Plays One

by Sarah Daniels

  ROSE. She is in gaol?

  HELEN. Would be to no avail, Rose. ’Tis too well kept and her brain is worse scrambled than a broke egg.

  ROSE. She is in town gaol?

  HELEN (sighs). Aye. Where hangings are public sport. As the crowd never knows the victim, not a shadow passes through their eyes.

  HELEN goes off.

  ROSE (sings).

  Rosie’s Song

  When I was fighting alongside the men

  For the freedom they had taken by right,

  I wondered if I’d visit my village again

  And return to another dear fight.

  The price I have paid to walk as a man

  Has lost me the trust of my kind

  And it had been part of a much bigger plan

  But now I am back here I find -

  I fought in their wars, and not with my sister,

  My pay is in shillings and being called mister,

  While women have hanged and drowned all the time,

  And being a woman’s a death-bringing crime.

  I gave up my woman in wearing a disguise,

  Partly by bribery, partly by lies,

  And what they have got is a soldier to fight

  And one woman less to defend her birthright.

  The freedom to pass as a man is a curse -

  No woman would choose that for her life -

  And marriage to men is no better or worse

  For bearing the name of a wife.

  The only way through is to stand out and strong,

  And not wear disguise in their fight,

  But to be with the women here where I belong

  And to call on our strength and our might.

  I fought in their wars, and not with my sister,

  My pay is in shillings and being called mister

  While women have hanged and drowned all the time

  And being a woman’s a death-bringing crime.

  I gave up my woman in wearing a disguise

  Partly by bribery, partly by lies,

  And what they have got is a soldier to fight

  And one less woman to defend her birthright.

  For they take the skills and the powers that we share

  With women who trust in our healing.

  For they cut and thrust, and no one will spare

  So no woman dare speak what she’s feeling.

  But I shall take power and we’ll start a war

  Against doctors and soldiers and men

  Who challenge our right and seize at the core

  Of our birthright, our freedom. Fight again!

  Scene Five

  The gaol.

  A very unpleasant gaol with an equally unpleasant-looking GAOLER. ROSE approaches him, placing a flask of beer on the table. Although she is still dressed as a man she is no longer dressed as a soldier.

  GAOLER. And what’s a young gentleman like yourself be wanting with me (Sarcastically.) sir?

  ROSE. I’m a visitor to these parts and enquiring as to when the next hanging might be?

  GAOLER. Luck’s out, sir. Was this very morning two pretty young things drew a great crowd. You’ll be cursing yourself if you missed it.

  ROSE. So you’ll be keeping an empty gaol, then sir?

  GAOLER. Not in their interest or mine, if gaol was empty I’d not have work. Like days of cock fighting. No good if you finished off your last cock. Rest assured, no shortages of women round here, dare say we’ll have more in by the end of the week.

  ROSE. Is an old woman I’m after.

  GAOLER (firmly). Now listen here, young sir. There’s still plenty of young maids out there what would be happy to service a young man like yourself. I don’t know what you gents think I’m running here.

  ROSE (abruptly). I do not want that (Spitting out the word.), sir.

  GAOLER. You don’t look the sort, granted, but you can never tell, I am afraid to say. Some of them Puritans are the worse.

  ROSE. You don’t understand.

  GAOLER (mockingly). Aye. I dare say.

  ROSE. I do not want her for any purpose other than talking.

  GAOLER (seriously). Forgive me, sir, I now understand. She put a curse on your family and you want one last chance to remove it, lest further tragedy strike.

  ROSE. Aye, aye, that’s right.

  GAOLER. Well, out of luck again. That old hag wouldn’t know if she was saying the Lord’s Prayer or cursing a cow. Her brain’s curdled worse than the milk she’s bewitched.

  ROSE. Has she been here long?

  GAOLER. Some months now. Aye, they’re hoping for a bit more life outta her. Now that’s an arse-about-face idea if ever I heard one. Still these days crowd gets mighty despondent if them what’s hanged be a corpse afore hangman even gets started.

  ROSE. Take me to her.

  GAOLER. Now hold still, young sir.

  ROSE. Give me a cup of that and keep rest. (She takes a cup of beer.)

  GAOLER. Through there and mind you leave her in the same state you found her in.

