A Shakespeare Pageant : Dialogue for Commencement Day

Transcription

1 A Shakespeare Pageant : Dialogue for Commencement Day by S. M. A. [SISTER MARY AGNES] Caution : Copyright 1915, St. Mary's Academy, Winnipeg, MB. This script is protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union. Changes to the script are forbidden without the written consent oi the copyright holder. Rights to produce, film or record in any medium, in any language, by any group, are retained by the copyright holder. The moral right of the author has been asserted. For performance rights, contact St. Mary's Academy, 550 Wellington Crescent, Winnipeg, MB R3M OC1. http / /www stmarvsacademy nib ca/ Note to correct obvious typo- This version of the play is based upon the 1915 edition, which has been slightly emended here graphical errors. Characters RUTH, ANGELA, MABEL, ELEANOR, graduates. Any number of other GRADUATES, Soho rua_ul sluore the parts with the preceding speakers. MILDRED, a school friend. ("PROSPERO") PROSPERO, MIRANDA, ARIEL (The Tempest) DUKE FREDERICK, ROSALIND, CELIA (As You Like It) LADY MACBETH, GENTLEWOMAN (Macbeth) KING LEAR, CORDELIA, KENT (King Lear) TITANIA, PUCK, ELVES, FAIRIES (Midsummer Night's Dream) OPHELIA (Hamlet) CTR

2 A simple parlour interior. A bust of Shakespeare occupies a conspicuous position. Some GRADUATES enter, talking together. RUTH : The long-awaited day has arrived, and we are about to receive our coveted honours. ANGELA : Yes; past labours are now forgotten in the joy of present rest, assured reward. Well has the poet said - 'Tis sweet to think of labours past, When now the haven's gained at last. RUTH: And sweetest of all is the pleasure of placing our hard-earned laurels in the hands of our dear parents (Bows to the audience), and seeing their smiles of approbation, their joy in our triumph. MABEL: Yes, and other friends (Bowing to the audience) will assemble to see us receive our diplomas. What shall we do to entertain them? ELEANOR: True; we must endeavour to make them spend a pleasant evening; so that they as well as we may remember it as a golden day in this year's calendar. ANGELA : Can you suggest any plan by which we may entertain our kind audience? RUTH : If some boys were considering that question, they would probably propose a debate on some interesting subject; do you think we girls could make it a success? ANGELA : I doubt it, but what subject would you choose? RUTH : It would have to be some current topic of general interest. MABEL : There is only one topic that attracts the attention of every one today - the European War.' If we debate on that subject, some of us would have to defend the allies and the others, take the part of their enemies. That would be putting our valuable lives in danger. I don't want to be arrested as a German spy! ELEANOR : Well, perhaps literature or history would furnish us with a suitable subject. Of course, it has to be something profound and dignified. How would this do - "Whether philosophers or poets have had greater influence on mankind?" ANGELA: I haven't the slightest idea ; so we will consider that debate as closed. RUTH: I fear we shall have difficulty in forming our literary society. Yet, though we may have but a limited knowledge of the great masters who have been kings in the realms of intellect, who have raised our own thoughts to loftier things, could we say nothing about them to which an indulgent audience would be willing to listen? ANGELA: Nothing, I fear, which has not been said many times before and much better than we could say it. And yet, (Looking at the bust of Shakespeare) the image of our great, our beloved Shakespeare rises persistently before me, claiming a passing tribute, seeming to suggest lessons of wisdom which even a young schoolgirl can appreciate. MILDRED enters unperceived. ELEANOR : True, I have often thought that a lovely garland of maxims for the young could be gathered from the writings of our great dramatist, and, from the stories of his heroines, most valuable lessons for young girls entering the broader fields of life. MILDRED advances. MILDRED : Having overheard your last remarks, my friends, I am encouraged to hope that you will approve a little plan which your school friends have devised to honour your graduation evening. Leave to us the pleasant task of entertaining both you and your invited guests. You shall be the honoured ones this evening. Be seated in these armchairs we have provided for you, while we summon from the realms of poetry and drama the shades of Shakespeare's women, to yield up the secrets of their lives, and give you the lessons of wisdom you desire. THE GRADUATES seat themselves. RUTH : We are happy to accept so gracious an invitation, dear Mildred, and will listen with the most profound respect to the words of wisdom that fall from your lips. MILDRED : Not from mine, dear friend, but from Shakespeare's. ANGELA : That great name always commands respect. But tell us in what form his message will be communicated to us. We feel both interest and eager curiosity. MILDRED : See! I shroud myself in the folds of this great mantle and grasp the magic wand that symbolizes my mystic powers. Now I am ready to play my part, and summon the spirits of Shakespeare's women. Do you recognize me? RUTH : 0 yes; I think I see before me the exiled Duke of Milan, Prospero, the good magician, who used his supernatural powers only for noble purposes. MILDRED : As I shall do. But that you may have faith in my powers, I must first assure you that this is the veritable wand used by Prospero on his enchanted isle. You smile incredulously. Recall the conclusion of Shakespeare's charming play and you will remember that Miranda's father signalized the end of his reign on the mysterious isle as also the resignation of his supernatural powers by burying his wand "certain fathoms in the earth." (Smiling.) Permit me to continue the fairy-tale and inform you that some romantic sea-roving ancestor of mine, like the renowned personages who figure in The Tempest, suffered shipwreck on this enchanted isle and finding Prospero's magic wand, transmitted it to me with all its marvellous powers. SUMMER

