[Stenographer kisses Fox. Howl from Fox.] Till it bleeds! Kiss it white! [Howl from Fox.] Suck his gullet!
[Silence.]
S He has fainted away, sir.
A Ah . . . perhaps I went too far. [Pause.] Perhaps I slipped you too soon.
S Oh no, sir, you could not have waited a moment longer, time is up. [Pause.] The fault is mine, I did not go about it as I ought.
A Come, come, miss! To the marines! [Pause.] Up already! [Pained.] I chatter too much.
S Come, come, sir, don’t say that, it is part of your rôle, as animator.
[Pause.]
A That tear, miss, do you remember?
S Oh yes, sir, distinctly.
A [faint hope] Not the first time by any chance?
S Heavens no, sir, what an idea!
A [disappointed] I might have known.
S Last winter, now I come to think of it, he shed several, do you not remember?
A Last winter! But, my dear child, I don’t remember yesterday, it is down the hatch with love’s young dream. Last winter! [Pause. Low, with emotion.] Miss.
S [low] Sir.
A That . . . Maud.
[Pause.]
S [encouraging] Yes, sir.
A Well . . . you know . . . I may be wrong . . . I wouldn’t like to . . . I hardly dare say it . . . but it seems to me that . . . here . . . possibly . . . we have something at last.
S Would to God, sir.
A Particularly with that tear so hard behind. It is not the first, agreed. But in such a context!
S And the milk, sir, don’t forget the milk.
A The breast! One can almost see it!
S Who got her in that condition, there’s another question for us.
A What condition, miss, I fail to follow you.
S Someone has fecundated her. [Pause. Impatient.] If she is in milk someone must have fecundated her.
A To be sure!
S Who?
A [very excited] You mean . . .
S I ask myself.
[Pause.]
A May we have that passage again, miss?
S “Have yourself opened, Maud would say, opened—”
A [delighted] That frequentative! [Pause.] Sorry, miss.
S “Have yourself opened, Maud would say, opened—”
A Don’t skip, miss, the text in its entirety if you please.
S I skip nothing, sir. [Pause.] What have I skipped, sir?
A [emphatically]“ . . . between two kisses . . .” [Sarcastic.] That mere trifle!
[Angry.] How can we ever hope to get anywhere if you suppress gems of that magnitude?
S But, sir, he never said anything of the kind.
A [angry] “. . . Maud would say, between two kisses, etc.” Amend.
S But, sir, I—
A What the devil are you deriding, miss? My hearing? My memory? My good faith? [Thunderous.] Amend!
S [feebly] As you will, sir.
A Let us hear how it runs now.
S [tremulous] “Have yourself opened, Maud would say, between two kisses, opened up, it’s nothing, I’ll give him suck if he’s still alive, ah but no, no no.” [Faint pencil.] “No no.”
[Silence.]
A Don’t cry, miss, dry your pretty eyes and smile at me. Tomorrow, who knows, we may be free.
WORDS AND MUSIC
A piece for radio
MUSIC
Small orchestra softly tuning up.
WORDS
Please! [Tuning. Louder.] Please! [Tuning dies away.] How much longer cooped up here in the dark? [With loathing.] With you! [Pause.] Theme. . . . [Pause.] Theme . . . sloth. [Pause. Rattled off, low.] Sloth is of all the passions the most powerful passion and indeed no passion is more powerful than the passion of sloth, this is the mode in which the mind is most affected and indeed— [Burst of tuning. Loud, imploring.] Please! [Tuning dies away. As before.] The mode in which the mind is most affected and indeed in no mode is the mind more affected than in this, by passion we are to understand a movement of the soul pursuing or fleeing real or imagined pleasure or pain pleasure or pain real or imagined pleasure or pain, of all these movements and who can number them of all these movements and they are legion sloth is the most urgent and indeed by no movement is the soul more urged than by this by this by this to and from by no movement the soul more urged than by this to and— [Pause.] From. [Pause.] Listen! [Distant sound of rapidly shuffling carpet slippers.] At last!
[Shuffling louder. Burst of tuning.] Hsst!
[Tuning dies away. Shuffling louder. Silence.]
CROAK
Joe.
WORDS
[humble] My Lord.
CROAK
Bob.
MUSIC
Humble muted adsum.
CROAK
My comforts! Be friends! [Pause.] Bob.
MUSIC
As before.
CROAK
Joe.
WORDS
[as before] My Lord.
CROAK
Be friends! [Pause.] I am late, forgive. [Pause.] The face. [Pause.] On the stairs. [Pause.] Forgive. [Pause.] Joe.
