Boston Marriage

by David Mamet

  ANNA: Both our, I believe it. Happiness and Folly.

  CLAIRE: If I could but believe …

  ANNA: But the point is not to believe but to decide.

  CLAIRE: Oh, my dear. You always were too good for me. God bless you in your naiveté. And when you reminisce, forgive me.

  ANNA: When I reminisce …? (Pause)

  CLAIRE: You understand that my presence here would be a drain upon both your emotions and your treasury. (Pause) I have spoiled your establishment and traduced your affections. Better for us both to part.

  ANNA: (Pause) Oh.

  CLAIRE: I know you understand.

  ANNA: And I cannot dissuade you?

  CLAIRE: I fear you cannot.

  ANNA: (Pause) But…

  CLAIRE: Bless you. Your efforts would be in vain.

  ANNA: You once said, you could be happy alone with me in a Garret.

  CLAIRE: And once I could. Forgive me.

  ANNA: (Pause) I will fetch the Jewel. (Exits)

  CLAIRE: And I shall, like the dying fox, offer amusement to the county. (MAID enters) All undone by Men.

  MAID: Excuse me, mum.

  CLAIRE: Undone by Men, I opined. Are you deaf?

  MAID: What, mum?

  CLAIRE: I made fair to make common cause with you, do you see? You, ravaged and abandoned. Myself done out of my birthright. By Men. (To MAID) Where are you rushing to?

  MAID: I’m goin’ for the candles, mum.

  CLAIRE: We don’t require them now, do you see? For our schemes have miscarried. (Pause) How odd to’ve supposed a possible alternative.

  MAID: I beg your pardon, mum.

  CLAIRE: I said we don’t require the candles. (Pause) What?

  MAID: I tell a lie.

  CLAIRE: Again?

  MAID: Yes, mum. An’ I must beg your pardon.

  CLAIRE: What was the lie?

  MAID: I’m goin’ to see me fella.

  CLAIRE: See yer fellow, is it?

  MAID: Yes, mum.

  CLAIRE: I thought he’d abandoned you.

  MAID: No, mum. He changed his mind.

  CLAIRE: Oh, good.

  MAID: He just sent word as how he wants to meet me in the park to "discuss" something.

  CLAIRE: Whatever would that be? Some life-enhancing tender of his "troth," so on?

  MAID: I hope so, mum.

  CLAIRE: Then of course. Off you go. (MAID exits.) Off you go to your Bower of Bliss. Off you go to your sweet narcotic. Two souls resubsumed in oblivion. Off you go. I will stay here. (Pause)

  (ANNA enters.)

  ANNA: Where is the Slavey?

  CLAIRE: Gone out.

  ANNA: When?

  CLAIRE: Just now.

  ANNA: I have been robbed.

  CLAIRE: What can you mean?

  ANNA: The jewel is gone.

  CLAIRE: Where did you look?

  ANNA: Everywhere.

  CLAIRE: It cannot be.

  ANNA: It is.

  CLAIRE: Infamia.

  ANNA: I am destroyed.

  CLAIRE: The girl took the Jewel?

  ANNA: She, it must be, and her accomplice.

  CLAIRE: "That man."

  ANNA: Help me.

  CLAIRE: Lord, what is not fleeting, here below?

  ANNA: They shall cart me to jail.

  CLAIRE: …Anna …

  ANNA: What shall I do? I cannot bear rebuke, let alone incarceration …They will come with, what are they called? One wears them on one’s wrists.

  CLAIRE: Manacles.

  ANNA: And take me away. I, who have required from life so little …

  CLAIRE: My dear …

  ANNA: And now, and now …

  CLAIRE: We can prevail upon your protector.

  ANNA: He has denounced me and decamped.

  CLAIRE: The cad.

  ANNA: And hidden in That woman’s skirts.

  CLAIRE: His wife.

  ANNA: The Foul Fiend.

  CLAIRE: What craven cowards they are.

  ANNA: But, as they are, always in possession of the Field, how would they learn Nobility?

  CLAIRE: But would he, in truth, consign you to jail?

  ANNA: Oh, my dear, undoubtedly. He has so much of which he is ashamed.

  CLAIRE: As do I.

  ANNA: Please?

  CLAIRE: I am cause of your misfortune. If I had not brought the child here, does not such a speech occur to you?

  ANNA: But: None of us is perfect. Each is not only permitted but required to repent…And if to repent, then of necessity, to err. It is now my lot to attempt that most profoundly difficult of human tasks.

  CLAIRE: To forgive one who has wronged you?

  ANNA: No, to pack when rushed. What shall I want in a cell? It is so hard to think on the instant. I’ll take your portrait. (Starts to exit)

  CLAIRE: Take my portrait?

  ANNA: The one in the brown kerseymere. You remember.

  CLAIRE: I thought he’d got the nose wrong.

  ANNA: How little you know of yourself. (Starts, again, to exit)

  CLAIRE: Oh, for God’s sake: pack for two.

  ANNA: …I’m sorry?

  CLAIRE: I shall, of course, accompany you.

  ANNA: No.

  CLAIRE: To the contrary.

  ANNA: A touch Ancien Régime, don’t you think?

  CLAIRE: I profoundly hope so.

  ANNA: But you could not abide Jail.

  CLAIRE: What have I to fear?

  ANNA: The food, the clothing and the conversation.

