The Complete Plays of J. M. Barrie - 30 Titles in One Edition. Джеймс Барри
several good places.
DELIA: Any place is good enough so long as he can find a way in.
PETER: No Delia — I beg your pardon, but Tia makes a point of my doing it gracefully — with art —
TIA (eagerly ): The heart is a good place, a very good place.
PETER: Hedda’s pistol — Hedda’s.
TIA: The head(a) is a good place too —
DELIA (tapping him on the throat)’. This is a good place.
PETER: Here, Delia, (puts pistol to neck)
TIA: Lower Grandpapa, here, (taps his heart)
DELIA: Or here, (lifts pistol to his forehead)
TIA: Or here, (points pistol at stomach)
PETER: Hadn’t I better lie down first? it would be more graceful, Tia, than to fall afterwards — No! Very well then. I’ll do it when I say three — One — two — I say I have an idea — why shouldn’t you both come with me?
TIA: Why not?
DELIA: Ay, why not?
PETER (handing pistol to Delia): Ladies first.
TIA: No, all together — see here are more pistols (gets pistols from Table, keeps one, gives Delia one) Grandpapa, we all fire when you say three —
(in line down C.)
PETER: One — two — Have you found a good place Delia? Have you vine leaves in your hair, Tia? Very well — One-two — the brandy!
DELIA: No.
PETER: One — Two — I say, where is it we are going to?
TIA: Where?
DELIA: Ah where?
PETER: Let us say to — to Hedda’s — one — two — one, two, three —
(All fire and fall Peter in C.) Enter George L.
GEORGE: Someone been shooting rubbish here, just fancy that.
(sits at table C.)
PETER (sitting up)-. Just fancy that! — it is my cue
Well I don’t fancy them — do you?
I think that all the Ibsen ladies
Should find a place and go to Hades.
GEORGE (without looking up): Just fancy that. Just think of that.
TIA (sitting up): You, take a Hedda, you’re a toff
She’s like her pistol, she goes off
Of Ibsen women, boys beware
They all have vine leaves in their hair.
GEORGE: Just fancy that, just think of that.
DELIA (sitting up): Wives of the future, then begorra
I’m glad that I don’t live tomorrow.
I’m flesh and blood — I’ll tell you, bah
They’re nothing but automata.
(The three rise singing)
ALL: We’re nothing but automata.
(They dance like wooden figures)
PETER: I say there’s another verse in Gosse’s version.
GEORGE: Just fancy that, just think of that.
PETER: Let’s go to Toole’s his version says,
For it’s a rare — rare good place
Your taste his plays are sure to strike
And there you’ll find the kind you like.
(They dance and die as in waxwork)
CURTAIN
Jane Annie
Dramatis Personae
A Proctor
Sim (Bulldog)
Greg (Bulldog)
Tom (a Press Student)
Jack (a Warrior)
Caddie (a Page)
Miss Sims (a Schoolmistress)
Jane Annie (a Good Girl)
Bab (a Bad Girl)
Milly (an Average Girl)
Rose (an Average Girl)
Meg (an Average Girl)
Maud (an Average Girl)
Schoolgirls, Press Students, and Lancers.
The Scene is obviously laid round the corner from a certain English University Town.
ACT I.
First Floor of a Seminary for the Little Things that grow into Women.
ACT II.
A Ladies’ Golf Green near the Seminary.
TIME.
The Present.
One Night elapses between the Acts.
Act I.
SCENE. — First floor of the Ladies’ Seminary. The GIRLS are exchanging their last confidences for the night.
Enter CADDIE with their candles.
CHORUS OF GIRLS.
Goodnight! Goodnight!
The hour is late;
Though eyes are bright,
No longer wait!
Though clear the head,
Though wit may shine,
To bed! To bed!
It’s nearly nine!
Dining-room clock strikes.
MILLY. Now the last faint tint has faded.
ALL. Goodnight! Goodnight!
MILLY. And the west in gloom is shaded.
ALL. Goodnight! Goodnight!
MILLY. See the moon her vigil keeping.
ALL. Goodnight! Goodnight!
MILLY. Torpor o’er the earth is creeping
ALL. Goodnight! Goodnight!
Drawingroom clock strikes.
ALL. Goodnight!