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This page copyright © 2003 Blackmask Online.
http://www.blackmask.com
THE IDIOT--A dramatization by Frank
J. Morlock of the novel by F. Doestoevsky
Myshkin Everyone says that. But what if the worst pain is not the
bodily suffering but the certainty of annihilation? Ah, legal murder is
worse than ordinary murder because it takes away a man's last hope. No!
You can't treat a man like that!
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NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND
Adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel by Frank Morlock.
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Crime and Punishment--Feodor
Doestoevski
Note: Adapted from the novel by Frank J. Morlock C 1966 (a very
early multimedia presentation).
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A RAW YOUTH
Note: A dramatization of the Dostoevski novel by FRANK J. MORLOCK
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Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards
ROSAMUND./I am yet alive to question if I live/And wonder what may
ever bid me die./But live I will, being yet not dead with thee,/Father.
Thou knowest in Paradise my heart./I feel thy kisses breathing on my
lips,/Whereto the dead cold relic of thy face/Was pressed at bidding of
thy slayer last night
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Locrine - A Tragedy--Algernon Charles
Swinburne
LOCRINE./This light of dawn is like an evil dream's/ That comes and
goes and is not. Yea, and thus/ Our hope on both sides wavering dares
allow/ No light but fire to bid us die or live./
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The Duke of Gandia
ALEXANDER I believe thou liest not. Girl, the day Looks pale before
thy glory. Brow, cheek, eye, Lips, throat, and bosom, thou dost
overshine All womanhood man ever worshipped. Once I held thy mother
fairest born of all That ever turned old Rome to heaven. Thou hast read
Her golden Horace?
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The Unfortunate Happy Lady: A
True History
I hope you will, Madam,'' said the barbarous Man. But my Business
now calls me hence; to Morrow at Dinner I will return to you, and Order
the rest of your Things to be brought with me. In the mean while''
(pursu'd the Traytor, kissing his Sister, as he thought and hop'd, the
last time) be as chearful as you can, my Dear! and expect all you can
wish from me.''
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The Rover; or, The Banish'd Cavaliers
'Tis true, I was never a Lover yet -- but I begin to have a shreud
Guess, what 'tis to be so, and fancy it very pretty to sigh, and sing,
and blush and wish, and dream and wish, and long and wish to see the
Man; and when I do, look pale and tremble; just as you did when my
Brother brought home the fine English Colonel to see you -- what do you
call him? Don Belvile.
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The Adventure of the Black
Lady. A Novel
For, finding me one Day all alone in my Chamber, and lying on my
Bed, in as mournful and wretched a Condition, to my then foolish
Apprehension, as now I am; He urg'd his Passion with such Violence and
accursed Success for me, with reiterated Promises of Marriage, whenever
I pleas'd to challeng 'em, which he bound with the most sacred Oaths
and most dreadful Excrations; that partly with my Aversion to the
other, and partly wih my Inclinations to pity him, I ruin'd my self
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ABDELAZER, OR THE Moor's Revenge
King./ All lives and safeties in my power remain!/ Mistaken charming
creature, if my power/ Be such, who kneel and bow to thee,/ What must
thine be,/ Who hast the Soveraign command o're me and it!/ Wou'dst thou
give life? turn but thy lovely eyes/ Upon the wretched thing that wants
it,/ And he will surely live, and live for ever./ Canst thou do this,
and com'st to beg of me?
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THE Amorous Prince, OR, THE Curious
Husband
Fred./ No, she urged that too,/ And left no arguments unus'd/ Might
make me sensible of what I did;/ But I was fixt, and overcame them
all,/ Repeating still my vows and passions for her,/ Till in the
presence of her Maid and Heaven/ We solemnly contracted.
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The Dutch Lover
Sil./ Why--I would have thee do--I know not what--/ Still to be with
me--yet that will not satisfie;/ To let me--look upon thee--still
that's not enough./ I dare not say to kiss thee, and imbrace thee;/
That were to make me wish--I dare not tell thee what--/
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THE FALSE COUNT, OR, A New Way to
play AN OLD GAME
Not I, be witness heav'n with what reluctancy I forc't my breaking
heart; and can I see, that charming Body in my Sisters Armes! that
Mouth that has so oft sworn love to me, kist by anothers Lips! no,
Jacinta, that night that gives him to another Woman, shall see him dead
between the Charmers Armes. My life I hate, and when I live no more for
Carlos, I'll cease to be at all, it is resolv'd.
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Sir Patient Fancy
Sir Pat. How! her whole Family! I am come to keep open House; very
fine, her whole Family! she's Plague enough to mortify any good
Christian,--tell her, my Lady and I am gon forth; tell her any thing to
keep her away.
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THE REVENGE: OR, A MATCH IN
NEWGATE
Well. Tho I do not care for this woman now, yet some dregs of the
old haunt of Jealousie remain about me still; and I must see what use
my friend and quondam Mistriss makes of this kinde opportunitie.--Hah!
alone, and musing!
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THE ROUNDHEADS OR, The Good Old
Cause
La. Des. Seiz'd on, secur'd, was there no time but this? What made
him at the Committee, or when there, why spoke he honest Truth? What
shall I do, good Corporal Advise: take Gold, and see if you can corrupt
his Guards, but they are better paid for doing mischief; yet try, their
Consciences are large.
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THE TOWN-FOPP: OR Sir Timothy Tawdrey
Bell./ If I must Marry any but Celinda,/ I shall not, Sir, enjoy one
moments bliss!/ I shall be quite unman'd, Cruel and Brutal!/ A Beast,
unsafe for Woman to converse with;/ Besides, Sir, I have given my Heart
and Faith,/ And any second Marriage is Adultery.
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THE Younger Brother: OR, THE
Amorous Jilt
Geo. Why do I vainly call for Vengeance down, and have it in my
Hand? --By Heav'n, I'll back--Whether? To kill a Woman, a young
perjur'd Woman!--Oh, ye false Fair Ones! shou'd we do you Justice, A
universal Ruin wou'd ensue; Not One wou'd live to stock the World anew.
Who is't among ye All, ye Fair Deceivers, ye Charming Mischiefs to the
Noble Race, can swear she's Innocent, without Damnation? No, no, go
on--be false--be fickle still: You act but Nature--but my faithless
Friend--where I repose the Secrets of my Soul--except this one--Alas!
he knew not this:--Why do I blame him then?
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THE Debauchee: OR, THE Credulous
Cuckold
Ale. Because I am kind to your Lord, you imagin I must be so to you?
but I wou'd have you to know I am none of those: I am not faln from his
favor yet, or if I were, I shou'd not fall to Pages--there be more
Lords.
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Emperor of the Moon
She who by Nature's light and wavering./ The Town contains not such
a false Impertinent./ This Evening I surpris'd her in her Chamber/
Writing of Verses, and between her Lines,/ Some Spark had newly pen'd
his proper Stuff./ Curse of the Jilt, I'll be her Fool no more.
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THE Feign'd Curtizans, OR, A Nights
Intrigue
Cor. Her Sex, a pretty consideration by my youth, an Oath I shall
not violate this dozen year, my sex shou'd excuse me, if to preserve
their fame, they expected I shou'd ruin my own quiet: in chusing an ill
favourd Husband, such as Octavio before a young handsome Lover, such as
you say Fillamour is.
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THE FORC'D MARRIAGE, OR THE Jealous
Bridegroom
Er./ Madam, that grief the better is sustain'd,/ That's for a loss
that never yet was gain'd:/ You only lose a man that does not know/ How
great the Honour is which you bestow:/ Who dares not hope you love, or
if he did,/ Your greatness would his just return forbid;/ His humbler
thoughts durst ne're to you aspire,/ At most he would presume but to
admire;/ Or if it chanc'd he durst more daring prove,/ You still must
languish in concealed love.
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THE Luckey Chance, OR AN ALDERMAN'S
Bargain
Then beg'd I wou'd be secret: for he vow'd, his whole Repose and
Life, depended on my Silence. Nor had I told it now, But that your
Ladyship, may find some speedy means to draw him from this desperate
Condition.
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THE Widdow Ranter OR, The HISTORY
of Bacon in Virginia
King. Turn, turn ye fugitive Slaves, and face the Enemy; Oh
Villains, Cowards, Deaf to all Command, by Heaven I had my Rival my in
view and Aim'd at nothing but my Conquering him--now like a Coward I
must fly with Cowards, or like a desperate Mad-Man fall, thus singly
midst the numbers.
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THE Young KING, OR, THE MISTAKE
Thers./ Urge it no more, Lysander, 'tis in vain,/ My Liberty past
all retrieve is lost,/ But they're such glorious Fetters that confine
me,/ I wou'd not quit them to preserve that life/ Thou justly sayst I
hazzard by my Love.
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The Forfeiture--Riviere
Dufresny--translated by Frank J. Morlock
GERONTE: Better to give you no hope when I have none. You hoped to
get 40,000 ecus restitution from your aunts. I tell you again, these
two extravagants intend to keep that forfeiture, saying you cannot get
it from us unless one of us marries. They're both over fifty. It's a
joke to believe that will happen. I need money. My wealth is perishing.
Expenses are ruining me. So, as a wise man, I ought to go back to the
country and contract a marriage that will get me out of this financial
trouble.
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The Spirit of Contradiction--Riviere
Dufresny--translated by Frank J. Morlock
Lucas: Everything I've planted is torn up. She's replanted all the
weeds I tore out when I was grafting. She said they're wildflowers.
Then when I planted the cabbages she said she now wants lettuces.
Nothing is done by her order that doesn't reverse something I've done.
Yesterday she half buried my prunes under melons. I believe, God pardon
me! that it would be better for me to plant watermelons in the grape
arbor.
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The Unforseen Return--Jean-Francois
Regnard--translated by Frank J. Morlock
Squire: Whenever you please we will take the same momentous
step--hearts united. I am made for the ladies, and, in all modesty, the
ladies are made for me. May I be damned if you are not to my taste. I
am ready to love you one day to the point of adoration--to the point of
madness! But not to the point of marriage. I like amours without
consequences-- you understand me, I'm sure?
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THE WIDOW a la MODE--Donneau de
Vise--translated by F. J. Morlock
DAME JEANNE: Eh, my God! I've seen other widows besides you, who are
thinking of their fortune while weeping about their spouse. I propose
advice to you that you ought to take. A hundred devils! Your tears
won't help you to live.
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The Two McNaughtens--Jean-Francois
Regnard--translated by Frank Morlock
Spruce Oh, sir, customs inspectors are terrible men. All the savages
in the world are less barbarous. They can only talk in monosyllables.
"yes, no, what, sir? I have no time. But, sir-- Would you kindly open
up--" They need maybe a hundred words in their vocabulary. They give me
a headache. Finally, when you need them for something, they're more
proud and stuck up than an archbishop.
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The Double Widowing--by Riviere
Dufresny, translated by Frank J. Morlock
Mrs. MacPherson My husband never tells me his secrets. He's right,
for I am too much of a gossip. I like it better when he tells me
nothing, because he's so pompous when he tells me a secret. He has such
long oaths, so long that I would as soon listen to a hundred sighs from
another man. Before he will tell me one word!
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DOCTOR SCRATCH
Note: A Comedy Based on Crispin Medecin of Hautroche--English
Version by Frank J. Morlock
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THE TRIPLE MARRIAGE BY DESTOUCHES
Walter Heaven is my witness, I have tried to conquer my distaste and
to respond in kind to such a soft and obliging proceeding; if it still
depended on me to comply with your wishes in this--but you force me to
tell you, before the whole world, that I am not free and my word is
pledged forever.
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WAIT FOR ME UNDER THE
ELM--JEAN-FRANCOIS REGNARD
Jeremy The devil! Their imagination works overtime. They only invent
fashions to hide sins. Furbelows for those who don't have hips; those
who have hips, hid them. The long neck and wrinkled throat have given
place to the steinkerk and so forth.
