COLBY. I don’t feel, tonight, that I ever want to marry.
You may be right. I can’t take account of that.
But now I want to know whose son I am.
SIR CLAUDE. Then the first thing is: we must see Mrs. Guzzard.
LADY ELIZABETH. Oh Claude! I am terribly sorry for you.
I believe that if I had known of your … delusion
I would never have undeceived you.
SIR CLAUDE. And as for me,
If I could have known what was going to happen,
I would gladly have surrendered Colby to you.
But we must see Mrs. Guzzard. I’ll arrange to get her here.
LADY ELIZABETH. And I think you ought to get Eggerson as well.
SIR CLAUDE [rising]. Oh, of course, Eggerson! He knows all about it.
Let us say no more tonight. Now, Colby,
Can you find some consolation at the piano?
COLBY. I don’t think, tonight, the piano would help me:
At the moment, I never want to touch it again.
But there’s another reason. I must remind you
About your speech for the Potters’ Company
Tomorrow night. I must get to work on it.
SIR CLAUDE. Tomorrow night. Must I go to that dinner
Tomorrow night?
COLBY. I was looking at your notes —
Before you brought me into the conversation —
And I found one note I couldn’t understand.
‘Reminiscent mood.’ I can’t develop that
Unless you can tell me — reminiscent of what?
SIR CLAUDE. Reminiscent of what? Reminiscent of what?
‘Tonight I feel in a reminiscent mood’ —
Oh yes. To say something of my early ambitions
To be a potter. Not that the Members
Of the Potters’ Company know anything at all
About ceramics … or any other art.
No, I don’t think I shall be in a reminiscent mood.
Cross that out. It would only remind me
Of things that would surprise the Potters’ Company
If I told them what I was really remembering.
Come, Elizabeth.
LADY ELIZABETH. My poor Claude!
[Exeunt SIR CLAUDE and LADY ELIZABETH]
CURTAIN
Act Three
The Business Room, as in Act 1. Several mornings later. SIR CLAUDE is moving chairs about. Enter LADY ELIZABETH.
LADY ELIZABETH. Claude, what are you doing?
SIR CLAUDE. Settling the places.
It’s important, when you have a difficult meeting,
To decide on the seating arrangements beforehand.
I don’t think you and I should be near together.
Will you sit there, beside the desk?
LADY ELIZABETH. On the other side, with the light behind me:
But won’t you be sitting at the desk yourself?
SIR CLAUDE. No, that would look too formal. I thought it would be better
To put Eggerson there, behind the desk.
You see, I want him to be a sort of chairman.
LADY ELIZABETH. That’s a good idea.
SIR CLAUDE. On the other hand,
We mustn’t look like a couple of barristers
Ready to cross-examine a witness.
It’s very awkward. We don’t want to start
By offending Mrs. Guzzard. That’s why I thought
That Eggerson should put the first questions.
He’s very good at approaching a subject
In a roundabout way. But where shall we place her?
LADY ELIZABETH. Over there, with the light full on her:
I want to be able to watch her expression.
SIR CLAUDE. But not in this chair! She must have an armchair …
LADY ELIZABETH. Not such a low one. Leave that in the corner
For Colby. He won’t want to be conspicuous,
Poor boy!
SIR CLAUDE. After all, it was he who insisted
On this … investigation. But perhaps you’re right.
LADY ELIZABETH. Claude, I’ve been thinking things over and over —
All through the night. I hardly slept at all.
I wish that Colby, somehow, might prove to be your son
Instead of mine. Really, I do!
It would be so much fairer. If he is mine —
As I am sure he is — then you never had a son;
While, if he were yours … he could still take the place
Of my son: and so he could be our son.
Oh dear, what do I want? I should like him to be mine,
But for you to believe that he is yours!
So I hope Mrs. Guzzard will say he is your son
And I needn’t believe her. I don’t believe in facts.
You do. That is the difference between us.
SIR CLAUDE. I’m not so sure of that. I’ve tried to believe in facts;
And I’ve always acted as if I believed in them.
I thought it was facts that my father believed in;
I thought that what he cared for was power and wealth;
And I came to see that what I had interpreted
In this way, was something else to him —
An idea, an inspiration. What he wanted to transmit to me
Was that idea, that inspiration,
Which to him was life. To me, it was a burden.
You can’t communicate an inspiration,
Like that, by force of will. He was a great financier —
And I am merely a successful one.
I might have been truer to my father’s inspiration
If I had done what I wanted to do.
LADY ELIZABETH. You’ve never talked like this to me before!
Why haven’t you? I don’t suppose I understand
And I know you don’t think I understand anything,
And perhaps I don’t. But I wish you would talk
Sometimes to me as if I did understand,
And perhaps I might come to understand better.
What did you want to do?
SIR CLAUDE. To be a potter.
Don’t laugh.
LADY ELIZABETH. I’m not laughing. I was only thinking
How strange to have lived with you, all these years,
And now you tell me, you’d have liked to be a potter!
You really mean, to make jugs and jars
Like those in your collection?
SIR CLAUDE. That’s what I mean.
