.
BERTRAND. You, Macaire? you a father?
MACAIRE. Not yet, but in five minutes. I am capable of
anything. (PRODUCING KEY.) What think you of this?
BERTRAND. That? Is it a key?
MACAIRE. Ay, boy, and what besides? my diploma of
respectability, my patent of fatherhood. I prigged it - in the
ardour of the dance I prigged it; I change it beyond recognition,
thus (TWISTS THE HANDLE OF THE KEY); and now . . .? Where is my
long-lost child? produce my young policeman! show me my gallant
boy!
BERTRAND. I don't understand.
MACAIRE. Dear innocence, how should you? Your brains are in
your fists. Go and keep watch. (HE GOES INTO THE OFFICE AND
RETURNS WITH THE CASH-BOX.) Keep watch, I say.
BERTRAND. Where?
MACAIRE. Everywhere. (HE OPENS BOX.)
BERTRAND. Gold.
MACAIRE. Hands off! Keep watch. (BERTRAND AT BACK OF STAGE.)
Beat slower, my paternal heart! The third compartment; let me
see.
BERTRAND. S'st! (MACAIRE SHUTS BOX.) No; false alarm.
MACAIRE. The third compartment. Ay, here t-
BERTRAND. S'st! (SAME BUSINESS.) No: fire away.
MACAIRE. The third compartment: it must be this.
BERTRAND. S'st! (MACAIRE, KEEPS BOX OPEN, WATCHING BERTRAND.)
All serene; it's the wind.
MACAIRE. Now, see here! (HE DARTS HIS KNIFE INTO THE STAGE.) I
will either be backed as a man should be, or from this minute out
I'll work alone. Do you understand? I said alone.
BERTRAND. For the Lord's sake, Macaire! -
MACAIRE. Ay, here it is. (READING LETTER). 'Preserve this
letter secretly; its terms are known only to you and me: hence
when the time comes, I shall repeat them, and my son will
recognise his father.' Signed: 'Your Unknown Benefactor.' (HE
TURNS IT OVER TWICE AND REPLACES IT. THEN, FINGERING THE GOLD)
Gold! The yellow enchantress, happiness ready-made and laughing
in my face! Gold: what is gold? The world; the term of ills;
the empery of all; the multitudinous babble of the change, the
sailing from all ports of freighted argosies; music, wine, a
palace; the doors of the bright theatre, the key of consciences,
and love - love's whistle! All this below my itching fingers;
and to set this by, turn a deaf ear upon the siren present, and
condescend once more, naked, into the ring with fortune -
Macaire, how few would do it! But you, Macaire, you are
compacted of more subtile clay. No cheap immediate pilfering:
no retail trade of petty larceny; but swoop at the heart of the
position, and clutch all!
BERTRAND (AT HIS SHOULDER). Halves!
MACAIRE. Halves? (HE LOCKS THE BOX.) Bertrand, I am a father.
(REPLACES BOX IN OFFICE.)
BERTRAND (LOOKING AFTER HIM). Well, I - am - damned!
DROP.
ACT II.
When the curtain rises, the night has come. A hanging cluster of
lighted lamps over each table, R. and L. MACAIRE, R., smoking a
cigarette; BERTRAND, L., with a church-warden: each with bottle
and glass.
SCENE I
MACAIRE, BERTRAND
MACAIRE. Bertrand, I am content: a child might play with me.
Does your pipe draw well?
BERTRAND. Like a factory chimney. This is my notion of life:
liquor, a chair, a table to put my feet on, a fine clean pipe,
and no police.
MACAIRE. Bertrand, do you see these changing exhalations? do you
see these blue rings and spirals, weaving their dance, like a
round of fairies, on the footless air?
BERTRAND. I see 'em right enough.
MACAIRE. Man of little vision, expound me these meteors! what do
they signify, O wooden-head? Clod, of what do they consist?
BERTRAND. Damned bad tobacco.
MACAIRE. I will give you a little course of science.
Everything, Bertrand (much as it may surprise you), has three
states: a vapour, a liquid, a solid. These are fortune in the
vapour: these are ideas. What are ideas? the protoplasm of
wealth. To your head - which, by the way, is a solid, Bertrand -
what are they but foul air? To mine, to my prehensile and
constructive intellects, see, as I grasp and work them, to what
lineaments of the future they transform themselves: a palace, a
barouche, a pair of luminous footmen, plate, wine, respect, and
to be honest!
BERTRAND. But what's the sense in honesty?
MACAIRE. The sense? You see me: Macaire: elegant, immoral,
invincible in cunning; well, Bertrand, much as it may surprise
you, I am simply damned by my dishonesty.
BERTRAND. No!
MACAIRE. The honest man, Bertrand, that God's noblest work. He
carries the bag, my boy. Would you have me define honesty? the
strategic point for theft. Bertrand, if I'd three hundred a
year, I'd be honest to-morrow.
BERTRAND. Ah! Don't you wish you may get it!