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WAIT FOR ME UNDER THE TREE
Pierrot Far be it from me to be suspicious. But, when we've got this
wonderful Tree that will prove a woman's chastity--I simply don't wish
to get married without it. I want Jaqueline to sit in the Tree, and I
am going to find Harlequin to prepare the Ceremony.
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SCENE ADDED FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF
MOLIERE
This was a scene added to a play called Le Boulevard Bonne nouvelle
by Scribe, Moreau, and Melesville. 1820. It is published separately as
Scene ajoutee au Le Boulevard Bonne nouvelle and was the work of
Moreau.
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PRISONERS OF WAR--JEAN-JACQUES
ROUSSEAU
GOTERNITZ: Truly, Mr. Macher, your speech causes me pity and your
rage makes me laugh. What response should this gentleman give to an
exhortation as ridiculous as yours? The proof of the purity of his
intention is in the very language he uses to you; if he wanted to
deceive you he would probably take you for his confidant.
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THE FOLLIES OF LOVE--JEAN-FRANCOIS
REGARD
Jenny Yes, you. I believe that these rude manners come from some
spirit who is in need of prayers. And to better understand whether this
angry thing was soul or body, that made this Sabbath, one evening, I
took a cord with two ends firmly attached upstairs. It had the effect I
hoped. So soon as all were retired to sleep, I waited in person without
noise or light, on guard in a corner. I wasn't long waiting. So
pitty-pat down the spirit came, noisily tumbling over the cord. He
measured the stairs with his nose.
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THE SERVANT PROBLEM
Note: Translated and Adapted from Crispin, Rival of His Master By
Alain-Rene Le Sage
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PANDORA, By VOLTAIRE
PANDORA: (noticing Prometheus in the midst of the nymphs)/ What
object attracts my eyes!/ Of all that I see in these pleasant parts/
It's you, it's you, no question, to whom I owe life. / My soul is
filled with the fire from your glances;/ You seem still to vivify me.
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SAMSON, An opera by Voltaire
SAMSON: What a sight of horror!/ What, these proud children of
error/ Have brought these monsters they adore amongst you?/ God of
battles, look in your furor,/ The unworthy rivals that our tyrants
implore./ Support my zeal, inspire me/ Avenge your cause, avenge
yourself./
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WAYWARD WENCHES BY JEAN-FRANCOIS
REGNARD
Columbine Much worse. Believe me, from one woman to another, as a
faithless one, I much prefer Octavio to any other. Goodbye, miss. I
promise you that I will not spring any trap on the heart of your
lover--and because of my care for you, you will have no reason to cry
thief.
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THE SCHOOL FOR LOVERS, By
ALAIN-RENE LE SAGE
FRISTON: These lovers are always together,/ With spirits devoted to
me/ That around them my order musters,/ Making them observe this law./
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The Lucky Man--Michel Baron--translated
by Frank J. Morlock
Bendish: Frankly sir, if you hadn't been seconded our ship would
have come aground. Truly, the trouble that you had in this
adventure--I'm not sorry it happened for I don't doubt that after such
a hot alarm you'll take care not to make another such mistake.
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The Unforeseen Wager
Note: A play in one act based on a play by Sedaine Translated and
adapted by Frank J. Morlock
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THE VILLAGE COQUETTE OR THE SUPPOSED
LOTTERY
Lucas Suddenly, yes, to find myself there, as in a miracle. I've got
the character for it--no matter how hazardous. I gamble, win some, lose
some, it's only that it doesn't make one happy. I've played double or
nothing out of boredom. I have forty tickets for this lottery.
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MADAME MOLIERE--Andre Cremieux
CLITANDRE: Ah, what does fortune, position and the rest matter to
me? If it pleases you, Madame, to live far from the court, on a farm,
in the breast of some chicken-coop, you dressed as a shepherdess in
very humble homespun and I as a good Meneleaus, recalling the original,
your shepherd plucking fragile roses to cradle you with songs like
those of birds.
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The Sea-Gull
TREPLIEFF. [Looking at the stage] Just like a real theatre! See,
there we have the curtain, the foreground, the background, and all. No
artificial scenery is needed. The eye travels direct to the lake, and
rests on the horizon. The curtain will be raised as the moon rises at
half-past eight.
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The Cherry Orchard
PISCHIN. Well . . Dashenka told me. Now I'm in such a position, I
wouldn't mind forging them . . . I've got to pay 310 roubles the day
after to-morrow . . . I've got 130 already. . . . [Feels his pockets,
nervously] I've lost the money! The money's gone! [Crying] Where's the
money? [Joyfully] Here it is behind the lining . . . I even began to
perspire.
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The Three Sisters
CHEBUTYKIN. My dear girls, my darlings, you are all that I have, you
are the most precious treasures I have on earth. I shall soon be sixty,
I am an old man, alone in the world, a useless old man. . . . There is
nothing good in me, except my love for you, and if it were not for you,
I should have been dead long ago. . . .
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Uncle Vanya
MARINA. [Shaking her head] This house is topsy-turvy! The Professor
gets up at noon, the samovar is kept boiling all the morning, and
everything has to wait for him. Before they came we used to have dinner
at one o'clock, like everybody else, but now we have it at seven. The
Professor sits up all night writing and reading, and suddenly, at two
o'clock, there goes the bell! Heavens, what's that? The Professor wants
some tea! Wake the servants, light the samovar! Lord, how topsy-turvy!
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THE ANNIVERSARY
SHIPUCHIN. Another unpleasantness. . . . This morning your wife came
to see me and complained about you once again. Said that last night you
threatened her and her sister with a knife. Kusma Nicolaievitch, what
do you mean by that? Oh, oh!
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THE BEAR
POPOVA. [Looks at the photograph] You will see, Nicolas, how I can
love and forgive. . . . My love will die out with me, only when this
poor heart will cease to beat. [Laughs through her tears] And aren't
you ashamed? I am a good and virtuous little wife. I've locked myself
in, and will be true to you till the grave, and you . . . aren't you
ashamed, you bad child? You deceived me, had rows with me, left me
alone for weeks on end . . . .
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ON THE HIGH ROAD
BORTSOV. You don't understand me. . . . Understand me, you fool, if
there's a drop of brain in your peasant's wooden head, that it isn't I
who am asking you, but my inside, using the words you understand,
that's what's asking! My illness is what's asking! Understand!
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THE PROPOSAL
NATALYA STEPANOVNA. Ours! You can go on proving it for two days on
end, you can go and put on fifteen dress-jackets, but I tell you
they're ours, ours, ours! I don't want anything of yours and I don't
want to give up anything of mine. So there!
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A TRAGEDIAN IN SPITE OF HIMSELF
TOLKACHOV. What sort of a father of a family am I! I am a martyr. I
am a beast of burden, a nigger, a slave, a rascal who keeps on waiting
here for something to happen instead of starting off for the next
world. I am a rag, a fool, an idiot. Why am I alive? What's the use?
[Jumps up] Well now, tell me why am I alive?
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THE WEDDING
ZHIGALOV. [Bows in all directions, in great emotion] I thank you!
Dear guests! I am very grateful to you for not having forgotten and for
having conferred this honour upon us without being standoffish And you
must not think that I'm a rascal, or that I'm trying to swindle
anybody. I'm speaking from my heart--from the purity of my soul! I
wouldn't deny anything to good people! We thank you very humbly!
[Kisses.]
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The Boor
MRS. POPOV: [To SMIRNOV.] If Nikolai Michailovitch is indebted to
you, I shall, of course, pay you, but I am sorry, I haven't the money
to-day. To-morrow my manager will return from the city and I shall
notify him to pay you what is due you, but until then I cannot satisfy
your request. Furthermore, today is just seven months since the death
of my husband, and I am not in the mood to discuss money matters.
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Ivanoff
IVANOFF. I suppose I am. As an onlooker, of course you see me more
clearly than I see myself, and your judgment of me is probably right.
No doubt I am terribly guilty. [Listens] I think I hear the carriage
coming. I must get ready to go. [He goes toward the house and then
stops] You dislike me, doctor, and you don't conceal it. Your sincerity
does you credit. [He goes into the house.]
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The Lady of Lyons
Mel. Look you, our bond is over. Proud conquerors that we are, we
have won the victory over a simple girl compromised her honor--
embittered her life--blasted, in their very blossoms, all the flowers
of her youth. This is your triumph,--it is my shame!--by Bulwer-Lytton
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The Duchess de la Valliere
DUCHESS DE LA VALLIÈRE. /Hark! the deep sound,/ That seems a voice
from some invisible spirit,/ Claiming the world for God.--When last I
heard it/ Hallow this air, here stood my mother, living;/ And I--was
then a mother's pride!--and yonder/ Came thy brave brother in his
glittering mail;/
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MONEY: A Comedy IN FIVE ACTS
EVELYN. Ay, but can the world forget it? This insolent
condescension--this coxcombry of admiration-- more galling than the
arrogance of contempt!--Look you now--Robe Beauty in silk and
cachemire--hand Virtue into her chariot--lackey their caprices--wrap
them from the winds--fence them round with a golden circle--and Virtue
and Beauty are as goddesses, both to peasant and to prince. Strip them
of the adjuncts-- see Beauty and Virtue poor
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Not So Bad As We Seem
WILMOT. Price of Paradise Lost! Can't expect such prices for poetry
now-a-days, my dear Mr. Fallen. Nothing takes that is not sharp and
spicy. Hum! I hear you have some most interesting papers; private
Memoirs and Confessions of a Man of Quality recently deceased. Nay,
nay, Mr. Fallen; don't shrink back; I'm not like that shabby dog,
Tonson. Three hundred guineas for the Memoir of Lord Henry de Mowbray!
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RICHELIEU; OR, THE CONSPIRACY
DE MAUPRAT./The Egyptian Dissolved her richest jewel in a draught:/
Would I could so melt time and all its treasures,/ And drain it thus
(drinking).
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Walpole
What was it I said?--Oh,--the State and the Guelph, For their
safety, must henceforth depend on myself. The revolt, scarcely
quenched, has live sparks in its ashes; Nay, fresh seeds for combustion
were sown by its flashes. Each example we make dangerous pity
bequeathes; For no Briton likes blood in the air that he breathes.
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THE SEA-CAPTAIN; OR, THE
BIRTHRIGHT--Bulwer Lytton
Thou traitor! Hadst thou not five hundred broad pieces--bright, new,
gold broad pieces? I recollect the face of every one of them as if it
were my own child's;--and all, all that thou mightst never say to me
"He lives."
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Marco Millions
All these Mahometan figures remain motionless. Only their eyes move,
staring fixedly but indifferently at the POLOS, who are standing at
center. Marco is carrying in each hand bags which curiously resemble
modern sample cases. He sets these down and gazes around with a
bewildered awe.--by Eugene O'Neill
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Beyond The Horizon
MRS. ATKINS--Can't! It do make me mad, Kate Mayo, to see folks that
God gave all the use of their limbs to potterin' round and wastin' time
doin' every thing the wrong way--and me powerless to help and at their
mercy, you might say. And it ain't that I haven't pointed the right way
to 'em. I've talked to Robert thousands of times and told him how
things ought to be done. You know that, Kate Mayo.--by Eugene O'Neill
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The Emperor Jones
JONES [His hand going to his revolver like a ftash-menacingly]: Talk
polite, white man! Talk polite, you heah me! I'm boss heah now, is you
fergettin'? [The Cockney seems about to challenge this last statement
with the facts but something in the other's eyes holds and cows
him.]--by Eugene O'Neill
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Anna Christie
ANNA: Sure I do. Everything's been so different from anything I ever
come across before. And now--this fog--Gee, I wouldn't have missed it
for nothing. I never thought living on ships was so different from
land. Gee, I'd yust love to work on it, honest I would, if I was a man.
I don't wonder you always been a sailor.
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The Long Voyage Home
NICK--Not fur this ship, ole buck. The capt'n an' mate are bloody
slave-drivers, an' they're bound down round the 'Orn. They 'arf starved
the 'ands on the larst trip 'ere, an' no one'll dare ship on 'er.