  ROSE finds GRACE chained at the feet and whispers for fear of being overheard by the GAOLER.

  ROSE. Grace? (Gently trying to rouse her.) Grace? Grace? Is me.

  GRACE (mumbles). Oh another imp, a rat this time. Our father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name the divel. I have more imps than stars in the sky and they all seem to sleep here in my bed with me, so fly and take them with you.

  ROSE. Grace?

  GRACE. Young man, I am done, done with thee all.

  ROSE gently tilts the cup to GRACE’s mouth.

  GRACE (spits in back in ROSE’s face). Every woman has her breaking point and you have seen mine thrice over. Leave me be.

  ROSE doesn’t know what to do or say. Impulsively she undoes her outer garment and takes GRACE’s hand, placing it between her vest and outer garment, on her breast.

  ROSE. Grace, it’s me.

  GRACE (looks into ROSE’s face trying to recall who it belongs to. At last she says faintly). Rose?

  ROSE. None other.

  GRACE. I knew you’d cam. (Her hand falls and she slips into half-consciousness.)

  GAOLER (shouts). Shift your parliament, sir. You don’t know what you’ll catch in there.

  ROSE (returns to GAOLER). I trust the ale is to your liking.

  GAOLER. Not so much as to grant any further favours.

  ROSE. And how would they know? If she died?

  GAOLER. I’ve got a tongue in my head, ain’t I?

  ROSE. And they’d have to see the body?

  GAOLER. You think stink’s not bad enough when they’re alive. I get the corpses shifted quick enough. Just get a doctor or a priest to sign paper.

  ROSE. I would like to take her.

  GAOLER. You’re a strange one, you are, but I have no time for this riddle.

  ROSE. And for you to tell them she died.

  GAOLER. You would eh? Just like that I’d let a young gent whose tastes are out of course make off with a dying hag.

  ROSE. How much? (She drops a coin on the table.)

  GAOLER. It’s more than my job’s worth.

  ROSE (drops another coin in front of him). And what’s your job worth?

  GAOLER (flatly). More than that.

  ROSE puts another coin down.

  Who’d sign the paper?

  ROSE. I would.

  GAOLER (unsure). Oh, aye.

  ROSE. I’m a doctor. (She puts another coin down.)

  GAOLER. A doctor you say now? And what would a doctor be wanting of a half-witted crone, with one foot in hell and the other on piss-soaked straw?

  ROSE. Bodies are valuable to our science.

  GAOLER. Aye, I have heard something of the like.

  ROSE. So you’ll do it?

  GAOLER. Not for four shillings I won’t.

  ROSE. Five shillings. No more.

  GAOLER. If you’re caught I know nothing of this.

  ROSE. Very well. Take her cramp rings off.

  GAOLER (thr
owing ROSE the keys). Take ’em off yourself.

  ROSE returns to GRACE and undoes the chains.

  ROSE. You’re as good as home, Grace.

  A hand darts out from under the straw and grabs ROSE’s ankle. ROSE visibly jumps but keeps herself from crying out. The hand belongs to another prisoner who had completely hidden herself in the straw on ROSE’s arrival. Now ROSE can see the hand belongs to a young woman - URSULA.

  URSULA holds ROSE’s arm and GRACE’s hand.

  Who are you?

  Pause.

  For why am I asking when I know you are a young woman waiting to be hung.

  She pulls herself free from URSULA’s grasp and returns to the GAOLER.

  GAOLER. Give over them keys and sign here.

  ROSE. How much d’ye want for the girl?

  GAOLER. Cam te yer sense then, sir, seen the prettier one? Now she’s worth a lot more, that one, she is. You won’t get no nagging out of her neither. Divel took her ears and tongue.

  ROSE (shouts). What do you want for her?

  GAOLER. You must be a young man of some wealth, your voice not yet broke neither, there’s a thing.

  ROSE (calmer). Two.

  GAOLER. Don’t mock me.

  ROSE. Take it or leave it.

  GAOLER. Too risky them both dying together as it were. Too suspicious.

  ROSE (snaps). The plague didn’t look suspicious, did it?

  GAOLER. Your lot making money outta it did though. Three.