MACAIRE. Bertrand, I will bet you my head against your own - the
longest odds I can imagine - that with honesty for my
spring-board, I leap through history like a paper hoop, and come
out among posterity heroic and immortal.
SCENE II
To these, all the former characters, less the NOTARY. The
fiddles are heard without, playing dolefully. Air: 'O dear,
what can the matter be?' in time to which the procession enters.
MACAIRE. Well, friends, what cheer?
ALINE. No wedding, no wedding! }
GORIOT. I told 'ee he can't and he can't. }
DUMONT. Dear, dear me! } TOGETHER.
ERNESTINE. They won't let us marry. }
CHARLES. No wife, no father, no nothing! }
CURATE. The facts have justified the worst anticipations of our
absent friend, the Notary.
MACAIRE. I perceive I must reveal myself.
DUMONT. God bless me, no!
MACAIRE. My friends, I had meant to preserve a strict incognito,
for I was ashamed (I own it!) of this poor accoutrement; but when
I see a face that I can render happy, say, my old Dumont, should
I hesitate to work the change? Hear me, then, and you (TO THE
OTHERS) prepare a smiling countenance. (REPEATING.) 'Preserve
this letter secretly; its terms are only known to you and me;
hence when the time comes, I shall repeat them, and my son will
recognise his father. - Your Unknown Benefactor.'
DUMONT. The words! the letter! Charles, alas! it is your
father!
CHARLES. Good Lord! (GENERAL CONSTERNATION.)
BERTRAND (ASIDE: SMILING HIS BROW). I see it now; sublime!
CURATE. A highly singular eventuality.
GORIOT. Him? O well, then, I wun't. (GOES UP.)
MACAIRE. Charles, to my arms! (BUSINESS.) Ernestine, your
second father waits to welcome you. (BUSINESS.) Goriot, noble
old man, I grasp your hand. (HE DOESN'T.) And you, Dumont, how
shall your unknown benefactor thank you for your kindness to his
boy? (A DEAD PAUSE.) Charles, to my arms!
CHARLES. My father, you are still something of a stranger. I
hope - er - in the course of time - I hope that may be somewhat
mended. But I confess that I have so long regarded Mr. Dumont -
MACAIRE. Love him still, dear boy, love him still. I have not
returned to be a burden on your heart, nor much, comparatively,
on your pocket. A place by the fire, dear boy, a crust for my
friend, Bertrand. (A DEAD PAUSE.) Ah, well, this is a different
home-coming from that I fancied when I left the letter: I
dreamed to grow rich. Charles, you remind me of your sainted
mother.
CHARLES. I trust, sir, you do not think yourself less welcome
for your poverty.
MACAIRE. Nay, nay - more welcome, more welcome. O, I know your
- (BUSINESS) backs! Besides, my poverty is noble. Political .
. . . Dumont, what are your politics?
DUMONT. A plain old republican, my lord.
MACAIRE. And yours, my good Goriot?
GORIOT. I be a royalist, I be, and so be my daater.
MACAIRE. How strange is the coincidence! The party that I
sought to found combined the peculiarities of both: a patriotic
enterprise in which I fell. This humble fellow . . . have I
introduced him? You behold in us the embodiment of aristocracy
and democracy. Bertrand, shake hands with my family. (BERTRAND
IS REBUFFED BY ONE AND THE OTHER IN DEAD SILENCE.)
BERTRAND. Sold again!
MACAIRE. Charles, to my arms! (BUSINESS.)
ERNESTINE. Well, but now that he has a father of some kind,
cannot the marriage go on?
MACAIRE. Angel, this very night: I burn to take my grandchild
on my knees.
GORIOT. Be you that young man's veyther?
MACAIRE. Ay, and what a father!
GORIOT. Then all I've got to say is, I shan't and I wun't.
MACAIRE. Ah, friends, friends, what a satisfaction it is, what a
sight is virtue! I came among you in this poor attire to test
you; how nobly have you borne the test! But my disguise begins
to irk me: who will lend me a good suit? (BUSINESS.)
SCENE III
To these, the MARQUIS, L. C.
MARQUIS. Is this the house of John Paul Dumont, once of Lyons?
DUMONT. It is, sir, and I am he, at your disposal.
MARQUIS. I am the Marquis Villers-Cotterets de la Cherte de
Medoc. (SENSATION.)
MACAIRE. Marquis, delighted, I am sure.
MARQUIS (TO DUMONT). I come, as you perceive, unfollowed; my
errand, therefore, is discreet. I come (PRODUCING NOTES FROM
BREAST-POCKET) equipped with thirty thousand francs; my errand,
therefore, must be generous. Can you not guess?
DUMONT. Not I, my lord.
MARQUIS (REPEATING). 'Preserve this letter,' etc.
MACAIRE. Bitten.
BERTRAND. Sold again (ASIDE). (A PAUSE.)
ALINE. Well, I never did!
DUMONT. Two fathers!
MARQUIS. Two? Impossible.
DUMONT. Not at all. This is the other.
MARQUIS. This man?