[After a pause.} I promised the capt'n faithful I'd get 'im one, and
ter-night.
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The Hairy Ape
LONG--[As disgusted as he dares to be.] Ain't that why I brought yer
up 'ere--to show yer? Yer been lookin' at this 'ere 'ole affair wrong.
Yer been actin' an' talkin' 's if it was all a bleedin' personal matter
between yer and that bloody cow. I wants to convince yer she was on'y a
representative of 'er clarss. I wants to awaken yer bloody clarss
consciousness. Then yer'll see it's 'er clarss yer've got to fight, not
'er alone. There's a 'ole mob of 'em like 'er, Gawd blind 'em!
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The First Man
JOHN--[Indignantly.] I'm not. I think I've showed my willingness to
do everything I could. If Curt was only the least bit grateful! He
isn't. He hates us all and wishes we were out of his home. I would have
left long ago if I didn't want to do my part in saving the family name
from disgrace.
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BUSHES AND BRIARS
EMILY. Suitable? I'll suitable her. When shall my two hands find
time to sew me a gown out of it, I'd like to know? And if 'twas sewn,
when would my limbs find time to sit down within of it? [ Flinging it
down on the table.] Suitable? You can tell your mistress from me as she
can keep her gifts to herself if she can't do better nor this.
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MY MAN JOHN
CHRIS. And I'll take and lead you to a place what I do know of,
where the water flows clear as a diamond over the stones. And if you
bides there waiting quiet you may take the fish as they come along -
and there's a dinner such as the Queen might not get every day of the
week.
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The New Year
STEVE. Ah, 'twasn't much as we could do for the likes of she--what
was a regular roadster. Bad herbs, all of them. And if it hadn't been
so as 'twas my wedding eve, this one shouldn't have set foot inside of
the house. But 'tis a season when a man's took a bit soft and foolish,
like, the night afore his marriage. Bain't that so, George?
Zip Version
PRINCESS ROYAL
SUSAN. [Starting up and speaking passionately.] I'll not be taunted
for my dancing--I likes to dance wild, and leap with my body when my
spirit leaps, and fly with my limbs when my heart flies and move in the
air same as the birds do move when 'tis mating time.
Zip Version
THE SEEDS OF LOVE
JEREMY. Come now. Let's have a try. I count as no one have a
steadier hand nor me this side of the river, nor a finer eye for seeing
as everything be in its place. I'll settle the both of you afore I gets
out the horse and trap. Turn round.
Zip Version
French Lear, or The Beggar
King--Translated and adapted by F. J. Morlock
YOUNGEST DAUGHTER: You know very well, my father, that it is not
possible to find more eloquent and beautiful comparisons than those my
sister has spoken. I could repeat her words.
Zip Version
THE STENDHAL HAMLET
SCENARIOS--Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
Note: designs for an 1802 version of the play, very different from
what you might be familiar with.
Zip Version
LADY MACBETH by J. Le Sire
Note: Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
Zip Version
Falstaff: The Tavern Scene
This text, by Auguste Vacquerie and Paul Meurice "after W.
Shakespeare," was Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
Zip Version
Wilhelm Tell--Friedrich Von Schiller
GESSLER: Now, Tell! since at a hundred strides thou hitt'st An apple
from a tree, So thou wilt have To prove thine art to me -- Now take the
crossbow -- Thou hast it there at hand -- and make thee ready, To shoot
an apple from the young boy's head -- Yet I would counsel, aim it well,
that thou The apple hitt'st with the initial shot, For miss't thou it,
so is thine own head lost. (Translated by William F. Wertz, Jr.)
Zip Version
The Robbers
SPIEGEL. Honest, say you? Do you think you'll be less honest then
than you are now? What do you call honest? To relieve rich misers of
half of those cares which only scare golden sleep from their eyelids;
to force hoarded coin into circulation; to restore the equalization of
property; in one word, to bring back the golden age; to relieve
Providence of many a burdensome pensioner, and so save it the trouble
of sending war, pestilence, famine, and above all, doctors--that is
what I call honesty, d'ye see; that's what I call being a worthy
instrument in the hand of Providence
Zip Version
Fiesco
MOOR. The next are spies and informers--tools of importance to the
great, who from their secret information derive their own supposed
omniscience. These villains insinuate themselves into the souls of men
like leeches; they draw poison from the heart, and spit it forth
against the very source from whence it came.
Zip Version
Love and Intrigue
PRESIDENT (furiously). Insolent villain! Your impertinence shall
procure you a lodging in prison. (To his servants). Call in the
officers of justice! Away! (Some of the attendants go out. The
PRESIDENT paces the stage with a furious air.) The father shall to
prison; the mother and her strumpet daughter to the pillory! Justice
shall lend her sword to my rage! For this insult will I have ample
amends. Shall such contemptible creatures thwart my plans, and set
father and son against each other with impunity? Tremble, miscreants! I
will glut my hate in your destruction--the whole brood of you--father,
mother, and daughter shall be sacrificed to my vengeance!
Zip Version
The Camp of Wallenstein
CAPUCHIN./ Hurrah! halloo! tol, lol, de rol, le!/ The fun's at its
height! I'll not be away!/ Is't an army of Christians that join in such
works?/ Or are we all turned Anabaptists and Turks?/ Is the Sabbath a
day for this sport in the land,/ As though the great God had the gout
in his hand,/ And thus couldn't smite in the midst of your band?/
Zip Version
The Piccolomini -- Schiller [Translated
by S. T. Coleridge]
MAX./ 'Twas the first leisure of my life. O tell me,/ What is the
meed and purpose of the toil,/ The painful toil which robbed me of my
youth,/ Left me a heart unsouled and solitary,/ A spirit uninformed,
unornamented!/ For the camp's stir, and crowd, and ceaseless larum,/
Zip Version
The Death of Wallenstein--Schiller
[Translated by S. T. Coleridge]
WRANGEL./ Comprehend who can!/ My lord duke, I will let the mask
drop--yes!/ I've full powers for a final settlement./ The Rhinegrave
stands but four days' march from here/ With fifteen thousand men, and
only waits
Zip Version
Don Carlos
CARLOS./ Then let me first collect my scattered thoughts./ The alarm
of joy still trembles in my bosom./ Did I e'er lift my fondest hopes so
high,/ Or trust my fancy to so bold a flight?/ Show me the man can
learn thus suddenly/ To be a god. I am not what I was.
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Demetrius
DEMETRIUS./ Oh, take my thanks, ye reverend senators!/ That ye have
lent your credence to these proofs;/ And if I be indeed the man whom I/
Protest myself, oh, then, endure not this/ Audacious robber should
usurp my seat,/ Or longer desecrate that sceptre which/ To me, as the
true Czarowitsch, belongs./
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Mary Stuart
MARY./ O spare me, sir! No further. Spread no more/ Life's verdant
carpet out before my eyes,/ Remember I am wretched, and a prisoner./
Zip Version
The Maid of Orleans
BERTRAND./ E'en she, the mother-queen, proud Isabel/ Bavaria's
haughty princess--may be seen,/ Arrayed in armor, riding through the
camp;/ With poisonous words of irony she fires/ The hostile troops to
fury 'gainst her son,/ Whom she hath clasped to her maternal breast./
Zip Version
The Bride of Messina
This strife! bring peace again, or soon Messina/ Shall bow to other
lords." Your stern decree/ Prevailed; this heart, with all a mother's
anguish/ O'erlabored, owned the weight of public cares./ I flew, and at
my children's feet, distracted,/ A suppliant lay; till to my prayers
and tears/ The voice of nature answered in their breasts!/
Zip Version
Pygmalion
LIZA [as she goes out] Well, what I say is right. I wont go near the
king, not if I'm going to have my head cut off. If I'd known what I was
letting myself in for, I wouldnt have come here. I always been a good
girl; and I never offered to say a word to him; and I dont owe him
nothing; and I dont care; and I wont be put upon; and I have my
feelings the same as anyone else-- by George Bernard Shaw
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Mrs. Warren's Profession
PRAED. Well, in making you too conventional. You know, my dear Miss
Warren, I am a born anarchist. I hate authority. It spoils the
relations between parent and child; even between mother and daughter.
Now I was always afraid that your mother would strain her authority to
make you very conventional. It's such a relief to find that she hasnt.
Zip Version
You Never Can Tell
McCOMAS. Howled at! My dear good lady: there is nothing in any of
those views now-a-days to prevent her from marrying a bishop. You
reproached me just now for having become respectable. You were wrong: I
hold to our old opinions as strongly as ever. I don't go to church; and
I don't pretend I do. I call myself what I am: a Philosophic Radical,
standing for liberty and the rights of the individual, as I learnt to
do from my master Herbert Spencer.
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The Dark Lady of the Sonnets
THE LADY. [echoing him] Mary! Mary! Who would have thought that
woman to have had so much blood in her! Is it my fault that my
counsellors put deeds of blood on me? Fie! If you were women you would
have more wit than to stain the floor so foully. Hold not up her head
so: the hair is false. I tell you yet again, Mary's buried: she cannot
come out of her grave.
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MAJOR BARBARA
LADY BRITOMART. Charles Lomax's exertions are much more likely to
decrease his income than to increase it. Sarah will have to find at
least another £800 a year for the next ten years; and even then they
will be as poor as church mice. And what about Barbara? I thought
Barbara was going to make the most brilliant career of all of you. And
what does she do? Joins the Salvation Army; discharges her maid; lives
on a pound a week
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Caesar and Cleopatra
CLEOPATRA. Of course not: I am the Queen; and I shall live in the
palace at Alexandria when I have killed my brother, who drove me out of
it. When I am old enough I shall do just what I like. I shall be able
to poison the slaves and see them wriggle, and pretend to Ftatateeta
that she is going to be put into the fiery furnace.
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Man and Superman
OCTAVIUS. You see, under this new arrangement, you and Ramsden are
her guardians; and she considers that all her duty to her father is now
transferred to you. She said she thought I ought to have spoken to you
both in the first instance. Of course she is right; but somehow it
seems rather absurd that I am to come to you and formally ask to be
received as a suitor for your ward's hand.
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Captain Brassbound's Conversion
BRASSBOUND. Nervous, sir! no. Nervousness is not in my line. You
will find me perfectly capable of saying what I want to say--with
considerable emphasis, if necessary. (Sir Howard assents with a polite
but incredulous nod.)
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Augustus Does His Bit
AUGUSTUS. I did not know that I was talking to an imbecile. You
ought to be ashamed of yourself. There must be an end of this drunken
slacking. I'm going to establish a new order of things here. I shall
come down every morning before breakfast until things are properly in
train. Have a cup of coffee and two rolls for me here every morning at
half-past ten.
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Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress
STRAMMFEST [snatching the telephone and listening for the answer].
Speak louder, will you: I am a General I know that, you dolt. Have you
captured the officer that was with her?... Damnation! You shall answer
for this: you let him go: he bribed you. You must have seen him: the
fellow is in the full dress court uniform of the Panderobajensky
Hussars. I give you twelve hours to catch him or...what's that you say
about the devil?
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Great Catherine (Whom Glory Still
Adores)
CATHERINE [rising eagerly]. Yes, the museum. An enlightened capital
should have a museum. [She paces the chamber with a deep sense of the
importance of the museum.] It shall be one of the wonders of the world.
I must have specimens: specimens, specimens, specimens.
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The Inca of Perusalem
THE PRINCESS. Oh no: you mustn't think I want one. It's so
unpatriotic to want anything now, on account of the war, you know. I
sent my maid away as a public duty; and now she has married a soldier
and is expecting a war baby. But I don't know how to do without her.
I've tried my very best; but somehow it doesn't answer: everybody
cheats me; and in the end it isn't any saving. So I've made up my mind
to sell my piano and have a maid.
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O'Flaherty V.C.
