Plays of William E. Henley and R.L. Stevenson Part 25

BRODIE (_to_ MARY). I know you forgive me now; I ask no more. That is a good man. (_To_ LESLIE.) Will you take her from my hands? (LESLIE _takes_ MARY.) Jean, are ye here to see the end?

JEAN. Eh man, can ye no fly? Could ye no say that it was me?

BRODIE. No, Jean, this is where it ends. Uncle, this is where it ends.

And to think that not an hour ago I still had hopes! Hopes! Ay, not an hour ago I thought of a new life. You were not forgotten, Jean. Leslie, you must try to forgive me . . . you, too!

LESLIE. You are her brother.

BRODIE (_to_ LAWSON). And you?

LAWSON. My name-child and my sister's bairn!

BRODIE. You won't forget Jean, will you? nor the child?

LAWSON. That I will not.

MARY. O Willie, nor I.

SCENE VII

_To these_, HUNT

HUNT. The game's up, Deacon. I'll trouble you to come along with me.

BRODIE (_behind the table_). One moment, officer: I have a word to say before witnesses ere I go. In all this there is but one man guilty; and that man is I. None else has sinned; none else must suffer. This poor woman (_pointing to_ JEAN) I have used; she never understood. Mr.

Procurator-Fiscal, that is my dying confession. (_He s.n.a.t.c.hes his hanger from the table_, _and rushes upon_ HUNT, _who parries_, _and runs him through_. _He reels across the stage and falls_.) The new life . . .

the new life! (_He dies_.)

CURTAIN.

BEAU AUSTIN

DEDICATED WITH ADMIRATION AND RESPECT TO GEORGE MEREDITH

BOURNEMOUTH: 1_st_ _October_ 1884.

PERSONS REPRESENTED

GEORGE FREDERICK AUSTIN, called 'Beau Austin' aetat. 50 JOHN FENWICK, of Allonby Shaw ,, 26 ANTHONY MUSGRAVE, Cornet in the Prince's Own ,, 21 MENTEITH, the Beau's Valet ,, 55 A ROYAL DUKE (Dumb show.) DOROTHY MUSGRAVE, Anthony's Sister ,, 25 MISS EVELINA FOSTER, her Aunt ,, 45 BARBARA RIDLEY, her Maid ,, 20 VISITORS TO THE WELLS

The Time is 1820. The Scene is laid at Tunbridge Wells. The Action occupies a s.p.a.ce of ten hours.

HAYMARKET THEATRE

_Monday_, _November_ 3_d_, 1890

_CAST_

GEORGE FREDERICK AUSTIN Mr. TREE JOHN FENWICK Mr. FRED TERRY ANTHONY MUSGRAVE Mr. EDMUND MAURICE MENTEITH Mr. BROOKFIELD A ROYAL DUKE Mr. ROBB HARWOOD DOROTHY MUSGRAVE Mrs. TREE MISS EVELINA FOSTER Miss ROSE LECLERCQ BARBARA RIDLEY Miss AYLWARD VISITORS TO THE WELLS

PROLOGUE

_Spoken by_ MR. TREE _in the character of Beau Austin_

'To all and singular,' as Dryden says, We bring a fancy of those Georgian days, Whose style still breathed a faint and fine perfume Of old-world courtliness and old-world bloom: When speech was elegant and talk was fit For slang had not been canonised as wit; When manners reigned, when breeding had the wall, And Women-yes!-were ladies first of all; When Grace was conscious of its gracefulness, And man-though Man!-was not ashamed to dress.

A brave formality, a measured ease, Were his-and her's-whose effort was to please.

And to excel in pleasing was to reign And, if you sighed, never to sigh in vain.

But then, as now-it may be, something more- Woman and man were human to the core.

The hearts that throbbed behind that quaint attire Burned with a plenitude of essential fire.

They too could risk, they also could rebel, They could love wisely-they could love too well.

In that great duel of s.e.x, that ancient strife Which is the very central fact of life, They could-and did-engage it breath for breath, They could-and did-get wounded unto death.

As at all times since time for us began Woman was truly woman, man was man, And joy and sorrow were as much at home In trifling Tunbridge as in mighty Rome.

Dead-dead and done with! Swift from s.h.i.+ne to shade The roaring generations flit and fade.

To this one, fading, flitting, like the rest, We come to proffer-be it worst or best- A sketch, a shadow, of one brave old time; A hint of what it might have held sublime; A dream, an idyll, call it what you will, Of man still Man, and woman-Woman still!

ACT I.

MUSICAL INDUCTION: '_Lascia ch'io pianga_' (_Rinaldo_).

HANDEL.

_The Stage represents Miss Foster's apartments at the Wells_. _Doors_, _L. and C._; _a window_, _L. C._, _looking on the street_; _a table R._, _laid for breakfast_.

SCENE I

BARBARA; _to her_ MISS FOSTER