LADY ELIZABETH. But I should have loved you to be a potter!
Why have you never told me?
SIR CLAUDE. I didn’t think
That you would be interested. More than that.
I took it for granted that what you wanted
Was a husband of importance. I thought you would despise me
If you knew what I’d really wanted to be.
LADY ELIZABETH. And I took it for granted that you were not interested
In anything but financial affairs;
And that you needed me chiefly as a hostess.
It’s a great mistake, I do believe,
For married people to take anything for granted.
SIR CLAUDE. That was a very intelligent remark.
Perhaps I have taken too much for granted
About you, Elizabeth. What did you want?
LADY ELIZABETH. To inspire an artist. Don’t laugh.
SIR CLAUDE. I’m not laughing.
So what you wanted was to inspire an artist!
LADY ELIZABETH. Or to inspire a poet. I thought Tony was a poet.
Because he wrote me poems. And he was so beautiful.
I know now that poets don’t look like poets:
And financiers, it seems, don’t look like potters —
Is that what I mean? I’m getting confused.
I thought I was escaping from a world that I loathed
In Tony — and then, too l
ate, I discovered
He belonged to the world I wanted to escape from.
He was so commonplace! I wanted to forget him,
And so, I suppose, I wanted to forget
Colby. But Colby is an artist.
SIR CLAUDE. A musician.
I am a disappointed craftsman,
And Colby is a disappointed composer.
I should have been a second-rate potter,
And he would have been a second-rate organist.
We have both chosen … obedience to the facts.
LADY ELIZABETH. I believe that was what I was trying to do.
It’s very strange, Claude, but this is the first time
I have talked to you, without feeling very stupid.
You always made me feel that I wasn’t worth talking to.
SIR CLAUDE. And you always made me feel that your interests
Were much too deep for discussion with me:
Health cures. And modern art — so long as it was modern —
And dervish dancing.
LADY ELIZABETH. Dervish dancing!
Really, Claude, how absurd you are!
Not that there isn’t a lot to be learnt,
I don’t doubt, from the dervish rituals.
But it doesn’t matter what Mrs. Guzzard tells us,
If it satisfies Colby. Whatever happens
He shall be our son.
[A knock on the door. Enter EGGERSON]
SIR CLAUDE. Good morning, Eggerson.
EGGERSON. Good morning, Sir Claude. And Lady Elizabeth!
SIR CLAUDE. I’m sorry, Eggerson, to bring you up to London
At such short notice.
EGGERSON. Don’t say that, Sir Claude.
It’s true, I haven’t much nowadays to bring me;
But Mrs. E. wishes I’d come up oftener!
Isn’t that like the ladies! She used to complain
At my being up in London five or six days a week:
But now she says: ‘You’re becoming such a countryman!
You’re losing touch with public affairs.’
The fact is, she misses the contact with London,
Though she doesn’t admit it. She misses my news
When I came home in the evening. And the late editions
Of the papers that I picked up at Liverpool Street.
But I’ve so much to do, in Joshua Park —
Apart from the garden — that I’ve not an idle moment.
And really, now, I’m quite lost in London.
Every time I come, I notice the traffic
Has got so much worse.
SIR CLAUDE. Yes, it’s always getting worse.
LADY ELIZABETH. — I hope Mrs. Eggerson is well?
EGGERSON. Pretty well.
She’s always low-spirited, around this season,
When we’re getting near the anniversary.
SIR CLAUDE. The anniversary? Of your son’s death?
EGGERSON. Of the day we got the news. We don’t often speak of it;
Yet I know what’s on her mind, for days beforehand.
But here I am, talking about ourselves!
And we’ve more important business, I imagine.
SIR CLAUDE. Eggerson, I’m expecting Mrs. Guzzard.
EGGERSON. Indeed! Mrs. Guzzard! And why are we expecting her?
SIR CLAUDE. I have asked her to come. Lady Elizabeth
Is sure that she knows the name of Mrs. Guzzard.
LADY ELIZABETH. Mrs. Guzzard, of Teddington.
EGGERSON. Ah, indeed!
I shouldn’t have expected her name to be known to you.
SIR CLAUDE. She’d been questioning Colby about himself,
And he mentioned the name of his aunt, Mrs. Guzzard.
Now she’s convinced that Mrs. Guzzard
Of Teddington is the name of the person
To whom her own child was entrusted.
EGGERSON. What an amazing coincidence!
SIR CLAUDE. That’s what it is,
Unless she is mistaken …
LADY ELIZABETH. Now,Claude!
SIR CLAUDE. And she came to the conclusion that her child must be Colby,
So I told her the truth. But she cannot believe it.
LADY ELIZABETH. Claude, that’s not quite right. Let me explain.
I am convinced that Sir Claude is mistaken,
Or has been deceived, and that Colby is my son.
I feel sure he is. But I don’t want to know:
I am perfectly content to leave things as they are,
So that we may regard him as our son.
SIR CLAUDE. That is perfectly correct. It is Colby
Who is not satisfied with that solution.
He insists upon the facts. And that is why
I have asked Mrs. Guzzard here. She doesn’t know that.