O'FLAHERTY. If you'd been brought up by my mother, sir, you'd know
better than to joke about her. What I'm telling you is the truth; and I
wouldn't tell it to you if I could see my way to get out of the fix
I'll be in when my mother comes here this day to see her boy in his
glory, and she after thinking all the time it was against the English I
was fighting.
Zip Version
Heartbreak House
MANGAN [throwing himself into the chair distractedly]. My brain
won't stand it. My head's going to split. Help! Help me to hold it.
Quick: hold it: squeeze it. Save me. [Ellie comes behind his chair;
clasps his head hard for a moment; then begins to draw her hands from
his forehead back to his ears]. Thank you. [Drowsily]. That's very
refreshing. [Waking a little]. Don't you hypnotize me, though. I've
seen men made fools of by hypnotism.
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How He Lied to Her Husband
Now if you only knew the least little thing about the world, Henry,
you'd know that in a large family, though the sisters quarrel with one
another like mad all the time, yet let one of the brothers marry, and
they all turn on their unfortunate sister-in-law and devote the rest of
their lives with perfect unanimity to persuading him that his wife is
unworthy of him. They can do it to her very face without her knowing it
Zip Version
John Bull's Other Island
BROADBENT [scared and much upset]. On my word I believe I am, Miss
Reilly. If you say that to me again I shan't answer for myself: all the
harps of Ireland are in your voice. [She laughs at him. He suddenly
loses his head and seizes her arms, to her great indignation]. Stop
laughing: do you hear? I am in earnest-- in English earnest. When I say
a thing like that to a woman, I mean it.
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Arms and the Man
MAN. It's good enough for a man with only you to stand between him
and death. (As they look at one another for a moment, Raina hardly able
to believe that even a Servian officer can be so cynically and
selfishly unchivalrous, they are startled by a sharp fusillade in the
street. The chill of imminent death hushes the man's voice as he adds)
Do you hear? If you are going to bring those scoundrels in on me you
shall receive them as you are.
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The Devil's Disciple
RICHARD (seriously). Because it's true. I was brought up in the
other service; but I knew from the first that the Devil was my natural
master and captain and friend. I saw that he was in the right, and that
the world cringed to his conqueror only through fear. I prayed secretly
to him; and he comforted me, and saved me from having my spirit broken
in this house of children's tears.
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Overruled
JUNO. I sinned in intention. [Mrs. Juno abandons him and resumes her
seat, chilled]. I'm as guilty as if I had actually sinned. And I insist
on being treated as a sinner, and not walked over as if I'd done
nothing, by your wife or any other man.
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Androcles and the Lion
THE CAPTAIN (suddenly resuming his official tone) I call the
attention of the female prisoner to the fact that Christians are not
allowed to draw the Emperor's officers into arguments and put questions
to them for which the military regulations provide no answer. (The
Christians titter).
Zip Version
Preface to Androcles and the
Lion--George Bernard Shaw
All this will become clear if we read the gospels without prejudice.
When I was young it was impossible to read them without fantastic
confusion of thought. The confusion was so utterly confounded that it
was called the proper spirit to read the Bible in. Jesus was a baby;
and he was older than creation. He was a man who could be persecuted,
stoned, scourged, and killed; and he was a god, immortal and
all-powerful, able to raise the dead and call millions of angels to his
aid.
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Candida
MORELL. Scarlatina!--rubbish, German measles. I brought it into the
house myself from the Pycroft Street School. A parson is like a doctor,
my boy: he must face infection as a soldier must face bullets. (He
rises and claps Lexy on the shoulder.) Catch the measles if you can,
Lexy: she'll nurse you; and what a piece of luck that will be for
you!--eh?
Zip Version
The Man of Destiny
LADY. Thank you, General: I have no doubt the sensation is very
voluptuous; but I had rather not. I simply want to go home: that's all.
I was wicked enough to steal your despatches; but you have got them
back; and you have forgiven me, because (delicately reproducing his
rhetorical cadence) you are as generous to the vanquished after the
battle as you are resolute in the face of the enemy before it. Won't
you say good-bye to me? (She offers her hand sweetly.)
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The Doctor's Dilemma
WALPOLE [vindictively] I wish I had: I'd make a better man of you.
Now attend. [Shewing him the book] These are the names of the three
doctors. This is the patient. This is the address. This is the name of
the disease. [He shuts the book with a snap which makes the journalist
blink, and returns it to him]. Mr Dubedat will be brought in here
presently. He wants to see you because he doesnt know how bad he is.
We'll allow you to wait a few minutes to humor him; but if you talk to
him, out you go. He may die at any moment.
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The Doctor's Dilemma: Preface on
Doctors--George Bernard Shaw
In the first frenzy of microbe killing, surgical instruments were
dipped in carbolic oil, which was a great improvement on not dipping
them in anything at all and simply using them dirty; but as microbes
are so fond of carbolic oil that they swarm in it, it was not a success
from the anti-microbe point of view. Formalin was squirted into the
circulation of consumptives until it was discovered that formalin
nourishes the tubercle bacillus handsomely and kills men. The popular
theory of disease is the common medical theory: namely, that every
disease had its microbe duly created in the garden of Eden, and has
been steadily propagating itself and producing widening circles of
malignant disease ever since.
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The Philanderer
JULIA. I couldn't bear it any longer. Oh, to see them sitting there
at lunch together, laughing, chatting, making game of me! I should have
screamed out in another moment--I should have taken a knife and killed
her--I should have--(Cuthbertson appears with the luncheon bill in his
hand. He stuffs it into his waistcoat pocket as he comes to them. He
begins speaking the moment he enters.)
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Getting Married
COLLINS. Bless you, maam, theres all sorts of bonds between all
sorts of people. You are a very affable lady, maam, for a Bishop's
lady. I have known Bishop's ladies that would fairly provoke you to up
and cheek them; but nobody would ever forget himself and his place with
you, maam. --includes Preface
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Arms and the Man
Improved text, supersedes earlier version.
Zip Version
Fanny's First Play--George Bernard Shaw
MARGARET. No. I wish I had. I could have had the same experience in
better company. Please sit down, Monsieur Duvallet. [She sits between
the table and the sofa. Mrs Knox, overwhelmed, sits at the other side
of the table. Knox remains standing in the middle of the room].
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Press Cuttings
MITCHENER (intolerantly). No I wont hang it all. It's no use coming
to me and talking about public opinion. You have put yourself into the
hands of the army; and you are committed to military methods. And the
basis of all military methods is that when people wont do what they are
told to do, you shoot them down.
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The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet
BLANCO. Not they. Hanging's too big a treat for them to give up a
fair chance. Ive done it myself. Ive yelled with the dirtiest of them
when a man no worse than myself was swung up. Ive emptied my revolver
into him, and persuaded myself that he deserved it and that I was doing
justice with strong stern men. Well, my turn's come now.
Zip Version
Cashel Byron's Profession--George
Bernard Shaw
Alice went home from the castle expecting to find the household
divided between joy at her good-fortune and grief at losing her; for
her views of human nature and parental feeling were as yet pure
superstitions. But Mrs. Goff at once became envious of the luxury her
daughter was about to enjoy, and overwhelmed her with accusations of
want of feeling, eagerness to desert her mother, and vain love of
pleasure.
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Peer Gynt
For my part, may Ingrid of Hegstad go marry/whoever she pleases.
It's all one to me./[Looks down at his clothes.]/My breeches are torn./
am ragged and grim.-If only I had something new to put on now.--by
Henrik Ibsen
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A Doll's House
That is like a woman! But seriously, Nora, you know what I think
about that. No debt, no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty
about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt. We two have kept
bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for
the short time longer that there need be any struggle. --by Henrik
Ibsen
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Ghosts
Engstrand. And it was when your mother was in a nasty temper. I had
to find some way of getting my knife into her, my girl. She was always
so precious gentile. (Mimicking her.) "Let go, Jacob! Let me be! Please
to remember that I was three years with the Alvings at Rosenvold, and
they were people who went to Court! (Laughs.) --by Henrik Ibsen
Zip Version
An Enemy of the People
Hovstad. I am of humble origin, as you know; and that has given me
opportunities of knowing what is the most crying need in the humbler
ranks of life. It is that they should be allowed some part in the
direction of public affairs, Doctor. That is what will develop their
faculties and intelligence and self respect--
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The Lady From The Sea
Bolette. Yes! I think we live very much as the carp down there in
the pond. They have the fjord so near them, where the shoals of wild
fishes pass in and out. But the poor, tame house-fishes know nothing,
and they can take no part in that.
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Pillars of Society
There! I have given it him in earnest now; I don't think he will
forget that thrashing! What do you say?--And I say that you are an
injudicious mother! You make excuses for him, and countenance any sort
of rascality on his part--Not rascality? What do you call it, then?
Slipping out of the house at night, going out in a fishing boat,
staying away till well on in the day, and giving me such a horrible
fright when I have so much to worry me!
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Rosmersholm
Rosmer. I think it might be done. What happiness it would be to live
one's life, then! No more hateful strife--only emulation; every eye
fixed on the same goal; every man's will, every man's thoughts moving
forward-upward--each in its own inevitable path Happiness for all--and
through the efforts of all!
Zip Version
The Wild Duck
Hialmar. And if I am unreasonable once in a while, -- why then --
you must remember that I am a man beset by a host of cares. There,
there! (Dries his eyes.) No beer at such a moment as this. Give me the
flute
Zip Version
The Master Builder
HILDA. [Rises, half serious, half laughing.] No indeed, Mr. Solness!
What can be the good of that? No one but you should be allowed to
build. You should stand quite alone--do it all yourself. Now you know
it.
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When We Dead Awaken
ULFHEIM. Well, there's some one on the point of giving up the ghost,
then--in on corner or another.--People that are sickly and rickety
should have the goodness to see about getting themselves buried--the
sooner the better.
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Hedda Gabler
HEDDA. Indeed? [Looks at the address.] Why yes, it's addressed in
Aunt Julia's hand. Well then, he has remained at Judge Brack's. And as
for Eilert Lovborg--he is sitting, with vine leaves in his hair,
reading his manuscript.
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Little Eyolf
RITA. [Throwing her arms passionately round his neck.] For then, at
last, I should have you to myself alone! And yet--not even then! Not
wholly to myself! [Bursts into convulsive weeping.] Oh, Alfred,
Alfred--I cannot give you up!
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The Intriguing Chambermaid
Lett. With his Passion for your young Mistress, or rather her
Passion for him. I have been bantering him 'till he is in such a Rage
that I actually doubt whether he will not beat her or no.
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The Lottery
Love. Ha! by all that's infamous, she is in Keeping already; some
Bawd has made Prize of her as she alighted from the Stage-Coach.--While
she has been flying from my Arms, she has fallen into the Colonel's.
Zip Version
Love in Several Masques
Rattle. Pugh! there's a Rival, indeed! Besides, I am sensible that I
am the happy He whom she has chosen out of our whole Sex. She is stark
mad in Love, poor Soul! and let me alone when I have made an
Impression. I tell yee, Sirs, I have had Opportunities, I have had
Encouragements, I have had Kisses and Embraces, Lads; but, mum. Now, if
you tell one Word, Devil take me, if ever I trust you with a Secret
again.
Zip Version
Miss Lucy in Town
Hay. Ay, Madam, these Things would have drest your Ladyship very
well an hundred Years ago: But the Fashions are altered. Laced Pinners,
indeed! You must cut off your Hair, and get a little Perriwig, and a
French Cap; and instead of a great Watch, you must have one so small,
that it is impossible it should go; and--But come, this young Lady will
instruct You. Pray, Miss, wait on the Lady to her Apartment, and send
for proper Tradesmen to dress her; such as the fine Ladies use. Madam,
you shall be drest as you ought to be.
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Plutus
Poverty. Be assured I will absolutely destroy you, ye wicked
wretches, who have dared conceive such an insufferable and audacious
attempt; an attempt, which no one, at any time, either god or man, hath
ventured on: wherefore you may both conclude yourselves already
destroyed.
