One-Act Plays Part 86

FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES[53]

_A DRAMA IN ONE ACT_

By JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY

[Footnote 53: Copyright, 1917, by Josephine Preston Peabody.

This play is fully protected under the Copyright law of the United States and is subject to royalty when produced by amateurs or professionals. Applications for the right to produce _Fortune and Men's Eyes_ should be made to Samuel French, 28 West 38 Street, New York. All rights reserved.]

Josephine Preston Peabody (Mrs. Lionel S. Marks) was born in New York on May 30, 1874. She attended the Girls' Latin School in Boston and later went to Radcliffe College. From 1901 to 1903 she taught English literature at Wellesley College. Her verse, dramatic and lyric, has made her an outstanding figure in American letters.

_Fortune and Men's Eyes_ (1900), the first of her published plays, is written in blank verse. _Marlowe_, likewise a study of a great Elizabethan, _The Wings_, the setting of which is early English, _The Piper_, a new version of the medieval legend made famous by Browning, and _The Wolf of Gubbio_, dominated by the lovely figure of St.

Francis of a.s.sisi, are also poetic dramas. Her best known play, _The Piper_, was awarded the first prize in 1910 in the Stratford-on-Avon compet.i.tion in which there were three hundred and fifteen contestants.

It was then produced at the Memorial Theatre at Stratford.

In recent years two playwrights have consulted Shakespeare's sonnets for dramatic themes; first, Josephine Preston Peabody found in them a motive for her poetic play, _Fortune and Men's Eyes_, and later George Bernard Shaw turned them to dramatic account, in his own fas.h.i.+on, in _The Dark Lady of the Sonnets_. The dramatic situation chosen for _Fortune and Men's Eyes_ has been read by some Shakespearian scholars into the familiar dedication of the 1609 edition of the Sonnets, which runs: "To the only begetter of these ensuing sonnets Mr. W. H. all happiness and that eternity promised by our ever-living poet wisheth the well-wis.h.i.+ng adventurer in setting forth T. T." The last initials stand for the name of the publisher, Thomas Thorpe. "Begetter" has been variously interpreted as inspirer of the Sonnets or as partner in the commercial enterprise of their publication. "Mr. W. H." has been more usually identified with William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, though some have thought that the initials were inverted and referred to Henry Wriothesly, earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare's other poems were dedicated. If W. H. does refer to the earl of Pembroke, it is usually held that the "dark lady" is in reality the blond Mistress Mary Fytton, whose name was coupled with Pembroke's. Whether the sonnets are in any sense at all autobiographical has also been endlessly debated. It was admittedly an age when every poet tried his hand at sonnet sequences and in all these sequences, not excepting Shakespeare's, there are to be found the same conventional conceits.

But it is generally believed now that the sonnets of Spenser and Sidney refer to the personal experiences of their authors. It is quite possible, then, that Shakespeare, too, may have used a literary convention as a means of personal expression, though it seems impertinent in any case to question the feeling back of "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes." This brief reference to conflicting interpretations of the Sonnets shows how material of dramatic value may lurk even in the purlieus of textual criticism.

Josephine Preston Peabody herself says: "The play was written after long wors.h.i.+p of the W. S. Sonnets, as a method of introspection, to satisfy my own curiosity concerning the truth of the sonnet theories.

In spite of recurrent threats, by one actor after another, it has never yet been produced on the professional stage. But it has been read and recommended for reading, in various colleges, as a picture of Elizabethan times, and as an interpretation of the Pembroke-Fytton aspect of the sonnet story."

FORTUNE AND MEN'S EYES

_"When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes" ..._

Sonnet xxix.

CHARACTERS

WILLIAM HERBERT, _son of the Earl of Pembroke._ SIMEON DYER, _a Puritan._ TOBIAS, _host of "The Bear and The Angel."_ WAT BURROW, _a bear-ward._ d.i.c.kON, _a little boy, son to TOBIAS._ CHIFFIN, _a ballad-monger._ A PRENTICE.

A PLAYER, _master W. S. of the Lord Chamberlain's Company._

MISTRESS MARY FYTTON, _a maid-of-honor to Queen Elizabeth._ MISTRESS ANNE HUGHES, _also of the Court._ TAVERNERS AND PRENTICES.

_Time represented: An afternoon in the autumn of the year 1599._

_SCENE._--_Interior of "The Bear and the Angel," South London. At back, the center entrance gives on a short alley-walk which joins the street beyond at a right angle. To right and left of this doorway, cas.e.m.e.nts. Down, on the right, a door opening upon the inn-garden; a second door on the right, up, leading to a tap-room. Opposite this, left, a door leading into a b.u.t.tery. Opposite the garden-door, a large chimney-piece with a smoldering wood-fire. A few seats; a lantern (unlighted) in a corner. In the foreground, to the right, a long and narrow table with several mugs of ale upon it, also a lute._

_At one end of the table WAT BURROW is finis.h.i.+ng his ale and holding forth to the PRENTICE (who thrums the lute) and a group of taverners, some smoking. At the further end of the table SIMEON DYER observes all with grave curiosity. TOBIAS and d.i.c.kON draw near. General noise._

PRENTICE [_singing_].

_What do I give for the Pope and his riches!

I's my ale and my Sunday breeches; I's an old master, I's a young la.s.s, And we'll eat green goose, come Martinmas!

Sing Rowdy Dowdy, Look ye don't crowd me I's a good club, --So let me pa.s.s!_

d.i.c.kON.

Again! again!

PRENTICE. _Sing Rowdy--_

WAT [_finis.h.i.+ng his beer_]. Swallow it down.

Sling all such froth and follow me to the Bear!

They stay for me, lined up to see us pa.s.s From end to end o' the alley. Ho! You doubt?

From Lambeth to the Bridge!

TAVERNERS. } {'Tis so; ay.

PRENTICES. } {Come, follow! Come.

WAT. Greg's stuck his ears With nosegays, and his chain is wound about Like any May-pole. What? I tell ye, boys, Ye have seen no such bear, a Bear o' Bears, Fit to bite off the prophet, in the show, With seventy such boys!

[_Pulling d.i.c.kON's ear_]. Bears, say you, bears?

Why, Rursus Major, as your scholars tell, A royal bear, the greatest in his day, The sport of Alexander, unto Nick-- Was a ewe-lamb, dyed black; no worse, no worse.

To-morrow come and see him with the dogs; He'll not give way,--not he!

d.i.c.kON. To-morrow's Thursday!

To-morrow's Thursday!

PRENTICE. Will ye lead by here?

TOBIAS.

Ay, that would be a sight. Wat, man, this way!

WAT.

Ho, would you squinch us? Why, there be a press O' gentry by this tide to measure Nick And lay their wagers, at a blink of him, Against to-morrow! Why, the stairs be full.

To-morrow you shall see the Bridge a-creak, The river--dry with barges,--London gape, Gape! While the Borough buzzes like a hive With all their wors.h.i.+ps! Sirs, the fame o' Nick Has so pluckt out the gentry by the sleeve, 'Tis said the Queen would see him.

TOBIAS. } {Ay, 'tis grand.

d.i.c.kON. } {O-oh, the Queen?

PRENTICE.

How now? Thou art no man to lead a bear, Forgetting both his quality and hers!

Drink all; come, drink to her.

TOBIAS. Ay, now.

WAT. To her!-- And harkee, boy, this saying will serve you learn: "The Queen, her high and glorious majesty!"

SIMEON [_gravely_].

Long live the Queen!

WAT. Maker of golden laws For baitings! She that cherishes the Borough And s.h.i.+nes upon our pastimes. By the ma.s.s!