  CLAIRE: We shall brave them together.

  ANNA: Shall we?

  CLAIRE: Every circumstance conspires to so instruct me.

  ANNA: And do you not find such instruction onerous?

  CLAIRE: I do not.

  ANNA: How can I thank you?

  CLAIRE: Hear my confession.

  ANNA: Speak to me.

  CLAIRE: I abhor chintz. (Pause)

  ANNA: You said that you liked it.

  CLAIRE: I spoke in jest.

  ANNA: Yes, perhaps I have wronged you, too.

  (Doorbell)

  ANNA: That would be the bailiff.

  CLAIRE: Are you prepared?

  ANNA: I’ll have the girl fetch my wrap.

  CLAIRE: The girl is gone.

  ANNA: Then I shall fetch my wrap myself.

  CLAIRE: Oh God, so it begins.

  (ANNA exits.)

  CLAIRE: Oh golly how good it feels to be courageous. I wonder if this feeling’s widely known. Enter then, sir, and do your worst.

  (MAID enters. Pause.)

  CLAIRE: Vandal, how dare you return?

  MAID: I brought a …

  CLAIRE: How do you find the gall?

  MAID: I brought …

  CLAIRE: You brought, what? A fell request for Ransom?

  MAID: Miss?

  CLAIRE: What business have you here?

  MAID: I thought I’d make the tea. (Pause)

  CLAIRE: The Tea?

  MAID: It’s teatime.

  CLAIRE: Where is your mistress’s necklace?

  MAID: In the Bible.

  CLAIRE: … in the Bible?

  MAID: In the morning room. She left it in there, marking her place.

  CLAIRE: Did she, indeed?

  MAID: She did. She never can remember where she put it.

  CLAIRE: …yes. (Pause)

  MAID: I brought you a note.

  CLAIRE: A Note.

  MAID: There’s a young lady, gave it to me.

  CLAIRE: A young lady?

  MAID: In a carriage, waitin’ on the corner.

  CLAIRE: Give me the note.

  (MAID hands her the note. CLAIRE opens it and reads)

  MAID: She said she ain’t got but the one instant she could stay, for yer answer. Though, I must say, she didn’t have to be so snappish. For, din’t I give up me meeting with me feller, just to bring the note in. D’you think she might let me step out this evening, do you think?

  CLAIRE: …step out?

&
nbsp; MAID: Me mistress, as I had t’forgo me afternoon outing.

  CLAIRE: Developing a taste for the Carnal, are we?

  MAID: Yes, miss. That’s the sad part. Can’t help meself.

  CLAIRE: Mmm.

  MAID: D’you think she would? Let me step out this evening?

  CLAIRE: If you do, remember to instruct your friend to brush your back off when you get up from ground.

  MAID: We do it up against a tree.

  CLAIRE: Isn’t that hard on the legs?

  MAID: Perhaps. But the view is better.

  CLAIRE: What in life is not a compromise?

  MAID: Love. (Pause)

  CLAIRE: May you find it so.

  MAID: The girl can stay just the one minute, and then she’ll be gone. (Pause)

  CLAIRE: Just the one moment, and then she’ll be gone.

  MAID: You’ll want me to take out your answer?

  (CLAIRE stops reading the note)

  CLAIRE: No, there is no answer.

  MAID: Very good, miss. Then I’ll make the tea.

  (MAID exits. CLAIRE tears the note in half.)

  DAVID MAM ET

  (ANNA reenters, carrying a small carpetbag and portrait)

  CLAIRE: You take so little.

  ANNA: I have what I require. Shall we await them in the air?

  CLAIRE: Await them…?

  ANNA: Yes, the bailiffs.

  CLAIRE: … ah.

  ANNA: For it seems I am finished with this house.

  CLAIRE: Yes. Let us sit in the park, for I have various things I’d like to say to you.

  ANNA: But are you resigned? Are you, indeed, resigned to accompany me into Exile?

  CLAIRE: Not resigned, but honored.

  ANNA: Better than the best of friends.

  CLAIRE: And you shall be my preceptor.

  ANNA: …my dear? …

  CLAIRE: You shall guide me—for you are gifted to move in a world I cannot see. The world you see is not cruel. Possessing neither falsity nor guile. And it shall be my mission to protect you from it.

  ANNA: And you are returned to me.

  CLAIRE: With all my heart.

  ANNA: But will your feelings never change?

  CLAIRE: That is not within my gift. But I will never leave you. Might that do?

  ANNA: I am content.

  CLAIRE: Then I count the day a triumph.

  (They embrace and exit. The MAID reenters, followed immediately by ANNA.)

  ANNA: Mary: A gentleman will call for the Jewel.

  MAID: Yes, mum.

  ANNA: It’s in the Bible in the morning room. Give it to him.

  MAID: Yes, mum.

  ANNA: And get a receipt.

  (ANNA starts to exit. MAID curtseys. MAID holds up a muff)

  MAID: Miss, your friend’s forgot her muff.

  ANNA: (Exiting) That remains to be seen. (Exits)

  (Curtain)

  END

  Copyright © 2002 by David Mamet

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Mamet, David.

  Boston marriage / by David Mamet.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-48241-9

  1. Women—Drama. I. Title.

  PS3563.A4345 B67 2000

  812‘.54—dc21 99-056575

  www.vintagebooks.com

  v3.0