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The Wedding Day
Mil. Positively.--And, hearkee--tell the enraged fair One, she hath
made a double Conquest: Her Beauty got the better of my Reason, and now
her Anger hath got the better of my Love.--Give my humble Service to
her, and when she comes to herself again, tell her I am come to my
self.
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The Welsh Opera
Sweet. I take Love to be rather like a Mess of Pease-Porridge, where
tho' there are some bad Pease, there are more good ones; but then it is
unlike a Mess of Pease-Porridge, because there is this Difference
between a Man and a Pea, you may know a Pea by its Outside, you can't a
Man.
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The Miser
Mar. Ha, ha, ha! I shall die. Ha, ha, ha! You extravagant Creature,
how cou'd you throw away all this Jest at once; it wou'd have furnish'd
a prudent Person with an Annuity of Laughter for Life. Oh! I am charm'd
with my Conquest; I am quite in Love with him already. I never had a
Lover yet above half his Age.
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An Old Man Taught Wisdom
Coup. I tell him! I hate him for his barbarous Usage of you, to lock
up a young Lady of Beauty, Wit and Spirit, without ever suffering her
to learn to Dance? why Madam, not learning to Dance, is absolute ruin
to a young Lady. I suppose he took care enough you shou'd learn to
read.
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The Temple Beau
Val. Would I were.--To shew you I distrust not your Friendship, I'll
open my whole Breast to you. I had for almost two Years pursued that
other Lady, and after a long Series of Importunity, at last obtain'd
her Consent, and To-morrow was the appointed Day. But about a Month
since, the Lady whom I told you of in our way from the Park, came
hither; that I lik'd her, you'll easily believe; but by frequent
Conversation, the Disease possess'd my whole Mind. My Love for her, and
Aversion for my former Mistress, encreased daily
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Tom Thumb
Full title: THE TRAGEDY OF TRAGEDIES OR THE LIFE and DEATH OF Tom
Thumb the Great
Zip Version
Tumble-Down Dick
Full title: TUMBLE-DOWN DICK: OR, PHAETON in the SUDS. A Dramatick
Entertainment of Walking, in Serious and Foolish Characters:
Interlarded with Burlesque, Grotesque, Comick Interludes, CALL'D,
Harlequin a Pick-Pocket.
Zip Version
THE AUTHOR'S FARCE
Money. Yes, you told me of a play, and stuff: but you never told me
you would order a gentleman to pay me. A sweet, pretty, good-humoured
gentleman he is, heaven bless him! Well, you have comical ways with
you: but you have honesty at the bottom, and I'm sure the gentleman
himself will own I gave you that character.
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PASQUIN
Full title: PASQUIN; A DRAMATICK SATIRE ON THE TIMES BEING THE
REHEARSAL OF TWO PLAYS: VIZ., A COMEDY CALLED THE ELECTION, AND A
TRAGEDY CALLED THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COMMON SENSE.
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Rape Upon Rape
Full title: Rape upon Rape; OR, THE JUSTICE Caught in his own TRAP.
A COMEDY.
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Riders to the Sea
It is surely. There was a man in here a while ago -- the man sold us
that knife -- and he said if you set off walking from the rocks beyond,
it would be seven days you'd be in Donegal.
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The Playboy of the Western World
He gave a drive with the scythe, and I gave a lep to the east. Then
I turned around with my back to the north, and I hit a blow on the
ridge of his skull, laid him stretched out, and he split to the knob of
his gullet.
Zip Version
Deirdre of the Sorrows
I'll give you a riddle, Deirdre: Why isn't my father as ugly and old
as Conchubor? You've no answer? . . . . It's because Naisi killed him.
Zip Version
In the Shadow of the Glen
And what way will yourself live from this day, with none to care for
you? What is it you'll have now but a black life, Daniel Burke, and
it's not long I'm telling you, till you'll be lying again under that
sheet, and you dead surely.
Zip Version
The Well of the Saints
TIMMY -- [coming out, with a hammer, impatiently.] -- Do you want me
to be driving you off again to be walking the roads? There you are now,
and I giving you your food, and a corner to sleep, and money with it;
and, to hear the talk of you, you'd think I was after beating you, or
stealing your gold.
Zip Version
The Tinker's Wedding
MICHAEL. A poor way only, Sarah Casey, for it's the divil's job
making a ring, and you'll be having my hands destroyed in a short while
the way I'll not be able to make a tin can at all maybe at the dawn of
day.
Zip Version
In the Shadow of the Glen
Improved text, supersedes earlier version.
Zip Version
A Family Man
BUILDER. You can't irritate me more than by having secrets. See what
that led to in your sister's case. And, by the way, I'm going to put an
end to that this morning. You'll be glad to have her back, won't you?
Zip Version
Loyalties
TWISDEN. [Opening the envelope and reading] "All corroborates." H'm!
[He puts it in his pocket and takes out of an envelope the two notes,
lays them on the table, and covers them with a sheet of blotting-paper;
stands a moment preparing himself, then goes to the door of the
waiting- room, opens it, and says:] Now, Captain Dancy. Sorry to have
kept you waiting.
Zip Version
Windows
BLY. [Pausing--dipping his sponge in the pail and then standing with
it in his hand] Why! Don't you remember the Bly case? They sentenced
'er to be 'anged by the neck until she was dead, for smotherin' her
baby. She was only eighteen at the time of speakin'.
Zip Version
DEFEAT. A TINY DRAMA
YOUNG OFF. Oh, not a bit; you're quite out! I assure you when we
made the attack where I got wounded there wasn't a single man in my
regiment who wasn't an absolute hero. The way they went in--never
thinking of themselves--it was simply ripping.
Zip Version
THE FOUNDATIONS. (AN EXTRAVAGANT
PLAY)
LADY W. Well, thank heaven there's no "front" to a revolution. You
and I can go to glory together this time. Compact! Anything that's on,
I'm to abate in.
Zip Version
The Silver Box
MRS. BARTHWICK. Lady Holyrood told me: "I had her up," she said; "I
said to her, 'You'll leave my house at once; I think your conduct
disgraceful. I can't tell, I don't know, and I don't wish to know, what
you were doing. I send you away on principle; you need not come to me
for a character.' And the girl said: 'If you don't give me my notice,
my lady, I want a month's wages. I'm perfectly respectable. I've done
nothing.'"'--Done nothing!
Zip Version
The Eldest Son
KEITH. From human nature, I should have thought, John. I admit that
I don't like a fellow's leavin' a girl in the lurch; but I don't see
the use in drawin' hard and fast rules. You only have to break 'em. Sir
William and you would just tie Dunning and the girl up together,
willy-nilly, to save appearances, and ten to one but there'll be the
deuce to pay in a year's time. You can take a horse to the water, you
can't make him drink.
Zip Version
The Fugitive
CLARE. I have to find a new room anyway. I'm changing--to be safe.
[She takes a luggage ticket from her glove] I took my things to Charing
Cross--only a bag and one trunk. [Then, with that queer expression on
her face which prefaces her desperations] You don't want me now, I
suppose.
Zip Version
A Bit O'Love
GLADYS. 'Tisn't, winter now--Ascension Day. I saw her cumin' out o'
Dr. Desert's house. I know 'twas her because she had on a blue dress
an' a proud luke. Mother says the doctor come over here tu often before
Mrs. Strangway went away, just afore Christmas. They was old
sweethearts before she married Mr. Strangway. [To Ivy] 'Twas yure
mother told mother that.
Zip Version
THE FIRST AND THE LAST. A Drama In Three
Scenes
LARRY. A Polish girl. She--her father died over here when she was
sixteen, and left her all alone. There was a mongrel living in the same
house who married her--or pretended to. She's very pretty, Keith. He
left her with a baby coming. She lost it, and nearly starved. Then
another fellow took her on, and she lived with him two years, till that
brute turned up again and made her go back to him. He used to beat her
black and blue. He'd left her again when--I met her. She was taking
anybody then.
Zip Version
HALL-MARKED. A SATIRIC TRIFLE
THE SQUIRE. [Taking EDWARD by the collar, and holding his own nose]
Jove! Clever if he can smell anything but himself. Phew! She ought to
have the Victoria Cross for goin' in that pond.
Zip Version
Joy
MRS. HOPE. Molly says she'll be down by the eleven thirty. [In an
injured voice.] She'll be here in half an hour! [Reading with
disapproval from the letter.] "MAURICE LEVER is coming down by the same
train to see Mr. Henty about the Tocopala Gold Mine. Could you give him
a bed for the night?"
Zip Version
Justice
RUTH. I'd have gone home to my people in the country long ago, but
they've never got over me marrying Honeywill. I never was waywise, Mr.
Cokeson, but I'm proud. I was only a girl, you see, when I married him.
I thought the world of him, of course . . . he used to come travelling
to our farm.
Zip Version
THE LITTLE DREAM: An Allegory in
six Scenes
SEELCHEN. [Rising to her knees, and stretching out her hands with
ecstasy] Great One. I come! [Waking, she looks around, and struggles to
her feet] My little dream!
Zip Version
THE LITTLE MAN. A FARCICAL MORALITY
IN THREE SCENES
AMERICAN. Well, just watch my gestures. I was saying [He points to
the LITTLE MAN, then makes gestures of flying] you have an angel from
heaven there. You have there a man in whom Gawd [He points upward]
takes quite an amount of stock. You have no call to arrest him. [He
makes the gesture of arrest] No, Sir. Providence has acted pretty mean,
loading off that baby on him. [He makes the motion of dandling] The
little man has a heart of gold. [He points to his heart, and takes out
a gold coin.]
Zip Version
THE MOB. A Play in Four Acts
THE DEAN. [Trying to bring matters to a blander level] My dear
Stephen, even if you were right--which I deny--about the initial
merits, there surely comes a point where the individual conscience must
resign it self to the country's feeling. This has become a question of
national honour.
Zip Version
THE PIGEON. A Fantasy in Three Acts
H'MAN. [Receiving the coins--a little surprised and a good deal
pleased.] Thank'ee, sir. Much obliged, I'm sure. We'll 'ave to come
back for this. [He gives the dais a vigorous push with his foot .] Not
a fixture, as I understand. Perhaps you'd like us to leave these 'ere
for a bit. [He indicates the tea things.]
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PUNCH AND GO. A LITTLE COMEDY
FRUST. [In a cosmopolitan voice] "Orphoos with his loot!" That his
loot, Mr Vane? Why didn't he pinch something more precious? Has this
high-brow curtain-raiser of yours got any "pep" in it?
Zip Version
THE SKIN GAME
HILLCRIST. Well, when I sold Hornblower Longmeadow and the cottages,
I certainly found him all right. All the same, he's got the cloven
hoof. [Warming up] His influence in Deepwater is thoroughly bad; those
potteries of his are demoralising--the whole atmosphere of the place is
changing. It was a thousand pities he ever came here and discovered
that clay. He's brought in the modern cutthroat spirit.
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Strife
WILDER. [Breaking in fussily.] It's a regular mess. I don't like the
position we're in; I don't like it; I've said so for a long time.
[Looking at WANKLIN.] When Wanklin and I came down here before
Christmas it looked as if the men must collapse. You thought so too,
Underwood.
Zip Version
THE SUN. A SCENE
THE MAN. [Smiling] No fear! [He puts it away] Shan't 'ave no need
for it like as not. All right, little Daisy; you can't be expected to
see things like what we do. What's life, anyway? I've seen a thousand
lives taken in five minutes. I've seen dead men on the wires like flies
on a flypaper. I've been as good as dead meself a hundred times. I've
killed a dozen men. It's nothin'. He's safe, if 'e don't get my blood
up. If he does, nobody's safe; not 'im, nor anybody else; not even you.
I'm speakin' sober.
Zip Version
The Beggar's Opera
MATT. We retrench the Superfluities of Mankind. The World is
avaritious, and I hate Avarice. A covetous fellow, like a Jackdaw,
steals what he was never made to enjoy, for the sake of hiding it.
