#4 - Scrooge, Marley. Page 22 A CHRISTMAS CAROL Act I

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1 #4 - Scrooge, Marley Page 22 A CHRISTMAS CAROL Act I SCROOGE cautiously approaches his bed, looking about for the source of the intrusion. As he sits on the bed, sipping the gruel, a slowly increasing cadenza of strange sounds- "a clanking noise, deep down below, as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over wine casks in the wine merchant's cellar"- is accompanied by smoke stealing from an ominous glow in the fireplace. As the room becomes darker except for this glow, SCROOGE becomes panic-stricken, sets down his cup of gruel and hides by the bed The glow in the fireplace grows to a deeper haze of red, smoke, and clatter, out of which steps the chain-festooned Ghost of Jacob MARLEY-for all the world like a hellish Santa Claus arriving down the chimney.) SCROOGE (bravely emerging-like a helpful store clerk). Can I help you? Are you looking for someone? MARLEY. You. SCROOGE (after looking behind him). Oh. And who are you? MARLEY. Ask me who I was. SCROOGE. Very well, who were you? MARLEY. In likl was your p _ artner, Jacob Marley. SCROOGE (laughing nervously). Oh, come along, now... MARLEY. You don't believe in me. SCROOGE. No, I. don't. MARLEY. Why do you doubt your senses? SCROOGE. Because they play tricks on me. My stomach is very easily. upset. You may be an undigested bit of beef, for example, or a blob of mustard. A crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. I'd say there's more gravy than graveyard about you! (The GHOST raises a

2 Act I A CHRISTMAS CAROL Page 23 frightful cry, and shakes his chain with an appalling noise. SCROOGE reels.) Mercy! Dreadful apparition, why do you trouble me?.marley. Man of the worldly mind!-do you believe in me, or not? SCROOGE. Yes! Yes! But why do spirits walk the earth? And why do they come to me? (MUSIC #4A: "THEY'RE GONE!") :MARLEY. EV'RY MAN ALIVE IS BOUND TO SEND THE SPIRIT IN HIM 'ROUND TO COMFORT ALL IN NEED. THOSE WHO FAIL WHILE STILL ON EARTH MUST GO A-WAND'RING AFTER DEATH, TO PAY THE PRICE OF THEIR GREED! :SCROOGE. But why me, Jacob, why me? MARLEY. LINK BY LINK AND SNARE BY SNARE MYSELF I FORGED THIS CHAIN I BEAR THAT DRAGS ME HITHER AND YON! IN LIFE I KEPT MY SOUL INSIDE MY OFFICE DESK, AND NOW I'VE DIED MY GHOST IS TRAVELLING ON! SCROOGE: I am sorry to hear it, Jacob.. But.now tell me the good news.!marley. Good news! Have you no idea how long and heavy a chain you 've been making for yourself? It was as

3 Page 24 A CHRISTMAS CAROL Act I long as mine when I died seven years ago-and you've been working at it ever since. SCROOGE. But now that I know, there must be some way out, some loophole, MARLEY. Listen, and learn! (With a spasm between verses.) DOCTOR PULHAM, THE DENTIST, MADE MILLIONS, I'M SURE, FROM THE GOLD IN THE TEETH HE HAD DRAWN: SO HE ALWAYS NEGLECTED THE TEETH OF THE POOR- AND HE'S GONE! HE'S GONE! ms SPIRIT IS w ANDERING ON! THE ARCIDTECT, BLOCKER, BUILT HOUSES UNTOLD, WITH THREE BATHS AND A SPLENDID SALON: BUT THE HOMELESS WERE ALWAYS LEFf OUT IN THE COLD- AND HE'S GONE! HE'S GONE! ms SPIRIT IS w ANDERING ON! I'M SURE YOU REMEMBER THE SCHOOL OF THE DANCE MRS. RAMSBOTTOM RAN IN ST. JOHN? WELL, SHE MADE ALL THE POOR STUDENTS PAY IN ADVANCE- AND SHE'S GONE! SHE'S GONE! HER SPIRIT IS WANDERING ON! LORD LIGNITE, THE HEAD OF THE COAL MINING TRUST, WAS AS RICH AS THE OLD AGA KHAN;

4 Act I A CHRIS1MAS CAROL Page 25 BUT HIS MINERS ALL DIED FROM INHALING THEDUST- AND HE'S GONE! HE 'S GONE! CHORUS. WE CAN NEVER COME BACK NOW WE'VE GONE! WE CAN NEVER RETURN, FOR WE'RE BURNING ETERNALLY ON AND ON AND ON! (MUSIC #4A ends. Overcome, MARLEY collapses on his knees.) SCROOGE (sympathetically). Seven years dead, Jacob, and travelling all the time? MARLEY. The whole time, Ebenezer! No rest, no peace. SCROOGE. But you were always a good man of business, Jacob... MARLEY. Business? (Rising.) People should have been my business. Kindness, mercy, generosity should have been my business. The deals I made at work were a drop of water in the ocean of what should have been my business! (Flaunting his chain.) It's at this time of year I suffer most... SCROOGE. We all do-there's a great deal of humbug. MARLEY (howling). No! Hear me! My time is nearly gone. SCROOGE. I will, but tell me straight! Don't be flowery, Jacob, please. MARLEY. I am here tonight to warn you. You have yet a chance to escape my fate-a chance you owe to me, Ebenezer. SCROOGE. You were always a good friend-thank ye, Jacob. MARLEY. You will be baunted by Three Spirits.

5 Page 26 A CHRISTMAS CAROL Act I SCROOGE. Is that the chance you mentioned? MARLEY. It is. SCROOGE. Then I think I'd rather not. MARLEY (howling). Ah, you fool, you fool! Without their help you can never avoid the path I tread. SCROOGE. Whatever you say, Jacob. MARLEY. Expect the first tomorrow, when the bell tolls one o'clock. SCROOGE. Couldn't I take 'em all at once and get it over with? MARLEY. No! Expect the second after that, and then the third. Look to see me no more-(music #4B: "MAR LEY'S EXIT. )-but see that, for your own sake, you remember what has passed between us! (He fades away in a swirl of smoke. MUSIC #4B ends.) SCROOGE (having investigated his method of depanure). It's all humbug. (He makes his way to bed, once in it he closes the upstage cunain, and then has a second thought.) Or is it? (MUSIC #4C: "SCROOGE SLEEPS. He decides again that it is, shrugs, blows out the candle, and snuggles down. Darkness descends.) End here ^ SCENE FOUR SCENE: The same- but in the blackout all signs of Scrooge's room except the bed have vanished. AT RISE: SCROOGE still lies in bed, with the upstage bedcunain closed. A church bell strikes the four quaners, then begins to strike twelve- at which point the light allows us to see SCROOGE. At the third stroke he awakens. At the sixth he sits up.