MACAIRE. This is the man, my lord; here stands the father;
Charles, to my arms! (CHARLES BACKS.)
DUMONT. He knew the letter.
MARQUIS. Well, but so did I.
CURATE. The judgment of Solomon.
GORIOT. What did I tell 'ee? he can't marry.
ERNESTINE. Couldn't they both consent?
MARQUIS. But he's my living image.
MACAIRE. Mine, Marquis, mine.
MARQUIS. My figure, I think?
MACAIRE. Ah, Charles, Charles!
CURATE. We used to think his physiognomy resembled Dumont's.
DUMONT. Come to look at him, he's really like Goriot.
ERNESTINE. O papa, I hope he's not my brother.
GORIOT. What be talking of? I tell 'ee, he's like our Curate.
CHARLES. Gentlemen, my head aches.
MARQUIS. I have it: the involuntary voice of nature. Look at
me, my son.
MACAIRE. Nay, Charles, but look at me.
CHARLES. Gentlemen, I am unconscious of the smallest natural
inclination for either.
MARQUIS. Another thought: what was his mother's name?
MACAIRE. What was the name of his mother by you?
MARQUIS. Sir, you are silenced.
MACAIRE. Silenced by honour. I had rather lose my boy than
compromise his sainted mother.
MARQUIS. A thought: twins might explain it: had you not two
foundlings?
DUMONT. Nay, sir, one only; and judging by the miseries of this
evening, I should say, thank God!
MACAIRE. My friends, leave me alone with the Marquis. It is
only a father that can understand a father's heart. Bertrand,
follow the members of my family. (THEY TROOP OUT, L. U. E. AND
R. U. E., THE FIDDLERS PLAYING. AIR: 'O DEAR, WHAT CAN THE
MATTER BE?')
SCENE IV
MACAIRE, MARQUIS
MARQUIS. Well, sir?
MACAIRE. My lord, I feel for you. (BUSINESS. THEY SIT, R.)
MARQUIS. And now, sir?
MACAIRE. The bond that joins us is remarkable and touching.
MARQUIS. Well, sir?
MACAIRE (TOUCHING HIM ON THE BREAST). You have there thirty
thousand francs.
MARQUIS. Well, sir?
MACAIRE. I was but thinking of the inequalities of life, my
lord: that I who, for all you know, may be the father of your
son, should have nothing; and that you who, for all I know, may
be the father of mine, should be literally bulging with bank
notes. . . . Where do you keep them at night?
MARQUIS. Under my pillow. I think it rather ingenious.
MACAIRE. Admirably so! I applaud the device.
MARQUIS. Well, sir?
MACAIRE. Do you snuff, my lord?
MARQUIS. No, sir, I do not.
MACAIRE. My lord, I am a poor man.
MARQUIS. Well, sir? and what of that?
MACAIRE. The affections, my lord, are priceless. Money will not
buy them; or, at least, it takes a great deal.
MARQUIS. Sir, your sentiments do you honour.
MACAIRE. My lord, you are rich.
MARQUIS. Well, sir?
MACAIRE. Now follow me, I beseech you. Here am I, my lord; and
there, if I may so express myself, are you. Each has the
father's heart, and there we are equal; each claims yon
interesting lad, and there again we are on a par. But, my lord -
and here we come to the inequality, and what I consider the
unfairness of the thing - you have thirty thousand francs, and I,
my lord, have not a rap. You mark me? not a rap, my lord! My
lord, put yourself in my position: consider what must be my
feelings, my desires; and - hey?
MARQUIS. I fail to grasp . . . .
MACAIRE (WITH IRRITATION). My dear man, there is the door of the
house; here am I; there (TOUCHING, MARQUIS ON THE BREAST) are
thirty thousand francs. Well, now?
MARQUIS. I give you my word of honour, sir, I gather nothing; my
mind is quite unused to such prolonged exertion. If the boy be
yours, he is not mine; if he be mine, he is not yours; and if he
is neither of ours, or both of ours . . . in short, my mind . .
. .
MACAIRE. My lord, will you lay those thirty thousand francs upon
the table?
MARQUIS. I fail to grasp . . . but if it will in any way
oblige you . . . . (DOES SO.)
MACAIRE. Now, my lord, follow me: I take them up; you see? I
put them in my pocket; you follow me? This is my hat; here is my
stick; and here is my - my friend's bundle.
MARQUIS. But that is my cloak.
MACAIRE. Precisely. Now, my lord, one more effort of your
lordship's mind. If I were to go out of that door, with the full
intention - follow me close - the full intention of never being
heard of more, what would you do?
MARQUIS. I! - send for the police.
MACAIRE. Take your money! (DASHING DOWN THE NOTES.) Man, if I
met you in a lane! (HE DROPS HIS HEAD UPON THE TABLE.)
MARQUIS. The poor soul is insane. The other man, whom I suppose
to be his keeper, is very much to blame.