These are the Robbers of Mankind, for Money was made for the Free-
hearted and Generous--by John Gay
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Acis and Galatea
Consider, fond Shepherd,/ How fleeting's the Pleasure,/ That
flatters our Hopes,/ In pursuit of the Fair;/ The Joys that attend it,/
By Moments we measure,/ But Life is too little/ To measure our Care.
Zip Version
The Captives
Orba./ This over-zeal perhaps may give offence,/ The Prince is
treated like no common slave./ Phraortes strives to lessen his
affliction,/ Nor would he add a sigh to his distresses:/ Astarbe too
will talk to him whole hours/ With all the tender manners of her sex,
Zip Version
Dione
What do I see? No. Fancy mocks my eyes, And bids the dear deluding
vision rise. 'Tis she. My springing heart her presence feels. See,
prostrate Lycidas before thee kneels.
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The Distress'd Wife
Bart. I find you have the Use of your Reason when your Wife is not
by; consider yourself as a Man, and consider her as a Woman, and you
may have it then too.--You were born to Freedom, and would you seek to
make yourself a Slave? You were born to Fortune, and would you stoop to
make yourself a Beggar? For of all Beggars, I look upon a Minister's
Follower to be the meanest.
Zip Version
Rehearsal at Goatham
Jack Oaf is in the wrong. Indeed he is. I thought Will Gosling too
had a better Understanding. A Puppet-Shew is an innocent Thing.--Mr
Drone, if I remember, you declar'd your Opinion very frankly upon this
Point in t'other Room.
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The Mohocks
Thus far our Riots with Success are crown'd,/ Have found no stop, or
what they found o'ercame;/ In vain th' embattell'd Watch in deep
array,/ Against our Rage oppose their lifted Poles;/ Through Poles we
rush triumphant, Watchman rolls/ On Watchman; while their Lanthorns
kick'd aloft
Zip Version
Polly
Trapes. There it is now! Whoever heard a man of fortune in England
talk of the necessaries of life? If the necessaries of life would have
satisfy'd such a poor body as me, to be sure I had never come to mend
my fortune to the Plantations. Whether we can afford it or no, we must
have superfluities. We never stint our Expence to our own fortunes, but
are miserable, if we do not live up to the profuseness of our
neighbours.
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WERNER; OR, THE INHERITANCE: A
TRAGEDY
Wer./ I could not sleep--and now the hour's at hand! All's ready.
Idenstein has kept his word; And stationed in the outskirts of the
town, Upon the forest's edge, the vehicle Awaits us. Now the dwindling
stars begin
Zip Version
CAIN: A MYSTERY
Cain./ Why not?/ The snake spoke truth; it was the Tree of
Knowledge;/ It was the Tree of Life: knowledge is good,/ And Life is
good; and how can both be evil?/
Zip Version
The Deformed Transformed
Cæs. I tell thee, be not rash; a golden bridge Is for a flying
enemy. I gave thee A form of beauty, and an Exemption from some
maladies of body, But not of mind, which is not mine to give. But
though I gave the form of Thetis' son, I dipped thee not in Styx; and
'gainst a foe I would not warrant thy chivalric heart
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Heaven and Earth
Anah. But, Aholibamah, I love our God less since his angel loved me:
This cannot be of good; and though I know not That I do wrong, I feel a
thousand fears
Zip Version
Marino Faliero
Ber. F. Methinks, my Lord, 'tis better as it is: A sudden swelling
of our retinue Had waked suspicion; and, though fierce and trusty, The
vassals of that district are too rude And quick in quarrel to have long
maintained The secret discipline we need for such A service, till our
foes are dealt upon.
Zip Version
Sardanapalus
Salemenes (solus). He hath wronged his queen, but still he is her
lord; He hath wronged my sister--still he is my brother; He hath
wronged his people--still he is their sovereign-- And I must be his
friend as well as subject: He must not perish thus. I will not see
Zip Version
The Middle Class Gentleman
DORANTE: Monsieur Jourdain is right, Madame, to speak so, and he
obliges me by making you so welcome. I agree with him that the repast
is not worthy of you. Since it was I who ordered it, and since I do not
have the accomplishments of our friends in this matter, you do not have
here a very sophisticated meal, and you will find some incongruities in
the combinations and some barbarities of taste.
Zip Version
Amphitryon
SOS. What the deuce of a fellow is this? My heart thrills with
clutching fear. But why should I tremble thus? Perhaps the rogue is as
much afraid as I am, and talks in this way to hide his fear from me
under a feigned audacity. Yes, yes, I will not allow him to think me a
goose. If I am not bold, I will try to appear so. Let me seek courage
by reason; he is alone, even as I am
Zip Version
The Misanthrope
Alceste. No. My heart loathes you now, and this refusal alone
effects more than all the rest. As you are not disposed, in those sweet
ties, to find all in all in me, as I would find all in all in you,
begone, I refuse your offer, and this much-felt outrage frees me for
ever from your unworthy toils.
Zip Version
The Physician in Spite of
Himself
Sganarelle. The devil take me if I understand anything about
medicine! You are a gentleman, and I do not mind confiding in you, as
you have confided in me.
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The School for Wives
I declare I cannot rest anywhere; my mind is troubled by a thousand
cares, thinking how to contrive, both indoors and out, so as to
frustrate the attempts of this coxcomb. With what assurance the
traitress stood the sight of me! She is not a whit moved by all that
she has done, and though she has brought me within an inch of the
grave, one could swear, to look at her, that she had no hand in it.
Zip Version
The Miser
Frosine. Upon my word, need you ask? I should like it with all my
heart. You know that, naturally, I am kind-hearted enough. Heaven has
not given me a heart of iron, and I have only too much inclination for
rendering little services when I see people who love each other in all
decency and honour. What can we do in this matter?
Zip Version
THE LOVE DOCTOR--Translated/Adapted
by F. J. Morlock
SGANARELLE She died my friend. That loss is very painful to me, and
I cannot think back on it without weeping. I wasn't very satisfied with
her conduct -- and we often quarrelled with each other, but still,
death puts all things to right. She's dead; I weep for her. If she were
in life, we would be quarrelling. Of all the children that heaven gave
me, it left me only one daughter, and that daughter is all my trouble
for I see her in the most somber melancholy in the world in a dreadful
sadness whose cause I don't even know and there seems no way of
extracting her from it. As for me, I'm losing my wits and I need good
advice on this matter.
Zip Version
THE BLUNDERER: OR, THE COUNTERPLOTS.
PAND. Money, do you say? Oh! that is where the shoe pinches; that is
the secret of the whole affair! So much the worse for you. For my part,
I shall not trouble myself about it, but will go and lay an information
against this Mascarille, and if he can be caught he shall be hanged,
whatever the cost may be.
Zip Version
THE LOVE-TIFF.
MASC. No, I am not coming back, because I have not yet been where I
am going; nor am I going, for I am stopped; nor do I design to stay,
for this very moment I intend to be gone.
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THE PRETENTIOUS YOUNG LADIES
MASC. Some larceny of my heart; some massacre of liberty. I behold
here a pair of eyes that seem to be very naughty boys, that insult
liberty, and use a heart most barbarously. Why the deuce do they put
themselves on their guard, in order to kill any one who comes near
them? Upon my word! I mistrust them; I shall either scamper away, or
expect very good security that they do me no mischief.
Zip Version
SGANARELLE: OR THE SELF-DECEIVED
HUSBAND
SGAN. (Without seeing Celia). "O too happy mortal in having so
beautiful a wife!" Say rather, unhappy mortal in having such a
disgraceful spouse through whose guilty passion, it is now but too
clear, I have been cuckolded without any feeling of compassion. Yet I
allow him to go away after such a discovery, and stand with my arms
folded like a regular silly-billy! I ought at least to have knocked his
hat off, thrown stones at him, or mud on his cloak; to satisfy my wrath
I should rouse the whole neighbourhood, and cry, "Stop, thief of my
honour!"
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THE BORES.
ORPH. I really must laugh, and declare that you are very silly to
trouble yourself thus. The man of whom you speak, far from being able
to please me, is a bore of whom I have succeeded in ridding myself; one
of those troublesome and officious fools who will not suffer a lady to
be anywhere alone, but come up at once, with soft speech, offering you
a hand against which one rebels.
Zip Version
THE SCHOOL FOR HUSBANDS
SGAN. You know well enough what I wish to speak to you about. To
tell you plainly, I thought you had more sense. You have been making
fun of me with your fine speeches, and secretly nourish silly
expectations. Look you, I wished to treat you gently; but you will end
by making me very angry. Are you not ashamed, considering who you are,
to form, such designs as you do? to intend to carry off a respectable
girl, and interrupt a marriage on which her whole happiness depends?
Zip Version
Don Garcia of Navarre
EL. To speak my mind freely to you, I am not much astonished at
anything the Prince may do; for it is very natural, and I cannot
disapprove of it, that a soul inflamed by a noble passion should become
exasperated by jealousy, and that frequent doubts should cross his mind
: but what surprises me, Don Lopez, is to hear that you keep alive his
suspicions; that you are the contriver of them; that he is sad only
because you wish it, jealous only because he looks at everything with
your eyes. I repeat it, Don Lopez, I do not wonder that a man who is
greatly in love becomes suspicious.
Zip Version
The Miser
Note: Wall translation.
Zip Version
Monsieur de Pourceaugnac
2ND PHY. Heaven forbid, Sir, that it should enter my thoughts to
add anything to what you have just been saying! You have discoursed too
well on all the signs, symptoms, and causes of this gentleman's
disease. The arguments you have used are so learned and so delicate
that it is impossible for him not to be mad and hypochondriacally
melancholic; or, were he not, that he ought to become so, because of
the beauty of the things you have spoken, and of the justness of your
reasoning. Yes, Sir, you have graphically depicted, graphice
depinxisti, everything that appertains to this disease.
Zip Version
The Magnificent Lovers
CLI. Yes; I wager that I will guess presently whom you love. I have
some secrets, as well as our astrologer with whom the Princess
Aristione is so infatuated; and if his science makes him read in the
stars the fate of men, I have the science of reading in the eyes of
people the names of those they love. Hold up your head a little, and
open your eyes wide. E, by itself, E; r, i, ri, Eri; p, h, y, phy,
Eriphy; l, e, le, Eriphyle. You are in love with the Princess Eriphyle.
Zip Version
The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman
MR. JOUR. That confounded tailor makes me wait a long time on a day
like this, when I have so much business to attend to. I am furious. May
the deuce fly away with the tailor! May the plague choke the tailor!
May the ague shake that brute of a tailor! If I had him here now, that
rascally tailor, that wretch of a tailor, I....
Zip Version
Psyche
Note: TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE. WITH SHORT INTRODUCTIONS AND
EXPLANATORY NOTES
Zip Version
The Countess of Escarbagnas
COUN. Long live Paris! It is only there that one is well waited
upon; there a glance is enough.
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SAMSON, An opera by Voltaire
SAMSON: What a sight of horror!/ What, these proud children of
error/ Have brought these monsters they adore amongst you?/ God of
battles, look in your furor,/ The unworthy rivals that our tyrants
implore./ Support my zeal, inspire me/ Avenge your cause, avenge
yourself./
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PANDORA, By VOLTAIRE
PANDORA: (noticing Prometheus in the midst of the nymphs)/ What
object attracts my eyes!/ Of all that I see in these pleasant parts/
It's you, it's you, no question, to whom I owe life. / My soul is
filled with the fire from your glances;/ You seem still to vivify me.