  ROSE. Three. (She gives him the money.)

  GAOLER. Ooh, make a hard bargain you do, sir. Best keep to your part and sign papers here for me.

  ROSE (does so). If all the wrongs men had done to them were counted up and laid on doorsteps of where they came, not a man left in the land who not be quaking.

  GAOLER. Ah, now that do go a long way to explain your oddity, sir. You be one of them new religious lot.

  Scene Six

  GRACE’s house.

  ROSE is trying, with little success, to get GRACE to eat some broth.

  URSULA sits in the corner. There is a knock on the door.

  ROSE opens to a young DOCTOR.

  DOCTOR. You sent word for me?

  ROSE. Aye and money too.

  DOCTOR. I’ll do my best for you, sir, on that you may depend. Well, let’s go take a look, shall we?

  ROSE. She is afore your eyes. (Nodding towards GRACE.)

  DOCTOR. My mistake, young gentleman. I am used to tending livestock first and then asked to see to the wife. What ’tis the rhyme you farm people have – ‘If the cow kicks off, mighty cross, if the wife kicks off, no big loss.’

  ROSE. I am no farmer, sir. So it be a notion you’d do well to disabuse yourself of.

  DOCTOR. So it is your wife first and foremost.

  ROSE. No, not her. But her mother. (Chronologically this would be doubtful so she corrects herself.) Her mother’s mother.

  DOCTOR. You have paid me good money, sir, but in truth she is really too old to bother with.

  ROSE. Not to me.

  DOCTOR. She is weak and frail.

  ROSE. That is plain enough. I don’t have to part with payment for looking through my own eyes. She does talk nonsense, such words as she speaks come forth all jumbled.

  DOCTOR. She has a fever. (He opens his bag and produces a knife and URSULA starts screaming.)

  ROSE. Can you put the knife away, sir.

  DOCTOR. If she is to be cured I am to bleed her and let the badness drain out.

  ROSE (gestures to URSULA to be quiet). Please leave off that noise. I will see no harm comes to her.

  DOCTOR. ’Tis your wife who needs attention, sir.

  ROSE (referring to GRACE). Have you none of nature’s remedies for this sickness, sir?

  DOCTOR. I took you for an intelligent man, sir, and far advanced from the rubbish spouted by old crones. If I am to save your wife’s mother’s mother I am to cut her. (He advances on GRACE.)

  GRACE (barely whispers). No.

  ROSE. That is your answer.

  DOCTOR. But you claim she knows not what she says.

  ROSE. Her life’s blood is not bad, it doesn’t warrant flowing away. Leave her be.

  DOCTOR. I have come all this way and as yet administered to no one. Shall I take a look at your wife?

  URSULA starts to scream again.

  ROSE. No. No, cam away. You only seem to aggravate her condition.

  DOCTOR. Now you and I know, sir, women are bad let down with nerves. There are several cures for that.

  ROSE. She has suffered, sir. Is natural to have nerves.

  DOCTOR. But can you not see? Is but your unyielding obstinacy that hampers our work. Forward thinkers term us saviours of mankind. Our science is the new hope. Only thing your cure depends on is your trust in it.

  ROSE. Take more than that to convince me that the knife is cure for anything, never mind everything.

  DOCTOR. It is within my power to right the ills plaguing both these females and your belief in me will cause you to be grateful for the service I am about to perform. (He shrugs.) Most likely their faith in the old hocus-pocus herb medicine that has landed them in this state of ill-health.

  ROSE. Aye. Most probably was, though not in the way you’re meaning. Thank you for your trouble, door is behind you.

  DOCTOR (scoffs). Natural remedies. (He takes out a knife.) This won’t hurt.

  ROSE (drawing out her sword). Is there something amiss about your lugs or would you like me to perform on you your own style of cure and in the mark of St Peter?

  DOCTOR. ’Tis not my usual reception. Many are overcome with gratitude to see me.

  ROSE. I’ll not be overcome with gratitude until you step other side of the door.

  DOCTOR. I would just like to say …

  ROSE advances, sword in hand. The DOCTOR’s knife looking quite pathetic by comparison, causing him to make for the door.

  ROSE. Sling thy hook.

  DOCTOR (with as much dignity as possible). Goodnight.

