The Melting-Pot Part 1

The Melting-Pot.

by Israel Zangwill.

THE CAST

[As first produced at the Columbia Theatre, Was.h.i.+ngton, on the fifth of October 1908]

David Quixano WALKER WHITESIDE Mendel Quixano HENRY BERGMAN Baron Revendal JOHN BLAIR Quincy Davenport, Jr. GRANT STEWART Herr Pappelmeister HENRY VOGEL Vera Revendal CHRYSTAL HERNE Baroness Revendal LEONORA VON OTTINGER Frau Quixano LOUISE MULDENER Kathleen O'Reilly MOLLIE REVEL Settlement Servant ANNIE HARRIS

Produced by HUGH FORD

[As first produced by the Play Actors at the Court Theatre, London on the twenty-fifth of January 1914]

David Quixano HAROLD CHAPIN Mendel Quixano HUGH TABBERER Baron Revendal H. LAWRENCE LEYTON Quincy Davenport, Jr. P. PERCEVAL CLARK Herr Pappelmeister CLIFTON ALDERSON Vera Revendal PHYLLIS RELPH Baroness Revendal GILLIAN SCAIFE Frau Quixano INEZ BENSUSAN Kathleen O'Reilly E. NOLAN O'CONNOR Settlement Servant RUTH PARROTT

Produced by NORMAN PAGE

Act I

_The scene is laid in the living-room of the small home of the QUIXANOS in the Richmond or non-Jewish borough of New York, about five o'clock of a February afternoon. At centre back is a double street-door giving on a columned veranda in the Colonial style.

Nailed on the right-hand door-post gleams a_ Mezuzah, _a tiny metal case, containing a Biblical pa.s.sage. On the right of the door is a small hat-stand holding MENDEL'S overcoat, umbrella, etc. There are two windows, one on either side of the door, and three exits, one down-stage on the left leading to the stairs and family bedrooms, and two on the right, the upper leading to KATHLEEN'S bedroom and the lower to the kitchen. Over the street door is pinned the Stars-and-Stripes. On the left wall, in the upper corner of which is a music-stand, are bookshelves of large mouldering Hebrew books, and over them is hung a_ Mizrach, _or Hebrew picture, to show it is the East Wall. Other pictures round the room include Wagner, Columbus, Lincoln, and "Jews at the Wailing place." Down-stage, about a yard from the left wall, stands DAVID'S roll-desk, open and displaying a medley of music, a quill pen, etc. On the wall behind the desk hangs a book-rack with brightly bound English books. A grand piano stands at left centre back, holding a pile of music and one huge Hebrew tome.

There is a table in the middle of the room covered with a red cloth and a litter of objects, music, and newspapers. The fireplace, in which a fire is burning, occupies the centre of the right wall, and by it stands an armchair on which lies another heavy mouldy Hebrew tome. The mantel holds a clock, two silver candlesticks, etc. A chiffonier stands against the back wall on the right. There are a few cheap chairs. The whole effect is a curious blend of shabbiness, Americanism, Jewishness, and music, all four being combined in the figure of MENDEL QUIXANO, who, in a black skull-cap, a seedy velvet jacket, and red carpet-slippers, is discovered standing at the open street-door.

He is an elderly music master with a fine Jewish face, pathetically furrowed by misfortunes, and a short grizzled beard._

MENDEL Good-bye, Johnny!... And don't forget to practise your scales.

[_Shutting door, s.h.i.+vers._]

Ugh! It'll snow again, I guess.

[_He yawns, heaves a great sigh of relief, walks toward the table, and perceives a music-roll._]

The chump! He's forgotten his music!

[_He picks it up and runs toward the window on the left, muttering furiously_]

Brainless, earless, thumb-fingered Gentile!

[_Throwing open the window_]

Here, Johnny! You can't practise your scales if you leave 'em here!

[_He throws out the music-roll and s.h.i.+vers again at the cold as he shuts the window._]

Ugh! And I must go out to that miserable dancing cla.s.s to sc.r.a.pe the rent together.

[_He goes to the fire and warms his hands._]

_Ach Gott!_ What a life! What a life!

[_He drops dejectedly into the armchair. Finding himself sitting uncomfortably on the big book, he half rises and pushes it to the side of the seat. After an instant an irate Irish voice is heard from behind the kitchen door._]

KATHLEEN [_Without_]

Divil take the b.u.t.ther! I wouldn't put up with ye, not for a hundred dollars a week.

MENDEL [_Raising himself to listen, heaves great sigh_]

_Ach!_ Mother and Kathleen again!

KATHLEEN [_Still louder_]

Pots and pans and plates and knives! Sure 'tis enough to make a saint chrazy.

FRAU QUIXANO [_Equally loudly from kitchen_]

_Wos schreist du? Gott in Himmel, dieses Amerika!_

KATHLEEN [_Opening door of kitchen toward the end of FRAU QUIXANO'S speech, but turning back, with her hand visible on the door_]

What's that ye're afther jabberin' about America? If ye don't like G.o.d's own counthry, sure ye can go back to your own Jerusalem, so ye can.

MENDEL One's very servants are anti-Semites.

KATHLEEN [_Bangs her door as she enters excitedly, carrying a folded white table-cloth. She is a young and pretty Irish maid-of-all-work_]

Bad luck to me, if iver I take sarvice again with haythen Jews.

[_She perceives MENDEL huddled up in the armchair, gives a little scream, and drops the cloth._]

Och, I thought ye was out!

MENDEL [_Rising_]

And so you dared to be rude to my mother.

KATHLEEN [_Angrily, as she picks up the cloth_]

She said I put mate on a b.u.t.ther-plate.

MENDEL Well, you know that's against her religion.

KATHLEEN But I didn't do nothing of the soort. I ounly put b.u.t.ther on a mate-plate.

MENDEL That's just as bad. What the Bible forbids----

KATHLEEN [_Lays the cloth on a chair and vigorously clears off the litter of things on the table._]

Sure, the Pope himself couldn't remimber it all. Why don't ye have a sinsible religion?

MENDEL You are impertinent. Attend to your work.

[_He seats himself at the piano._]

KATHLEEN And isn't it laying the Sabbath cloth I am?

[_She bangs down articles from the table into their right places._]

MENDEL Don't answer me back.

[_He begins to play softly._]

KATHLEEN Faith, I must answer _somebody_ back--and sorra a word of English _she_ understands. I might as well talk to a tree.

MENDEL You are not paid to talk, but to work.

[_Playing on softly._]

KATHLEEN And who _can_ work wid an ould woman nagglin' and grizzlin' and faultin'

me?

[_She removes the red table-cloth._]