Zip Version
THE TWO WINE CASKS: Sketch of a comic
opera by Voltaire
GREGOIRE: Little girl,/ Tremble as this mystery may be revealed;/
It's the secret of the gods, beware not to repeat it/ As soon as it is
told. / Learn that one dies the death quickly./ Cease your over-free
speeches,/ Contain your cursed tongue,/
Zip Version
THE TEMPLE OF GLORY, AN OPERA
Note: By VOLTAIRE Translated and adapted by Frank J. Morlock
Zip Version
Pandore--Opera, par Voltaire
PROMETHEE./ Je veux servir la terre, et non pas l'opprimer./ Hélas,
à cet objet j'ai donné la naissance,/ Et je demande en vain qu'il
s'anime, qu'il pense./ Qu'il soit heureux, qu'il sache aimer./
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Samson--par Voltaire
SAMSON./ Vous que le ciel console après des maux si grands,/
Peuples, osez paraître aux palais des tyrans:/ Sonnez, trompette,
organe de la gloire;/ Sonnez, annoncez ma victoire.
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TANIS AND ZELIDE
TANIS: (entering) Is it possible O God!/ Phanor dares to attempt/ To
expose your beautiful life to our haughty enemies!/ What would you go
to do,/ Alas! On the ramparts of Memphis?/ What fate can you expect
there?/
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SARDANAPALUS By Henri Becque
I took up the sword for your glory,/ Priest and soldier of your
altars,/ You hold victory in your hand,/ You've given it to criminals.
Zip Version
THE KNIGHTS OF THE DAFFODIL--JULES
VERNE
GUERFROID: One moment! Let's do this by the rules, because the thing
is serious. (he takes off his hat and coat and secures a stick in his
hand) Hold yourself on the side, Landry, you are going to judge the
hits. (low) He's going to ask mercy of me, he's going to see how I act.
Zip Version
THE BARON OF OTRANTO: An Opera Buffa
BARON: One must deserve such a perfect love;/ Thus as my fate
changes in a single day,/ Irene and my destiny awakes my courage./ (to
his vassals who appear, armed)/ Friends, sword in hand, let's beat out
a passage/ To our own hearths, ravished by these brigands.
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ARMIDA--Quinault
HIDRAOT: Armida is even more loveable/ Than she is formidable./ How
glorious is her triumph!/ Her charms are greater than those of her
beautiful eyes./ She has no need to borrow it from the terrible art/
That she knows, when it pleases her, to cause hell to arm./ Her beauty
finds everything possible./ Our proudest enemies quake in her fetters.
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AMADIS By QUINAULT
CORISANDE: Since heaven doesn't permit me/ To live with you in
extreme happiness,/ Death itself, with you,/ Appeals to me./ The
sweetness of dying with the one I love/ Mollifies the horror of death./
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ISIS By Quinault
HIERAX: Let's stop loving an unfaithful woman./ Let's avoid the
cruel shame/ Of serving, of adoring one who no longer loves us./ Let's
finish breaking the chains that she has broken./ Let's disengage
ourselves, let's leave such a funereal empire./ Alas! Despite myself I
am sighing./ Ah, my heart, what cowardice!
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ATYS By Quinault
IRIS: (speaking to Melpomene) Cybele wants Flora to second you
today./ Pleasures must come from every where/ In the mighty empire
where a new Mars reigns./ They have no other asylum in the world./ Make
yourself, if you can, worthy of his notice./
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THE ADOPTIVE SON--By Jules Verne and
Charles Wallut
BARON: He shall wait, sir, and I don't think he will be dishonored
by waiting. Gentlemen, in the ninth century, one of my ancestors,
Renaud d'Entremouillettes, was the Senechal of King Louis the Meek--
that means supervisor of the Royal Mansion.
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MR. CHIMPANZEE: Operetta in one
act--Jules Verne
ISIDORE: (alone) Ouf! (he takes off his mask furtively after first
having made some ape like gambols) I'm suffocating! How hot the apes
must be! You see what love has reduced me to! To abdicate my dignity as
a man! It seems to me that I am itching all over! Etamine! Etamine! At
last I am going to speak to you and see you! Mr. Van Carcass had always
shown me the door. Once I learned that he was expecting a monkey from
Brazil, I didn't hesitate to dress in this chimpanzee outfit! But let's
behave well and not be too nasty, for fear they'll chain us up! Let's
have good manners to keep our freedom. Oof! It's not easy, in this
thing! I don't know how the monkeys stand it.
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ROLAND: A tragedy--Quinault
ROLAND: (alone) I am betrayed! Who could have believed it?/ O
heaven! I am betrayed by the beautiful ingrate/ For whom love made me
betray my glory./ O sweet hope with which I was enchanted,/ In what
abyss have you hurled me?/ Witnesses of an odious passion,/ You have
too greatly wounded my eyes./
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FRANCOIS VILLON--M. Got
VILLON: (throwing Gauthier's cap on the ground)/ Say who's coming
back to you/ And hats off before these rich men!/ It's I who will pay
for everybody! (he gives money to Gauthier)/ I've got an appetite!
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SAPHO: An Opera
SAPHO: In this nation that greets me/ It's you alone that I see;/
In the shouts of the agitated crowd/ I hear only your voice, Phaon./
Zip Version
ALCESTIS By Quinault
NYMPH OF THE TUILERIES: Art agrees with nature/ To serve love in
these charming parts./ These waters which cause dreaming with such
sweet/ murmurs,/ These lawns where flowers form so many decorations,/
These fields, these beds of green,/ Everything is made for lovers.
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CADMUS AND HERMIONE By Quinault
CADMUS: Well! I will perish if destiny decrees it;/ I intend to
deliver Hermione,/ And if I undertake it in vain/ I won't know a better
destiny to perish for./ Where are our Africans? Let their troupe
advance./ The princess wants to see their most gallant dance./ Why is
it only one of them appears?
Zip Version
DEATH OF CAESAR By Voltaire
CAESAR: Never mind, I'm his father./ I've cherished, I've saved my
greatest enemies./ I intend to make myself loved by Rome and by my
son;/ And conquering vanquished hearts through my clemency/ To see the
earth and Brutus adore my power./ It's up to you to assist me in such
great plans;/
Zip Version
SCANDERBERG--A Tragedy
Note: Words by M. De La Mothe Music by M. Rebel and M. Francoeur
Ballets by Laval pere and fils
Zip Version
HERCULES DYING, BY MARMONTEL
JEALOUSY: No, no, in the whole of nature,/ Everyone happy is my
rival./ I would like for the Sun to darken the light/ Of Alcidas, as
shivering I admire his labors./ The happiness of Deijaneira/ Revolts
me, tears me apart.
Zip Version
PERSEUS, By QUINAULT
CEPHEUS: The Gods punish pride./ It's not grandeur that irritated
heaven/ Abases when it wishes and reduces to ashes,/ But a prompt
repentance/ Can stop the lightning bolt/ Ready to descend.
Zip Version
RUSTIC AMOURS, A Pastoral By Favart
DAMON: What stupidity!/ Pain exceeds the pleasure./ With us the
vainest beauty/ Answers to our first sigh,/ Pleasure exceeds the pain./
I intend to adorn her heart,/ To lead away the shepherdess;/
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PENELOPE, By Marmontel
PENELOPE: (in fright and distress)/ It's over with. Death surrounds
him./ Today, Nesus alone could/ Save him, defend him, and Nesus is
abandoning him! Ah! if there's still time, go, my darling Theone,/
Implore his support,
Zip Version
CASTOR AND POLLUX, By Rameau and
Bernard, An Opera
POLLUX: No, stay, Castor, it's I who order you to./ Love and
friendship impose the law on you./ Calm the unease into which your
soul's abandoning itself./ To keep you near me,/ The hand that owes
faith to me/ Is the chain that I am giving you.
Zip Version
ZENEIDA BY M. DE CAHUSAC
ZENEIDA: I also really noticed it,/ Anyway, what he told me, quite
hushed,/ --All men don't have this tender and timid air./
Zip Version
DIDO, By Marmontel, Music by Piccini
DIDO: Let him lose a vain hope./ Faithful to my choice, without
retraction,/ I see with indifference/ Both his love and his wrath./
Zip Version
A Woman of No Importance
LADY HUNSTANTON. Politics are in a sad way everywhere, I am told.
They certainly are in England. Dear Mr. Cardew is ruining the country.
I wonder Mrs. Cardew allows him. I am sure, Lord Illingworth, you don't
think that uneducated people should be allowed to have votes?
Zip Version
An Ideal Husband
MABEL CHILTERN. How can you say such a thing? Why, he rides in the
Row at ten o'clock in the morning, goes to the Opera three times a
week, changes his clothes at least five times a day, and dines out
every night of the season. You don't call that leading an idle life, do
you?
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The Decay of Lying
VIVIAN. Please don't interrupt in the middle of a sentence. "He
either falls into careless habits of accuracy, or takes to frequenting
the society of the aged and the wellinformed. Both things are equally
fatal to his imagination, as indeed they would be fatal to the
imagination of anybody, and in a short time he develops a morbid and
unhealthy faculty of truthtelling, begins to verify all statements made
in his presence
Zip Version
A Florentine Tragedy--A Fragment (and
other works)
SIMONE. My good wife, you come slowly; were it not better/To run to
meet your lord? Here, take my cloak./Take this pack first. 'Tis heavy.
I have sold nothing:/Save a furred robe unto the Cardinal's son,/Who
hopes to wear it when his father dies,/And hopes that will be soon.
Zip Version
Lady Windermere's Fan
LADY WINDERMERE. There is not a GOOD woman in London who would not
applaud me. We have been too lax. We must make an example. I propose to
begin to-night. [Picking up fan.] Yes, you gave me this fan to-day; it
was your birthday present. If that woman crosses my threshold, I shall
strike her across the face with it.
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Salome
THE YOUNG SYRIAN: She has a strange look. She is like a little
princess who wears a yellow veil, and whose feet are of silver. She is
like a princess who has little white doves for feet. One might fancy
she was dancing.
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Vera, or the Nihilists
GENERAL: Why, five years ago, when I was a plain Colonel, I remember
her, your Highness, a common waiting-girl in an inn. If I had known
then what she was going to turn out, I would have flogged her to death
on the roadside. She is not a woman at all, she is a sort of devil! For
the last eighteen months I have been hunting her, and caught sight of
her once last September outside Odessa.
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The Duchess of Padua
DUCHESS/Alas, my Lord,/Such common things as neither you nor I,/Nor
any of these noble gentlemen,/Have ever need at all to think
about;/They say the bread, the very bread they eat,/Is made of sorry
chaff.
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For Love of the King
"The price is nothing. Have I not looked on my heart's beloved one
for five years--looked on his face--heard his voice--trembled with joy
at his footsteps? Have I not waited and watched? Have I not gazed on my
sons and seen their royal bearing, and known their touch?"
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LA SAINTE COURTISANE
Full title: LA SAINTE COURTISANE, or, THE WOMAN COVERED WITH JEWELS
Zip Version
Intentions--Oscar Wilde
ERNEST. Well, while you have been playing, I have been turning over
the pages with some amusement, though, as a rule, I dislike modern
memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely
lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering;
which, however, is, no doubt, the true explanation of their popularity,
as the English public always feels perfectly at its ease when a
mediocrity is talking to it.
Zip Version
THE TURKISH APPLE A parade--Thomas
Gueulette
Note: Translated and adapted by Frank Morlock
Zip Version
THE COURIER FROM MILAN. A PARADE
ISABELLE: Come then, Harlequin, I'm a reasonable girl, who will
never do anything against her honor, but Hell, it is really irritating
not to be able to have the least diversion, and to be locked up like a
poor dog on a leash, and I am quite sure that you won't have such a
rigorous rigor for me; you are too reasonable and too polite for that.
Zip Version
THE SHIT SELLER By T. Gueulette
GILLES: By Jove, now here's something admirable! I wouldn't have
believed it if I hadn't seen it. Come on, now that's what's done. I
will make myself a seller of shit. I was seeking a profession, this one
isn't difficult, I will be master at once, and Catin will have nothing
to reproach me with. Mr. Harlequin, I am much obliged to you.
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PREGNANT WITH VIRTUE By T. Gueullete
CASSANDRE: What? Is it because you notice that my daughter is
pregnant that you would like to break it off?