MACAIRE (RAISING HIS HEAD). I have a light! (TO MARQUIS.) With
invincible oafishness, my lord, I cannot struggle. I pass you
by; I leave you gaping by the wayside; I blush to have a share
in the progeny of such an owl. Off, off, and send the tapster!
MARQUIS. Poor fellow!
SCENE V
MACAIRE, TO WHOM BERTRAND. AFTERWARDS DUMONT
BERTRAND. Well?
MACAIRE. Bitten.
BERTRAND. Sold again.
MACAIRE. Had he the wit of a lucifer match! But what can gods
or men against stupidity? Still, I have a trick. Where is that
damned old man?
DUMONT (ENTERING). I hear you want me.
MACAIRE. Ah, my good old Dumont, this is very sad.
DUMONT. Dear me, what is wrong?
MACAIRE. Dumont, you had a dowry for my son?
DUMONT. I had; I have: ten thousand francs.
MACAIRE. It's a poor thing, but it must do. Dumont, I bury my
old hopes, my old paternal tenderness.
DUMONT. What? is he not your son?
MACAIRE. Pardon me, my friend. The Marquis claims my boy. I
will not seek to deny that he attempted to corrupt me, or that I
spurned his gold. It was thirty thousand.
DUMONT. Noble soul!
MACAIRE. One has a heart . . . He spoke, Dumont, that proud
noble spoke, of the advantages to our beloved Charles; and in my
father's heart a voice arose, louder than thunder. Dumont, was I
unselfish? The voice said no; the voice, Dumont, up and told me
to begone.
DUMONT. To begone? to go?
MACAIRE. To begone, Dumont, and to go. Both, Dumont. To leave
my son to marry, and be rich and happy as the son of another; to
creep forth myself, old, penniless, broken-hearted, exposed to
the inclemencies of heaven and the rebuffs of the police.
DUMONT. This is what I had looked for at your hands. Noble,
nobleman!
MACAIRE. One has a heart . . . and yet, Dumont, it can hardly
have escaped your penetration that if I were to shift from this
hostelry without a farthing, and leave my offspring to wallow -
literally - among millions, I should play the part of little
better than an ass.
DUMONT. But I had thought . . . I had fancied . . . .
MACAIRE. No, Dumont, you had not; do not seek to impose upon my
simplicity. What you did think was this, Dumont: for the sake
of this noble father, for the sake of this son whom he denies for
his own interest - I mean, for his interest - no, I mean, for
his own - well, anyway, in order to keep up the general
atmosphere of sacrifice and nobility, I must hand over this dowry
to the Baron Henri-Frederic de Latour de Main de la Tonnerre de
Brest.
DUMONT. Noble, O noble! } TOGETHER: EACH SHAKING
BERTRAND. Beautiful, O beautiful! } HIM BY THE HAND.
DUMONT. Now Charles is rich he needs it not. For whom could it
more fittingly be set aside than for his noble father? I will
give it you at once.
BERTRAND. At once, at once!
MACAIRE (ASIDE TO BERTRAND). Hang on. (ALOUD.) Charles,
Charles, my lost boy! (HE FALLS WEEPING AT L. TABLE. DUMONT
ENTERS THE OFFICE, AND BRINGS DOWN CASH-BOX TO TABLE R. HE FEELS
IN ALL HIS POCKETS: BERTRAND FROM BEHIND HIM MAKING SIGNS TO
MACAIRE, WHICH THE LATTER DOES NOT SEE.)
DUMONT. That's strange. I can't find the key. It's a patent
key.
BERTRAND (BEHIND DUMONT, MAKING SIGNS TO MACAIRE). The key, he
can't find the key.
MACAIRE. O yes, I remember. I heard it drop. (DROPS KEY.) And
here it is before my eyes.
DUMONT. That? That's yours. I saw it drop.
MACAIRE. I give you my word of honour I heard it fall five
minutes back.
DUMONT. But I saw it.
MACAIRE. Impossible. It must be yours.
DUMONT. It is like mine, indeed. How came it in your pocket?
MACAIRE. Bitten. (ASIDE.)
BERTRAND. Sold again (ASIDE) . . . . You forget, Baron, it's the
key of my valise; I gave it you to keep in consequence of the
hole in my pocket.
MACAIRE. True, true; and that explains.
DUMONT. O, that explains. Now, all we have to do is to find
mine. It's a patent key. You heard it drop.
MACAIRE. Distinctly.
BERTRAND. So I did: distinctly.
DUMONT. Here, Aline, Babette, Goriot, Curate, Charles,
everybody, come here and look for my key!
SCENE VI
To these with candles, all the former characters, except
FIDDLERS, PEASANTS, and NOTARY. They hunt for the key.
DUMONT. It's bound to be here. We all heard it drop.
MARQUIS (WITH BERTRAND's BUNDLE). Is this it?
ALL (WITH FURY). No.
BERTRAND. Hands off, that's my luggage. (HUNT RESUMED.)
DUMONT. I heard it drop, as plain as ever I heard anything.
MARQUIS. By the way (ALL START UP), what are we looking for?