3 MABEL : (Smiling.) As we have not lost our youthful fancy for fairy-tales, we will accept your statement. But to strengthen our faith, hasten to display the magic power residing in your potent wand. PROSPERO : That is what I purpose to do. Like the original Prospero, I shall make use of the delicate Ariel to be the minister of my will. (Waves his wand.) Approach, my Ariel, come! Enter ARIEL. ARIEL : All hail, great master! grave Sir, hail! I come answer thy best pleasure ; be't to fly, swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curl'd clouds ; to thy strong bidding, task Ariel and all his quality. PROSPERO : The time 'twixt six and now Must by us both be spent most preciously. ARIEL : (Reluctant.) Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me tasks, Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, Which is not yet performed me. PROSPERO : How now? moody? What is't thou canst demand? ARIEL: My liberty. PROSPERO: Before the time be out? no more! ARIEL: I prithee Remember I have done thee worthy service ; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served Without or grudge or grumblings : thou didst promise bate me a full year. PROSPERO : Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee? ARIEL : Pardon, master; I will be correspondent to command And do my spiriting gently. PROSPERO : Do so, and after two days, I will discharge thee. ARIEL : (Joyfully.) That's my noble master! What shall I do? say what ; what shall I do? PROSPERO : Summon hither my daughter Miranda. (Exit ARIEL.) (To GRADUATES.) Perhaps you wonder what lesson my sweet Miranda can give you - a simple child of nature, uninstructed in the ways of men, ignorant of all arts but those that nature or her father taught her ; yet she remains contented with her lot, innocent and happy in her narrow sphere. That is already a lesson for the eager, restless maidens of this later century. But with the virtues that adorn true womanhood, my gentle Miranda is richly endowed. I will give you an instance of her sweet com- 80 passion for the unfortunate and her hearty forgiveness of those who wronged her. Knowing no sorrows herself, the first tears she ever shed were those of compassion, "suffering with those that she saw suffer." You know the fearful "Tempest" raised by my arts, by which my treacherous brother and his wicked accomplice, the King of Naples, with their mariners, were shipwrecked on my shores, and how my daughter pleaded for their lives. Enter MIRANDA. MIRANDA: If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 0, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer ; a brave vessel, Which had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, Dashed all to pieces. 0, the cry did knock Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perished. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere It should the good ship so have swallowed and The fraughting souls within her. PROSPERO : Be collected : No more amazement; tell your piteous heart There's no harm done. MIRANDA : 0, woe the day! PROSPERO : No harm. I have done nothing but in care of thee, Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing Of whence I am, nor that I am more better Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, And thy no greater father. MIRANDA : More to know Did never meddle with my thoughts. PROSPERO : The king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ; Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises Of homage and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan With all the honours on my brother : whereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The gates of Milan, and i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me and thy crying self. MIRANDA : Alack, for pity! I, not remembering how I cried out then, Will cry it o'er again; it is a hint That wrings mine eyes to 't. PROSPERO : Hear a little further. Here in this island we arrived ; and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princesses can that have more time For vainer hours and tutors not so careful. CTR 111