EGGERSON. A natural line for Mr. Simpkins to take,
If I may say so. Of course, we might discover
Another Mrs. Guzzard …
LADY ELIZABETH. Two Mrs. Guzzards?
EGGERSON. I agree, it is a most uncommon name,
But stranger things have happened.
LADY ELIZABETH. And both in Teddington?
EGGERSON. I agree, that would be most surprising.
And at the same address?
LADY ELIZABETH. I don’t know the address.
Mrs. Guzzard of Teddington, that’s all I know,
And that I could swear to.
EGGERSON. It does seem unlikely
That there should be two Mrs. Guzzards in Teddington.
But assuming, for the moment, only one Mrs. Guzzard,
Could there not have been two babies?
LADY ELIZABETH. Two babies, Eggerson?
EGGERSON. I was only suggesting
That perhaps Mrs. Guzzard made a profession
Of … looking after other people’s children?
In a manner of speaking, it’s perfectly respectable.
SIR CLAUDE. You’re suggesting that she ran a baby farm.
That’s most unlikely, nowadays.
Besides, I should have noticed it. I visited her house
Often. I never saw more than one baby.
EGGERSON. She might have taken in another one
As a temporary accommodation —
On suitable terms. But if she did that,
We must enquire what became of the other one.
SIR CLAUDE. But this baby was Colby.
LADY ELIZABETH. Of course it was Colby.
SIR CLAUDE. But Eggerson, you really can’t ask me to believe
That she took two babies, and got them mixed.
LADY ELIZABETH. That seems to be what happened. And now we must find out
What became of your child, Claude.
SIR CLAUDE. What became of my child!
The mother of my child was Mrs. Guzzard’s sister.
She wouldn’t dispose of him. It’s your child, Elizabeth,
Whom we must try to trace.
EGGERSON. If there was another child
Then we must try to trace it. Certainly, Sir Claude:
Our first step must be to question Mrs. Guzzard.
SIR CLAUDE. And that’s what we are here for. She will be here shortly.
And when she arrives I will summon Colby.
I wanted you here first, to explain the situation:
And I thought I would like you to conduct the proceedings.
Will you sit at the desk?
EGGERSON. If you wish, Sir Claude.
I do feel more at ease when I’m behind a desk:
It’s second nature.
SIR CLAUDE. And put the case to her.
Don’t let her think that I have any doubts:
You are putting the questions on behalf of my wife.
EGGERSON. I understand, Sir Claude: I understand completely.
[A knock on the door]
SIR CLAUDE. Good Lord, she’s here already! Well … Come in!
[Enter LUCAST
A]
LUCASTA. Is this a meeting? I came to speak to Colby.
I’m sorry.
SIR CLAUDE. Colby will be here.
But you’re not involved in this meeting, Lucasta.
Won’t it do another time?
LUCASTA. I came to apologise
To Colby. No matter. It’ll do another time.
Oh, I’m glad you’re here, Eggy! You’re such a support.
In any case, I’ve an announcement to make,
And I might as well make it now. If you’ll listen.
SIR CLAUDE. Of course I’ll listen. But we haven’t much time.
LUCASTA. It won’t take much time. I’m going to marry B.
SIR CLAUDE. To marry B.! But I thought that was all settled.
LUCASTA. Yes, of course, Claude. You thought everything settled.
That was just the trouble. You made it so obvious
That this would be the ideal solution
From your point of view. To get me off your hands.
Oh, I know what a nuisance you’ve always found me!
And I haven’t made it easier. I didn’t try to.
And knowing that you wanted me to marry B.
Made me determined that I wouldn’t. Just to spite you,
I dare say. That was why I took an interest
In Colby. Because you thought he was too good for me.
SIR CLAUDE. In Colby!
LUCASTA. Why not? That’s perfectly natural.
But I’m grateful to Colby. But for Colby
I’d never have come to appreciate B.
SIR CLAUDE. But Colby! Lucasta, if I’d suspected this
I would have explained. Colby is your brother.
EGGERSON. Half-brother, Miss Angel.
SIR CLAUDE. Yes, half-brother.
LUCASTA. What do you mean?
SIR CLAUDE. Colby is my son.
LADY ELIZABETH. That is what Sir Claude believes. Claude, let me explain.
SIR CLAUDE. No, I’ll explain. There’s been some misunderstanding.
My wife believes that Colby is her son.
That is the reason for this meeting today.
We’re awaiting Mrs. Guzzard — Colby’s aunt.
LUCASTA. Colby’s aunt? You make my brain reel.
SIR CLAUDE. I ought to have made things clear to you
At the time when he came here. But I didn’t trust you
To keep a secret. There were reasons for that
Which no longer exist. But I ought to have told you.
LUCASTA. Well, I don’t understand. What I do understand
Is Colby’s behaviour. If he knew it.
SIR CLAUDE. He knew it.
LUCASTA. Why didn’t he tell me? Perhaps he was about to.
Anyway, I knew there had been some mistake.
You don’t know at all what I’m talking about!
The Complete Poems and Plays of T. S. Eliot Page 44