An Inspector Calls and Other Plays

by J. B. Priestley

  LOCKHART: The young and the old are the best now, Robert. There’s a lot of rotten dead stuff in the middle –

  PROFESSOR: But perhaps there always was, and the young and the old were always the best. Nearer the door in and the door out, and with more spirit to spare. The world’s too much with the middles, who are busy looking for promotion and a seat on the Board.

  LOCKHART: Robert – you look tired – cold too. Go to bed and don’t bother seeing me out –

  PROFESSOR [exasperated]: Damn it, man, I’m sixty-five – not eighty-five –

  LOCKHART [moving rapidly, decisively]: Good night.

  [He is out before PROFESSOR can get near him. As PROFESSOR is at door, we hear a rather desolate door-slam off. PROFESSOR now comes down and may here make change to more intimate lighting still, with most of stage in shadow. PROFESSOR moves slowly and wearily, and now for first time looks really dispirited. He sits down in light, rather heavily, puts a pipe in his mouth but does not smoke it, but stares rather desolately, perhaps with his head in his hands. DINAH, now in pyjamas, slippers, thick dressing-gown, enters very quietly, closing door softly behind her, and looking concerned at sight of her father brooding there, slowly comes down.]

  DINAH [softly]: Daddy!

  PROFESSOR [looking up]: Hello, Dinah. Thought you’d gone to bed.

  DINAH: I started – but – [lets this trail off. Then softly] You looked so miserable sitting there –

  PROFESSOR [neither denying nor agreeing]: I was brooding a bit. There are times – [He breaks off.]

  DINAH [encouragingly]: Yes?

  PROFESSOR [with a sheepish grin]: Well – let’s say – there are times. Leave it at that.

  [She glances with concern at him, then settles in large arm-chair, not far from where he is sitting, preferably up at desk or table.]

  Here, young woman – settling down?

  DINAH: Will you do something specially to please me?

  PROFESSOR: I might.

  DINAH: Do you remember – you read us once – a bit of that book on history you started writing? Will you read some of it again – the beginning –

  PROFESSOR: You don’t want that stuff.

  DINAH: I do. I need it. You need it. And if we don’t have it, I’ll go to bed and be miserable – and you’ll go on being broody and lonely down here. So – please!

  PROFESSOR [in pretence of grumbling tone]: All right then – if I can find the thing –

  [She settles back, as he brings the MS out of drawer, puts on a pair of spectacles, and then begins to read – quietly but impressively.]

  ‘History, to be worthy of the name, should bring us a stereoscopic view of man’s life. Without that extra dimension, strangely poignant as well as vivid, it is flat, and because it is flat it is false. There are two patterns, endlessly being superimposed on one another. The first pattern is that of man reproducing himself, finding food and shelter, tilling the land, building cities, crossing the seas. It is the picture we understand now with ease, perhaps too easily. For the other pattern is still there, waiting to be interpreted. It is the record of man as a spiritual creature, with a whole world of unknown continents and strange seas, gardens of Paradise and cities lit with hell-fire, within the depths of his own soul. History that ignores the god and the altar is as false as history that could forget the sword and the wheel. Nor does the former belong only to the first youth of a civilization – ’[Breaks off to say quietly, glancing up] I don’t like ‘former’ – can’t imagine – [his voice gets softer and slower] how I came to write it….

  [For now standing up, quietly, he sees that DINAH is fast asleep. He looks down smilingly for a moment. As he quietly sits down again, takes out a pen and crosses out a word or two in the MS, the curtain is slowly descending.]

  END OF PLAY

  THE BEGINNING

  Let the conversation begin…

  Follow the Penguin Twitter.com@penguinukbooks

  Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube.com/penguinbooks

  Pin ‘Penguin Books’ to your Pinterest

  Like ‘Penguin Books’ on Facebook.com/penguinbooks

  Find out more about the author and

  discover more stories like this at Penguin.co.uk

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.com

  The plays in this book were published by William Heinemann Ltd in The Plays of J. B. Priestley, volumes 1–3, 1948–50

  This collection published in Penguin Books 1969

  Time and the Conways copyright 1937, 1939 by J. B. Priestley

  I Have Been Here Before copyright by 1937 J. B. Priestley

  An Inspector Calls copyright 1947 by J. B. Priestley

  The Linden Tree copyright 1947 by J. B. Priestley

  All rights reserved

  These plays are fully protected by copyright. Applications for all professional and repertory performances should be addressed to the author’s agent, A. D. Peters & Co., 10 Buckingham Street, London WC2. Applications for amateur performances should be addressed to Samuel French Ltd, 26 Southampton Street, Strand, London WC2

  ISBN: 978-0-141-91711-5