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CHASTE ISABELLE A Parade By Thomas
Gueulette
ISABELLE: (alone) And from the two of them! My dear lover will no
longer reproach me with not knowing how to earn my bread. For we have
wherewithal to do it. But isn't that him I see coming?
Zip Version
COLIN AND COLETTE By Beaumarchais
COLETTE: (excitedly) Go, ingrate! Don't ever show yourself to my
eyes again. I am going to flee the places where I might meet you, and I
abandon to my rival all the rights that I had over your heart.
Zip Version
THE FORTY THIEVES: A GRAND
MELO-DRAMATIC ROMANCE
Ali. [Calling.] Why, Ganem! I say, faster, you rogue, faster! I
thought to have cut a score or two of good logs by this time. Why,
Ganem, I say! zounds! do you get on, at all events. [Beating the ass.]
You've gone the road often enough to know it.
Zip Version Drama/Richard
Brinsley Sheridan
THE CAMP
Then should our vaunting enemies come,/ And winds and waves their
cause allow,/ By freedom's flag we'll beat our drum,/ And they'll fly
from the sound of our row, dow, dow./ Row, dow, dow,
Zip Version
The CRITIC, OR A Tragedy Rehearsed
SNEER. Most obligingly communicative indeed; and your confession if
published, might certainly serve the cause of true charity, by rescuing
the most useful channels of appeal to benevolence from the cant of
imposition.--But surely, Mr. Puff, there is no great mystery in your
present profession?
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THE DUENNA
Jerome. Very well, ma'am, then mark me--never more will I see or
converse with you till you return to your duty-- no reply--this and
your chamber shall be your appartments, I never will stir out without
leaving you under lock and key, and when I'm at home no creature can
approach you but thro' my library--we'll try who can be most
obstinate-- out of my sight--There remain till you know your duty.
Zip Version
The Governess
Don Ped. What is all this scraping, fiddling, and serenading! --I
desire I may have no more of it.--And what have you been about,
sir?--disturbing some honest family in the same manner, I suppose!
Sophia, to-morrow, child, I have determined you shall marry Enoch
Issachar; and then--
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Pizarro
Ata. (Draws his sword.) Now, my brethren, my sons, my friends, I
know your valour.-- Should ill success assail us, be despair the last
feeling of your hearts.--If successful, let mercy be the first. Alonzo,
to you I give to defend the narrow passage of the mountains. On the
right of the wood be Rolla's station. For me, strait forwards will I
march to meet them, and fight until I see my people saved, or they
behold their Monarch fall. Be the word of battle --God! and our native
land. (A march.)
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The Rivals
Mrs. Mal. You thought, Miss!--I don't know any business you have to
think at all--thought does not become a young woman; the point we would
request of you is, that you will promise to forget this fellow--to
illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory. (Note: all the
webmaster's mis-typings on own message board have just been explained
by genetics.)
Zip Version
St. PATRICK'S DAY; OR, THE SCHEMING
LIEUTENANT
Bri. No, give me a husband that knows where his limbs are, though he
want the use of them--and if he should take you with him--to sleep in a
baggage cart, and stroll about the camp like a gipsey, with a knapsack
and two children at your back--then by way of entertainment in the
evening, to make a party with the Serjeants wife, to drink bohea tea,
and play at all fours on a drumhead, 'tis a precious life to be sure.
Zip Version
A TRIP TO SCARBOROUGH
Y. Fashion. Thou say'st true; for there's that fop now has not, by
nature, wherewithal to move a cook maid: and by the time these fellows
have done with him, egad he shall melt down a Countess--but now for my
reception.
Zip Version
Memoirs of the Life of the Rt. Hon.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan V1--Thomas Moore
Mr. Sheridan was now approaching the summit of his dramatic
fame;--he had already produced the best opera in the language, and
there now remained for him the glory of writing also the best comedy.
As this species of composition seems, more, perhaps, than any other, to
require that knowledge of human nature and the world which experience
alone can give, it seems not a little extraordinary that nearly all our
first-rate comedies should have been the productions of very young men.
Those of Congreve were all written before he was five-and-twenty.
Zip Version
Life of Sheridan, Vol 2--Thomas Moore
Full title: Memoirs of the Life of Rt. Hon. Richard Brinsley
Sheridan Vol 2
Zip Version
SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE ADVENTURE OF
THE MULBERRY STREET IRREGULAR
Note: From an original story by Frank J. Morlock
Zip Version
The Adventure of Merlin's Tomb
Note: Dramatized by Frank J. Morlock from an original story by.
Sherlock Holmes meets Father Brown!
Zip Version
Sherlock Holmes and the Grand
Horizontals.--FRANK J. MORLOCK
Liane: You see he is not married, and being an absolute
autocrat--there is nothing to prevent him marrying me--which I expect
he will do-- therefore, I refuse to become his mistress. Then when
these murders began, the Duke, who is, one must admit, a bit perverted,
began to show a little interest in Caroline. A slight interest from a
romantic point of view--you see, the Duke loves danger.
Zip Version
THE REAL SHERLOCK HOLMES
Note: Dramatized from an original story by Frank J. Morlock
Zip Version
THE MAN WHO FELL FROM HEAVEN
Note: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery By Frank J. Morlock
Zip Version
The Double-Dealer
LORD TOUCH. I don't believe it true; he has better principles. Pho,
'tis nonsense. Come, come, I know my Lady Plyant has a large eye, and
would centre everything in her own circle; 'tis not the first time she
has mistaken respect for love, and made Sir Paul jealous of the
civility of an undesigning person, the better to bespeak his security
in her unfeigned pleasures.
Zip Version
The Way of the World
LADY. With Mirabell? You call my blood into my face with mentioning
that traitor. She durst not have the confidence. I sent her to
negotiate an affair, in which if I'm detected I'm undone. If that
wheedling villain has wrought upon Foible to detect me, I'm ruined. O
my dear friend, I'm a wretch of wretches if I'm detected.
Zip Version
The Old Bachelor
SIR JO. Um--Ay, this, this is the very damned place; the inhuman
cannibals, the bloody-minded villains, would have butchered me last
night. No doubt they would have flayed me alive, have sold my skin, and
devoured, etc.
Zip Version
Incognita
Here Aurelian contracted an acquaintance with Persons of Worth of
several Countries, but among the rest an intimacy with a Gentleman of
Quality of Spain, and Nephew to the Archbishop of Toledo, who had so
wrought himself into the Affections of Aurelian, through a Conformity
of Temper, an Equality in Years, and something of resemblance in
Feature and Proportion, that he look'd upon him as his second self.
Zip Version
Love for Love
FORE. What, would you be gadding too? Sure, all females are mad
to-day. It is of evil portent, and bodes mischief to the master of a
family. I remember an old prophecy written by Messahalah the Arabian,
and thus translated by a reverend Buckinghamshire bard:-
Zip Version
The Elevator
MRS. CRASHAW: "It's very fortunate that we are all here together. I
ought to have been here half an hour ago, but I was kept at home by an
accident to my finery, and before I could be put in repair I heard it
striking the quarter past. I don't know what my niece will say to me. I
hope you good people will all stand by me if she should be violent."
Zip Version
The Parlor-Car
MISS GALBRAITH: "Oh, DEAR, how provoking! I suppose I must call the
porter." She rises from her seat, but on attempting to move away she
finds that the skirt of her polonaise has been caught in the falling
window. She pulls at it, and then tries to lift the window again, but
the cloth has wedged it in, and she cannot stir it. "Well, I certainly
think this is beyond endurance! Porter! Ah,--Porter!
Zip Version
The Register
RANSOM: "Then something happened that made me glad, for twenty-four
hours at least, that I hadn't spoken. She sent me the money for
twenty-five lessons. Imagine how I felt, Grinnidge! What could I
suppose but that she had been quietly biding her time, and storing up
her resentment for my having told her she couldn't learn to paint, till
she could pay me back with interest in one supreme insult?"
Zip Version
The Albany Depot--W. D. Howells
Campbell: "There's a respectable butter-ball over in the corner by
the window there. You'd better go and speak to her. She's got a gingham
bundle, like a cook's, in her lap, and she keeps looking about in a
fidgety way, as if she expected somebody. I guess that's your woman,
Roberts. Better not let her give you the slip. You'll never hear the
last of it from Agnes if you do. And who'll get our dinner to-night?"
Zip Version
The City Heiress
Sir Charles, thanks to Heaven, you may be leud, you have a plentiful
Estate, may whore, drink, game, and play the Devil: your Uncle, Sir
Anthony Meriwill, intends to give you all his Estate too. But for such
Sparks as this, and my Fop in Fashion here, why, with what Face,
Conscience, or Religion, can they be leud and vitious, keep their
Wenches, Coaches, rich Liveries, and so forth, who live upon Charity,
and the Sins of the Nation?-- by Aprah Behn
Zip Version
THE VAMPIRE BY CHARLES NODIER
Rutwen Stop! Lovette, let your sight console me a moment for all
that I have lost. I want to delight my spirit in fancies of a happiness
that no longer exists. I want to believe myself for a moment to be your
spouse--believe yourself for a moment with Edgar. Don't refuse me this
sweet illusion. I will have nothing more to do than to die.
Zip Version
Cyrano de Bergerac
'Tis enormous!/Old Flathead, empty-headed meddler, know/That I am
proud possessing such appendice./'Tis well known, a big nose is
indicative/Of a soul affable, and kind, and courteous,--by Edmond
Rostand
Zip Version
The School For Scandal
SIR BENJAMIN. Nay now--you are severe upon the widow--come--come, it
isn't that she paints so ill--but when she has finished her Face she
joins it on so badly to her Neck, that she looks like a mended Statue,
in which the Connoisseur sees at once that the Head's modern tho' the
Trunk's antique----by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Zip Version
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
ROSENCRANTZ / To sleep, perchance to --/Dream. /That's very true. I
never dream myself. /But Guildenstern dreams all night long out loud.
--by W.S. Gilbert, of Gilbert &Sullivan fame.
Zip Version
All For Love
CLEOPATRA./I am no queen:/Is this to be a queen, to be besieged By
yon insulting Roman, and to wait/Each hour the victor's chain? These
ills are small:/For Antony is lost, and I can mourn/For nothing else
but him. Now come, ctavius,/I have no more to lose! prepare thy bands;
Zip Version
A Blot In The 'Scutcheon
MERTOUN. Oh, Mildred, have I met your brother's face?/Compelled
myself--if not to speak untruth,/Yet to disguise, to shun, to put
aside/The truth, as--what had e'er prevailed on me/Save you to venture?
Have I gained at last/Your brother, the one scarer of your dreams,
Zip Version
If
BILL/Well, anyway, I won't let any more of/them passengers go
jumping into trains any/ more, not when they're moving, I won't./ When
the train gets in, doors shut. /That's the rule. And they'll 'ave to
abide by it.--by Edward James Plunkett (Lord Dunsany)
Zip Version
FOGGERTY'S FAIRY
REBECCA [looking at FOGGERTY]. Well, it's about time to wake him.
Poor fellow, he little thinks how materially his acquaintance with Miss
Spiff has affected his subsequent adventures! Now that he has
obliterated her and all the complicated consequences that came of his
having known her, he won't know whether he's on his head or his heels.
I'm really rather sorry for him. --by W.S. Gilbert
Zip Version
Chastelard, a tragedy
QUEEN./A maid may have kissed cheeks/And no shame in them--yet one
would not swear./You have sworn that. /Pray God he be not mad:/A
sickness in his eyes. The left side love/(I was told that) and the
right courtesy.--by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Zip Version
Box and Cox
Cox. It is not the case only with the coals, Mrs. Bouncer, but I've
lately observed a gradual and steady increase of evaporation among my
candles, wood, sugar and lucifer matches. --by John Maddison Morton,
Esq.
Zip Version
THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE, AN
HISTORIC DRAMA
Robespierre. What? did La Fayette fall before my power?/And did I
conquer Roland's spotless virtues?/The