WORDS
[as before] My Lord.
CROAK
Bob.
MUSIC
As before.
CROAK
Forgive. [Pause.] In the tower. [Pause.] The face. [Long pause.] Theme tonight. . . . [Pause.] Theme tonight . . . love. [Pause.] Love. [Pause.] My club. [Pause.] Joe.
WORDS
[as before] My Lord.
CROAK
Love. [Pause. Thump of club on ground.] Love!
WORDS
[orotund] Love is of all the passions the most powerful passion and indeed no passion is more powerful than the passion of love. [Clears throat.] This is the mode in which the mind is most strongly affected and indeed in no mode is the mind more strongly affected than in this.
[Pause.]
CROAK
Rending sigh. Thump of club.
WORDS
[as before] By passion we are to understand a movement of the mind pursuing or fleeing real or imagined pleasure or pain.
[Clears throat.] Of all—
CROAK
[anguished] Oh!
WORDS
[as before] Of all these movements then and who can number them and they are legion sloth is the LOVE is the most urgent and indeed by no manner of movement is the soul more urged than by this, to and—
[Violent thump of club.]
CROAK
Bob.
WORDS
From.
[Violent thump of club.]
CROAK
Bob!
MUSIC
As before.
CROAK
Love!
MUSIC
Rap of baton on stand. Soft music worthy of foregoing, great expression, with audible groans and protestations— “No!” “Please!” etc.—from Words. Pause.
CROAK
[anguished] Oh! [Thump of club.] Louder!
MUSIC
Loud rap of baton and as before fortissimo, all expression gone, drowning Words’ protestations. Pause.
CROAK
My comforts! [Pause.] Joe sweet.
WORDS
[as before] Arise then and go now the manifest unanswerable—
CROAK
Groans.
WORDS
—to wit this love what is this love that more than all the cursed deadly or any other of its great movers so moves the soul and soul what is this soul that more than by any of its great movers is by love so moved? [Clears throat. Prosaic.] Love of woman, I mean, if that is what my Lord means.
CROAK
Alas!
WORDS
What? [Pause. Very rhetorical.] Is love the word? [Pause. Do.] Is soul the word? [Pause. Do.] Do we mean love, when we say love? [Pause. Pause. Do.] Soul, when we say soul?
CROAK
[anguished] Oh! [Pause.] Bob dear.
WORDS
Do we? [With sudden gravity.] Or don’t we?
CROAK
[imploring] Bob!
MUSIC
Rap of baton. Love and soul music, with just audible protestations— “No!” “Please!” “Peace!” etc.—from Words. Pause.
CROAK
[anguished] Oh! [Pause.] My balms! [Pause.] Joe.
WORDS
[humble] My Lord.
CROAK
Bob.
MUSIC
Adsum as before.
CROAK
My balms! [Pause.] Age. [Pause.] Joe. [Pause. Thump of club.] Joe.
WORDS
[as before] My Lord.
CROAK
Age!
[Pause.]
WORDS
[faltering] Age is . . . age is when . . . old age I mean . . . if that is what my Lord means . . . is when . . . if you’re a man . . . were a man . . . huddled . . . nodding . . . the ingle . . . waiting— [Violent thump of club.]
CROAK
Bob. [Pause.] Age. [Pause. Violent thump of club.] Age!
MUSIC
Rap of baton. Age music, soon interrupted by violent thump.
CROAK
Together. [Pause. Thump.] Together! [Pause. Violent thump.]
Together, dogs!
MUSIC
Long la.
WORDS
[imploring] No!
[Violent thump.]
CROAK
Dogs!
MUSIC
La.
WORDS
[trying to sing] Age is when . . . to a man . . .
MUSIC
Improvement of above.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] Age is when to a man . . .
MUSIC
Suggestion for following.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] Huddled o’er . . . the ingle. . . . [Pause. Violent thump. Trying to sing.] Waiting for the hag to put the . . . pan in the bed . . .
MUSIC
Improvement of above.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] Waiting for the hag to put the pan in the bed.
MUSIC
Suggestion for following.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] And bring the . . . arrowroot. . . . [Pause. Violent thump. As before.] And bring the toddy. . . .
[Pause. Tremendous thump.]
CROAK
Dogs!
MUSIC
Suggestion for following.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] She comes in the ashes. . . . [Imploring.] No!
MUSIC
Repeats suggestion.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] She comes in the ashes who loved could not be . . . won or . . .