4 MIRANDA: Heavens thank you for 't! And now, I pray you, Sir, For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason For raising this sea-storm? PROSPERO : Know thus far forth : By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore. - Here cease more questions; Thou are inclined to sleep : 'tis a good dullness, And give it way : I know thou canst not choose. PROSPERO waves his wand and MIRANDA slowly retires. RUTH : Sweet Miranda! she is as kind and compassionate as she is fair. ANGELA : Yet, Prospero, perhaps the contentment felt by your gentle daughter with her simple island home and pastoral life results from her ignorance of any other. What young girl familiar with the usages of civilized life or with the pleasures of a royal court would willingly renounce them for a "return to nature" such as philosophers teach or poets dream? PROSPERO: Even such examples can be found among the heroines of Shakespeare. I will bring before you two noble ladies who shall themselves tell you the cause of their renunciation of a court and their preference for the charms of rural life. Can you guess their names? RUTH : Perhaps you refer to the lovely Rosalind and her loyal cousin Celia, whose adventures in the Forest of Arden arouse universal interest and sympathy. Am I right? PROSPERO : Yes, my young friend. They shall speak for themselves. - Ho! my dainty Ariel! Appear! Enter ARIEL ARIEL : What would my potent master? here I am. PROSPERO : Fly to the land of spirits, and bring hither the fair daughter of the banished Duke with Celia, her faithful cousin. ARIEL : (Gaily.) I go, I go. (Exit.) PROSPERO : Another beautiful lesson may be drawn from the self-imposed exile of these noble ladies - the strength and tenderness of female friendship. It has been falsely asserted by those who cast aspersions on the socalled "weaker sex," that women are incapable of true and lasting friendship. Our great dramatic poet thought otherwise, and has given us, in As You Like It, this beautiful example of unselfish, loyal friendship. Enter ROSALIND and CELIA. PROSPERO : See! The sweet friends are in earnest converse; but we may be permitted to overhear their confidences. CELIA: I pray thee, Rosalind, sweet my coz, be merry. ROSALIND: Dear Celia, I show more mirth than I am mistress of; and would you yet I were merrier? Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me how to remember any extraordinary pleasure. CELIA : Herein I see thou lovest me not with the full weight that I love thee. If my uncle, thy banished father, had banished thy uncle, the duke my father, so thou hadst been still with me, I could have taught my love to take thy father for mine : so wouldst thou, if the truth of thy love to me were so righteously tempered as mine is to thee. ROSALIND : Well, I will forget the condition of my estate, to rejoice in yours. CELIA: You know my father hath no child but me ; and, truly, when he dies, thou shalt be his heir, for what he hath taken away from thy father perforce, I will render thee again in affection; by mine honour, I will ; and when I break that oath, let me turn monster : therefore, my sweet Rose, my dear Rose, be merry. ROSALIND : From henceforth I will, coz, and devise sports. Let me see ; what think you of falling in love? CELIA : Marry, I prithee, do, to make sport withal ; but love no man in good earnest ; nor no further in sport neither than with safety of a pure blush thou mayest in honour come off again. ROSALIND : What shall be our sport, then? CELIA: Let us sit and mock the good housewife Fortune from her wheel, that her gifts may henceforth be bestowed equally. ROSALIND : I would we could do so, for her benefits are mightily misplaced, and the bountiful blind woman cloth most mistake in her gifts to women. - Look! here comes the duke. CELIA : With his eyes full of anger. Enter DUKE FREDERICK. DUKE : Mistress, dispatch you with your safest haste And get you from our court. ROSALIND : Me, uncle? DUKE : You, cousin : Within these ten days if that thou be'st found So near our public court as twenty miles, Thou diest for it. ROSALIND : I do beseech your grace, Let me the knowledge of my fault bear with me ; If with myself I hold intelligence Or have acquaintance with mine own desires, If that I do not dream or be not frantic - As I do trust I am not - then, dear uncle, Never so much as in a thought unborn Did I offend your highness. DUKE : Thus do all traitors : SUMMER 2002