ALL (WITH FURY). O!!
DUMONT. Will you have the kindness to find my key? (HUNT
RESUMED.)
CURATE. What description of a key -
DUMONT. A patent, patent, patent, patent key!
MACAIRE. I have it. Here it is!
ALL (WITH RELIEF). Ah!!
DUMONT. That? What do you mean? That's yours.
MACAIRE. Pardon me.
DUMONT. It is.
MACAIRE. It isn't.
DUMONT. I tell you it is: look at that twisted handle.
MACAIRE. It can't be mine, and so it must be yours.
DUMONT. It is not. Feel in your pockets. (TO THE OTHERS.)
Will you have the kindness to find my patent key?
ALL. Oh!! (HUNT RESUMED.)
MACAIRE. Ah, well, you're right. (HE SLIPS KEY INTO DUMONT'S
POCKET.) An idea: suppose you felt in your pocket?
ALL (RISING). Yes! Suppose you did!
DUMONT. I will not feel in my pockets. How could it be there?
It's a patent key. This is more than any man can bear. First,
Charles is one man's son, and then he's another's, and then he's
nobody's, and be damned to him! And then there's my key lost;
and then there's your key! What is your key? Where is your key?
Where isn't it? And why is it like mine, only mine's a patent?
The long and short of it is this: that I'm going to bed, and
that you're all going to bed, and that I refuse to hear another
word upon the subject or upon any subject. There!
MACAIRE. Bitten. }
BERTRAND. Sold again. } Aside
(ALINE AND MAIDS EXTINGUISH HANGING LAMPS OVER TABLES, R. AND L.
STAGE LIGHTED ONLY BY GUESTS' CANDLES.)
CHARLES. But, sir, I cannot decently retire to rest till I
embrace my honoured parent. Which is it to be?
MACAIRE. Charles, to my -
DUMONT. Embrace neither of them; embrace nobody; there has been
too much of this sickening folly. To bed!!! (EXIT VIOLENTLY R.
U. E. ALL THE CHARACTERS TROOP SLOWLY UPSTAIRS, TALKING IN DUMB
SHOW. BERTRAND AND MACAIRE REMAIN IN FRONT C., WATCHING THEM
GO.)
BERTRAND. Sold again, captain?
MACAIRE. Ay, they will have it.
BERTRAND. It? What?
MACAIRE. The worst, Bertrand. What is man? a beast of prey. An
hour ago, and I'd have taken a crust, and gone in peace. But no:
they would trick and juggle, curse them; they would wriggle and
cheat! Well, I accept the challenge: war to the knife.
BERTRAND. Murder?
MACAIRE. What is murder? A legal term for a man dying. Call it
Fate, and that's philosophy; call me Providence, and you talk
religion. Die? My, that is what man is made for; we are full of
mortal parts; we are all as good as dead already, we hang so
close upon the brink: touch a button, and the strongest falls in
dissolution. Now, see how easy: I take you - (GRAPPLING HIM.)
BERTRAND. Macaire - O no!
MACAIRE. Fool! would I harm a fly, when I had nothing to gain?
As the butcher with the sheep, I kill to live; and where is the
difference between man and mutton? pride and a tailor's bill.
Murder? I know who made that name - a man crouching from the
knife! Selfishness made it - the aggregated egotism called
society; but I meet that with a selfishness as great. Has he
money? Have I none - great powers, none? Well, then, I fatten
and manure my life with his.
BERTRAND. You frighten me. Who is it?
MACAIRE. Mark well. (THE MARQUIS OPENS THE DOOR OF NUMBER
THIRTEEN, AND THE REST, CLUSTERING ROUND, BID HIM GOOD-NIGHT. AS
THEY BEGIN TO DISPERSE ALONG THE GALLERY HE ENTERS AND SHUTS THE
DOOR.) Out, out, brief candle! That man is doomed.
DROP
ACT III.
SCENE I
MACAIRE, BERTRAND
As the curtain rises, the stage is dark and empty. Enter
MACAIRE, L. U. E., with lantern. He looks about.
MACAIRE (CALLING OFF). S'st!
BERTRAND (ENTERING L. U. E.). It's creeping dark.
MACAIRE. Blinding dark; and a good job.
BERTRAND. Macaire, I'm cold; my very hair's cold.
MACAIRE. Work, work will warm you: to your keys.
BERTRAND. No, Macaire, it's a horror. You not kill him; let's
have no bloodshed.
MACAIRE. None: it spoils your clothes. Now, see: you have
keys and you have experience; up that stair, and pick me the lock
of that man's door. Pick me the lock of that man's door.
BERTRAND. May I take the light?
MACAIRE. You may not. Go. (BERTRAND MOUNTS THE STAIRS, AND IS
SEEN PICKING THE LOCK OF NUMBER THIRTEEN.) The earth spins
eastward, and the day is at the door. Yet half an hour of
covert, and the sun will be afoot, the discoverer, the great
policeman. Yet, half an hour of night, the good, hiding,
practicable night; and lo! at a touch the gas-jet of the
universe turned on; and up with the sun gets the providence of
honest people, puts off his night-cap, throws up his window,
stares out of house - and the rogue must skulk again till dusk.