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Repeats end of previous suggestion.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] Or won not loved . . . [wearily] . . . or some other trouble. . . . [Pause. Trying to sing.] Comes in the ashes like in that old—
MUSIC
Interrupts with improvement of this and brief suggestion.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] Comes in the ashes like in that old light . . . her face . . . in the ashes. . . . [Pause.]
CROAK
Groans.
MUSIC
Suggestion for following.
WORDS
[trying to sing this] That old moonlight . . . on the earth . . . again.
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Further brief suggestion.
[Silence.]
CROAK
Groans.
MUSIC
Plays air through alone, then invites Words with opening, pause, invites again and finally accompanies very softly.
WORDS
[trying to sing, softly]
Age is when to a man
Huddled o’er the ingle
Shivering for the hag
To put the pan in the bed
And bring the toddy
She comes in the ashes
Who loved could not be won
Or won not loved
Or some other trouble
Comes in the ashes
Like in that old light
The face in the ashes
That old starlight
On the earth again.
[Long pause.]
CROAK
[murmur] The face. [Pause.] The face. [Pause.] The face. [Pause.]
The face.
MUSIC
Rap of baton and warmly sentimental, about one minute.
[Pause.]
CROAK
The face.
WORDS
[cold] Seen from above in that radiance so cold and faint. . . .
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Warm suggestion from above for above.
WORDS
[disregarding, cold] Seen from above at such close quarters in that radiance so cold and faint with eyes so dimmed by . . . what had passed, its quite . . . piercing beauty is a little. . . .
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Renews timidly previous suggestion.
WORDS
[interrupting, violently] Peace!
CROAK
My comforts! Be friends!
[Pause.]
WORDS
. . . blunted. Some moments later however, such are the powers of recuperation at this age, the head is drawn back to a distance of two or three feet, the eyes widen to a stare and begin to feast again. [Pause.] What then is seen would have been better seen in the light of day, that is incontest able. But how often it has, in recent months, how often, at all hours, under all angles, in cloud and shine, been seen I mean. And there is, is there not, in that clarity of silver . . . that clarity of silver . . . is there not . . . my Lord. . . . [Pause.] Now and then the rye, swayed by a light wind, casts and withdraws its shadow.
[Pause.]
CROAK
Groans.
WORDS
Leaving aside the features or lineaments proper, match less severally and in their ordonnance—
CROAK
Groans.
WORDS
—flare of the black disordered hair as though spread wide on water, the brows knitted in a groove suggesting pain but simply concentration more likely all things considered on some consummate inner process, the eyes of course closed in keeping with this, the lashes . . . [pause] . . . the nose . . . [pause] . . . nothing, a little pinched perhaps, the lips. . . .
CROAK
[anguished] Lily!
WORDS
. . . tight, a gleam of tooth biting on the under, no coral, no swell, whereas normally. . . .
CROAK
Groans.
WORDS
. . . the whole so blanched and still that were it not for the great white rise and fall of the breasts, spreading as they mount and then subsiding to their natural . . . aperture—
MUSIC
Irrepressible burst of spreading and subsiding music with vain protestations— “Peace!” “No!” “Please!” etc. —from Words. Triumph and conclusion.
WORDS
[gently expostulatory] My Lord! [Pause. Faint thump of club.] I resume, so wan and still and so ravished away that it seems no more of the earth than Mira in the Whale, at her tenth and greatest magnitude on this particular night shining coldly down—as we say, looking up. [Pause.] Some moments later however, such are the powers—
CROAK
[anguished] No!
WORDS
—the brows uncloud, the lips part and the eyes . . . [pause] . . . the brows uncloud, the nostrils dilate, the lips part and the eyes . . . [pause] . . . a little colour comes back into the cheeks and the eyes . . . [reverently] . . . open. [Pause.] Then down a little way . . . [Pause. Change to poetic tone. Low.]
Then down a little way
Through the trash
To where . . . towards where. . . .
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Discreet suggestion for above.
WORDS
[trying to sing this]
Then down a little way
Through the trash
Towards where . . .
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Discreet suggestion for following.
WORDS
[trying to sing this]
All dark no begging
No giving no words
No sense no need. . . .
[Pause.]
MUSIC
More confident suggestion for following.
WORDS
[trying to sing this]
Through the scum
Down a little way
To where one glimpse
Of that wellhead.
[Pause.]
MUSIC
Invites with opening, pause, invites again and finally accompanies very softly.
WORDS
[trying to sing, softly]
Then down a little way
Through the trash
Towards where
All dark no begging
No giving no words
No sense no need
The Collected Shorter Plays Page 11