  He goes.

  ROSE. Cut the badness out? With their judgement, soon enough there’d be none left of us. (To URSULA:) Do you have any idea what would make her well?

  URSULA turns away.

  Oh, what have they done to us? What have they done? (She turns away and cries.)

  Pause.

  URSULA turns, shocked and confused by ROSE’s tears as she thinks she is a man. Gently she approaches her. ROSE looks up.

  URSULA (confirming). I am free.

  URSULA takes ROSE’s now festering hand, and holds it open. ROSE pulls back. URSULA waits. ROSE holds it out again. URSULA cleans her hand, places Calendula leaves on the sore and bandages it.

  ROSE. Thank you.

  URSULA takes the water over to GRACE and starts to bathe her hands and face, then rolls up the sleeves of GRACE’s garments. Realising that ROSE (a man) is watching, she turns ROSE round so she faces the door and has her back turned to GRACE. Enter LADY H. URSULA, unaware of her entrance, continues with her task.

  LADY H. Oh, I was given to understand an old woman lived here.

  ROSE. She is not fit to receive visitors.

  LADY H. Is it not customary for a gentleman to bow when a lady enters his abode?

  ROSE. Is it not customary for a lady to knock when she enters a gentleman’s abode?

  LADY H. Who are you?

  ROSE. Never you mind. Please state your business here.

  LADY H. You are a bold fellow. Be this your wife, timid from your tyranny?

  ROSE. No, this be my sister.

  LADY H. My, this is a rum household. (To URSULA:) How would you like to cam and work for me, girl? ’Tis utterly tiresome, most of my staff have kicked off or been knocked off. There’s not a bod willing to take care of my babes for love nor money.

  Silence.

  You’d do well to answer me.

  URSULA does not turn round.

  ROSE (mockingly). Forgive me. I was but musing on our language. Where the words ‘for love
’ mean ‘for nothing’.

  LADY H. I cannot tell which is most addled, your mind or your mouth. No matter, I am not here to solve the riddle for you. And ’twas not you to whom I was addressing myself in first place.

  ROSE. If your household is so depleted you’d have been better preventing the deaths of those who so inconveniently got knocked off.

  LADY H. Simple folk full of superstition and nonsense. And for certain, not my place to interfere in their squabbles or rituals.

  ROSE. Then is not your place to put your nose in this dwelling.

  LADY H. It was the old woman’s help I sought.

  ROSE. Where were you when she needed help? She’s too ill even to speak.

  LADY H. A great pity, for these times are harsh set against my sex.

  ROSE. If you feel them harsh, lady, may the divel take the rest of us.

  LADY H. I have cam to accept that men have no understanding of bonds of accumbrement between rich and poor amongst our sex.

  ROSE. I will lend you half an ear.

  LADY H (gently). My sister died in childbirth last week and babe was torn limb from limb in the name of their science with these barbarous instruments. (She throws down two evil-looking hooks.) There, that is their substitute for the midwife’s hands of flesh.

  ROSE. And you have borrowed them?

  LADY H (back to her old self). Aye. If only to dispose of them. He will not use them further. After he committed foul deed I whopped him one over the skull with a poker, such was my temperament. ’Twas a blow from which he didn’t recover.

  ROSE. You killed him?

  LADY H. Doesn’t the good book say an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth? Should be made to think afore he wields his authority in such a murderous manner.

  ROSE (despite herself is beginning to admire LADY H). But you could be hung?

  LADY H. These doctors can’t find their way round a woman’s body never mind a village on the marshes. Will be no shock to anyone that he disappeared.

  ROSE. I hope it is not that you have cam to set the blame at this door.

  LADY H. My sole purpose was to talk to the old woman and get these evil ways stopped before there is neither mother or babe left in the land.

  ROSE. If Grace becomes well I shall be sure to tell her.

  LADY H. Aye and to ask her advice about setting up schools for mid wives. For rumour has it that one man has instrument which is true aid for difficult births such as were cause of anxiety to best-experienced midwives. But such is the nature of these bastards’ code of conduct that he will only pass secret of it on to his son for no one has offered a high enough price. Ha, he has not bargained for what I will offer him, should I track his whereabouts down.