Yet half an hour and, Macaire, you shall be safe and rich. If
yon fool - my fool - would but miscarry, if the dolt within
would hear and leap upon him, I could intervene, kill both, by
heaven - both! - cry murder with the best, and at one stroke
reap honour and gold. For, Bertrand dead -
BERTRAND (FROM ABOVE). S'st, Macaire!
MACAIRE. Is it done, dear boy? Come down. (BERTRAND DESCENDS.)
Sit down beside this light: this is your ring of safety, budge
not beyond - the night is crowded with hobgoblins. See ghosts
and tremble like a jelly if you must; but remember men are my
concern; and at the creak of a man's foot, hist! (SHARPENING
HIS KNIFE UPON HIS SLEEVE.) What is a knife? A plain man's
sword.
BERTRAND. Not the knife, Macaire; O, not the knife!
MACAIRE. My name is Self-Defence. (HE GOES UPSTAIRS AND ENTERS
NUMBER THIRTEEN.)
BERTRAND. He's in. I hear a board creak. What a night, what a
night! Will he hear him? O Lord, my poor Macaire! I hear
nothing, nothing. The night's as empty as a dream: he must hear
him; he cannot help but hear him; and then - O Macaire, Macaire,
come back to me. It's death, and it's death, and it's death.
Red, red: a corpse. Macaire to kill, Macaire to die? I'd
rather starve, I'd rather perish, than either: I'm not fit, I'm
not fit, for either! Why, how's this? I want to cry. (A
STROKE, AND GROAN FROM ABOVE.) God Almighty, one of them's
gone! (HE FALLS WITH HIS HEAD ON TABLE, R. MACAIRE APPEARS AT
THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, DESCENDS, COMES AIRILY FORWARD AND TOUCHES
HIM ON THE SHOULDER. BERTRAND, WITH A CRY, TURNS AND FALLS UPON
HIS NECK.) O, O, and I thought I had lost him. (DAY BREAKING.)
MACAIRE. The contrary, dear boy. (HE PRODUCES NOTES.)
BERTRAND. What was it like?
MACAIRE. Like? Nothing. A little blood, a dead man.
BERTRAND. Blood! . . . Dead! HE FALLS AT TABLE SOBBING.
MACAIRE DIVIDES THE NOTES INTO TWO PARTS; ON THE SMALLER HE WIPES
THE BLOODY KNIFE, AND FOLDING THE STAINS INWARD, THRUSTS THE
NOTES INTO BERTRAND'S FACE.)
MACAIRE. What is life without the pleasures of the table!
BERTRAND (TAKING AND POCKETING NOTES). Macaire, I can't get over
it.
MACAIRE. My mark is the frontier, and at top speed. Don't hang
your jaw at me. Up, up, at the double; pick me that cash-box;
and let's get the damned house fairly cleared.
BERTRAND. I can't. Did he bleed much?
MACAIRE. Bleed? Must I bleed you? To work, or I'm dangerous.
BERTRAND. It's all right, Macaire; I'm going.
MACAIRE. Better so: an old friend is nearly sacred. (FULL
DAYLIGHT: LIGHTS UP. MACAIRE BLOWS OUT LANTERN.)
BERTRAND. Where's the key?
MACAIRE. Key? I tell you to pick it.
BERTRAND (WITH THE BOX). But it's a patent lock. Where is the
key? You had it.
MACAIRE. Will you pick that lock?
BERTRAND. I can't: it's a patent. Where's the key?
MACAIRE. If you will have it, I put it back in that old ass's
pocket.
BERTRAND. Bitten, I think. (MACAIRE DANCING MAD.)
SCENE II
To these, DUMONT
DUMONT. Ah, friends, up so early? Catching the worm, catching
the worm?
MACAIRE. Good-morning, good-morning! } SITTING ON THE TABLE
BERTRAND. Early birds, early birds. } DISSEMBLING BOX.
DUMONT. By the way, very remarkable thing: I found the key.
MACAIRE. No!
BERTRAND. O!
DUMONT. Perhaps a still more remarkable thing: it was my key
that had the twisted handle.
MACAIRE. I told you so.
DUMONT. Now, what we have to do is to get the cash-box. Hallo!
what's that your sitting on?
BERTRAND. Nothing.
MACAIRE. The table! I beg your pardon.
DUMONT. Why, it's my cash-box!
MACAIRE. Why, so it is!
DUMONT. It's very singular.
MACAIRE. Diabolishly singular.
BERTRAND. Early worms, early worms!
DUMONT (BLOWING IN KEY). Well, I suppose you are still willing
to begone?
MACAIRE. More than willing, my dear soul: pressed, I may say,
for time; for though it had quite escaped my memory, I have an
appointment in Turin with a lady of title.
DUMONT (AT BOX). It's very odd. (BLOWS ITS KEY.) It's a
singular thing (BLOWING), key won't turn. It's a patent. Some
one must have tampered with the lock (BLOWING). It's strangely
singular, it's singularly singular! I've shown this key to
commercial gentlemen all the way from Paris: they never saw a
better key! (MORE BUSINESS). Well (GIVING IT UP AND LOOKING
REPROACHFULLY ON KEY), that's pretty singular.
MACAIRE. Let me try. (HE TRIES, AND FLINGS DOWN THE KEY WITH A
CURSE.) Bitten.
BERTRAND. Sold again.
DUMONT (PICKING UP KEY). It's a patent key.
MACAIRE (TO BERTRAND). The game's up: we must save the swag.
(TO DUMONT.) Sir, since your key, on which I invoke the blight
of Egypt, has once more defaulted, my feelings are unequal to a
repetition of yesterday's distress, and I shall simply pad the
hoof. From Turin you shall receive the address of my banker, and
may prosperity attend your ventures. (TO BERTRAND.) Now, boy!
(TO DUMONT.) Embrace my fatherless child! farewell! (MACAIRE
AND BERTRAND TURN TO GO OFF AND ARE MET IN THE DOOR BY THE
GENDARMES.)
SCENE III
To these, the BRIGADIER and GENDARMES
BRIGADIER. Let no man leave the house.
MACAIRE. Bitten. } ASIDE.
BERTRAND. Sold again. }
DUMONT. Welcome, old friend!
BRIGADIER. It is not the friend that comes; it is the Brigadier.
Summon your guests: I must investigate their passports. I am in
pursuit of a notorious malefactor, Robert Macaire.
DUMONT. But I was led to believe that both Macaire and his
accomplice had been arrested and condemned.
BRIGADIER. They were, but they have once more escaped for the
moment, and justice is indefatigable. (HE SITS AT TABLE R.)
Dumont, a bottle of white wine.
MACAIRE (TO DUMONT). My excellent friend, I will discharge your
commission, and return with all speed. (GOING.)
BRIGADIER. Halt!
MACAIRE (RETURNING: AS IF HE SAW BRIGADIER FOR THE FIRST TIME).
Ha? a member of the force? Charmed, I'm sure. But you
misconceive me: I return at once, and my friend remains behind
to answer for me.
BRIGADIER. Justice is insensible to friendship. I shall deal
with you in due time. Dumont, that bottle.
MACAIRE. Sir, my friend and I, who are students of character,
would grasp the opportunity to share and - may one add? - to pay
the bottle. Dumont, three!
BERTRAND. For God's sake! (ENTER ALINE AND MAIDS.)
MACAIRE. My friend is an author: so, in a humbler way, am I.
Your knowledge of the criminal classes naturally tempts one to
pursue so interesting an acquaintance.
BRIGADIER. Justice is impartial. Gentlemen, your health.
MACAIRE. Will not these brave fellows join us?
BRIGADIER. They are on duty; but what matters?
MACAIRE. My dear sir, what is duty? duty is my eye.
BRIGADIER (SOLEMNLY). And Betty Martin. (GENDARMES SIT AT
TABLE.)
MACAIRE (TO BERTRAND). Dear friend, sit down.
BERTRAND (SITTING DOWN). O Lord!
BRIGADIER (TO MACAIRE). You seem to be a gentleman of
considerable intelligence.
MACAIRE. I fear, sir, you flatter. One has lived, one has
loved, and one remembers: that is all. One's LIVES OF
CELEBRATED CRIMINALS has met with a certain success, and one is
ever in quest of fresh material.
DUMONT. By the way, a singular thing about my patent key.
BRIGADIER. This gentleman is speaking.
MACAIRE. Excellent Dumont! he means no harm. This Macaire is
not personally known to you?
BRIGADIER. Are you connected with justice?
MACAIRE. Ah, sir, justice is a point above a poor author.
BRIGADIER (WITH GLASS). Justice is the very devil.
MACAIRE. My dear sir, my friend and I, I regret to say, have an
appointment in Lyons, or I could spend my life in this society.
Charge your glasses: one hour to madness and to joy! What is
to-morrow? the enemy of to-day. Wine? the bath of life. One
moment: I find I have forgotten my watch. (HE MAKES FOR THE
DOOR.)
BRIGADIER. Halt!
MACAIRE. Sir, what is this jest?
BRIGADIER. Sentry at the door. Your passports.
MACAIRE. My good man, with all the pleasure in life. (Gives
papers. THE BRIGADIER PUTS ON SPECTACLES, AND EXAMINES THEM.)
BERTRAND (RISING, AND PASSING ROUND TO MACAIRE'S OTHER SIDE).
It's life and death: they must soon find it.
MACAIRE (ASIDE). Don't I know? My heart's like fire in my body.
BRIGADIER. Your name is?
MACAIRE. It is; one's name is not unknown.
BRIGADIER. Justice exacts your name.
MACAIRE. Henri-Frederic de Latour de Main de la Tonnerre de
Brest.
BRIGADIER. Your profession?
MACAIRE. Gentleman.
BRIGADIER. No, but what is your trade?
MACAIRE. I am an analytical chymist.
BRIGADIER. Justice is inscrutable. Your papers are in order.
(TO BERTRAND.) Now, sir, and yours?
BERTRAND. I feel kind of ill.
MACAIRE. Bertrand, this gentleman addresses you. He is not one
of us; in other scenes, in the gay and giddy world of fashion,
one is his superior. But to-day he represents the majesty of
law; and as a citizen it is one's pride to do him honour.
BRIGADIER. Those are my sentiments.
BERTRAND. I beg your pardon, I - (GIVES PAPERS.)
BRIGADIER. Your name?
BERTRAND. Napoleon.
BRIGADIER. What? In your passport it is written Bertrand.
BERTRAND. It's this way: I was born Bertrand, and then I took
the name of Napoleon, and I mostly always call myself either
Napoleon or Bertrand.
BRIGADIER. The truth is always best. Your profession?
BERTRAND. I am an orphan.
BRIGADIER. What the devil! (TO MACAIRE.) Is your friend an
idiot?
MACAIRE. Pardon me, he is a poet.
BRIGADIER. Poetry is a great hindrance to the ends of justice.
Well, take your papers.
MACAIRE. Then we may go?
SCENE IV
To these, CHARLES, who is seen on the gallery, going to the door
of Number Thirteen. Afterwards all the characters but the
NOTARY and the MARQUIS
BRIGADIER. One glass more. (BERTRAND TOUCHES MACAIRE, AND
POINTS TO CHARLES, WHO ENTERS NUMBER THIRTEEN).
MACAIRE. No more, no more, no more.
BRIGADIER (RISING AND TAKING MACAIRE BY THE ARM). I stipulate!
MACAIRE. Engagement in Turin!
BRIGADIER. Turin?
MACAIRE. Lyons, Lyons!
BERTRAND. For God's sake.
BRIGADIER. Well, good-bye!
MACAIRE. Good-bye, good -
CHARLES (FROM WITHIN). Murder! Help! (APPEARING.) Help here!
The Marquis is murdered.
BRIGADIER. Stand to the door. A man up there. (A GENDARME
HURRIES UP STAIRCASE INTO NUMBER THIRTEEN, CHARLES FOLLOWING HIM.
ENTER ON BOTH SIDES OF GALLERY THE REMAINING CHARACTERS OF THE
PIECE, EXCEPT THE NOTARY AND THE MARQUIS.)
MACAIRE. Bitten, by God! } ASIDE.
BERTRAND. Lost! }
BRIGADIER (TO DUMONT). John Paul Dumont, I arrest you.
DUMONT. Do your duty, officer. I can answer for myself and my
own people.
BRIGADIER. Yes, but these strangers?
DUMONT. They are strangers to me.
MACAIRE. I am an honest man: I stand upon my rights: search
me; or search this person, of whom I know too little. (SMITING
HIS BROW.) By heaven, I see it all! This morning - (TO
BERTRAND.) How, sir, did you dare to flaunt your booty in my
very face? (TO BRIGADIER.) He showed me notes; he was up ere
day; search him, and you'll find. There stands the murderer.
BERTRAND. O, Macaire! (HE IS SEIZED AND SEARCHED AND THE NOTES
ARE FOUND.)
BRIGADIER. There is blood upon the notes. Handcuffs. (MACAIRE
EDGING TOWARDS THE DOOR.)
BERTRAND. Macaire, you may as well take the bundle. (MACAIRE IS
STOPPED BY SENTRY, AND COMES FRONT, R.)
CHARLES (RE-APPEARING). Stop, I know the truth. (HE COMES
DOWN.) Brigadier, my father is not dead. He is not even
dangerously hurt. He has spoken. There is the would-be
assassin.
MACAIRE. Hell! (HE DARTS ACROSS TO THE STAIRCASE, AND TURNS ON
THE SECOND STEP, FLASHING OUT THE KNIFE.) Back, hounds! (HE
SPRINGS UP THE STAIR, AND CONFRONTS THEM FROM THE TOP.) Fools, I
am Robert Macaire! (AS MACAIRE TURNS TO FLEE, HE IS MET BY THE
GENDARME COMING OUT OF NUMBER THIRTEEN; HE STANDS AN INSTANT
CHECKED, IS SHOT FROM THE STAGE, AND FALLS HEADLONG BACKWARD DOWN
THE STAIR. BERTRAND, WITH A CRY, BREAKS FROM THE GENDARMES,
KNEELS AT HIS SIDE, AND RAISES HIS HEAD.)
BERTRAND. Macaire, Macaire, forgive me. I didn't blab; you know
I didn't blab.
MACAIRE. Sold again, old boy. Sold for the last time; at least,
the last time this side death. Death - what is death? (HE DIES.)
CURTAIN
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End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Plays of
William Ernest Henley and Robert Louis Stevenson