5 If their purgation did consist in words, They are as innocent as grace itself : Let it suffice thee that I trust thee not. ROSALIND : Yet your mistrust cannot make me a traitor : Tell me whereon the likelihood depends. DUKE : Thou art thy father's daughter ; there's enough. ROSALIND: So was I when your highness took his dukedom; So was I when your highness banish'd him : Treason is not inherited, my lord ; Or, if we did derive it from our friends, What's that to me? my father was no traitor : Then, good my liege, mistake me not so much To think my poverty is treacherous. CELIA : Dear sovereign, hear me speak. DUKE : Ay, Celia; we stay'd her for your sake, Else had she with her father ranged along. CELIA : I did not then entreat tc have her stay ; It was your pleasure and your own remorse : I was too young that time to value her ; But now I know her : if she be a traitor, Why so am I; we still have slept together, Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together, And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, Still we went coupled and inseparable. DUKE : She is too subtle for thee; and her smoothness, Her very silence and her patience Speak to the people, and they pity her. Thou art a fool: she robs thee of thy name; And thou wilt show more bright and seem more virtuous, When she is gone. Then open not thy lips : Firm and irrevocable is my doom Which I have pass'd upon her; she is banish'd. CELIA : Pronounce that sentence then on me, my liege. I cannot live out of her company. DUKE : You are a fool. You, niece, provide yourself : If you outstay the time, upon mine honour, And in the greatness of my word, you die. Exit DUKE FREDERICK. CELIA : 0 my poor Rosalind, whither wilt thou go? Wilt thou change fathers? I will give thee mine. I charge thee, be not thou more grieved than I am. ROSALIND: I have more cause. CELIA : Thou hast not, cousin : Prithee, be cheerful: know'st thou not, the duke Hath banish'd me, his daughter? ROSALIND: That he hath not. CELIA : No, hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love Which teacheth thee that thou and I are one : Shall we be sunder'd? shall we part, sweet girl? No : let my father seek another heir. Therefore devise with me how we may fly, Whither to go and what to bear with us ; And do not seek to take your change upon you, bear your griefs yourself and leave me out ; For, by this heaven, now at our sorrows pale, Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. ROSALIND : Why, whither shall we go? CELIA: To seek my uncle in the forest of Arden. ROSALIND : Alas, what danger will it be to us, Maids as we are, to travel forth so far! Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than gold. CELIA: I'll put myself in poor and mean attire And with a kind of umber smirch my face ; The like do you: so shall we pass along And never stir assailants. ROSALIND : Were it not better, Because that I am more than common tall, That I did suit me all points like a man? A gallant curtle-axe upon my thigh, A boar-spear in my hand ; and - in my heart Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will - We'll have a swashing and a martial outside, As many other mannish cowards here That do outface it with their semblances. CELIA : Let's away, And get our jewels and our wealth together, Devise the fittest time and safest way hide us from pursuit that will be made After my flight. Now go we in content liberty and not to banishment. Exeunt. PROSPERO : You know the rest of the story, and how true to each other in banishment were these sweet friends ; also, how they found peace and happiness in the sylvan retreats of Arden Forest, where, in the words of the banished Duke, they found Life more sweet Than that of painted pomp;... the woods More free from peril than the envious court ; Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. MABEL : You have indeed convinced us, Prospero, that contentment depends upon our own dispositions rather than upon outward circumstances. PROSPERO : It is a valuable truth to learn, my young friends. Should you require an example of the evils resulting from soaring pride and lawless ambition, listen to the unconscious self-revelation of Macbeth's hapless queen. 82 CTR III

6 (Looking aside.) I see her slowly approaching, as, in her uneasy slumbers, her mind communes with itself and recoils in horror from the deed of murder which her "vaulting ambition" wrought. The lights are lowered. GENTLEWOMAN enters, followed by LADY MACBETH walking slowly in sleep, and carrying a lighted candle. GENTLEWOMAN : Lo, here she comes! and, upon my life, fast asleep. - Her eyes are open, but their sense is shut. - Look how she rubs her hands, as if washing them. LADY MACBETH : Yet here's the spot - GENTLEWOMAN : Hark! she speaks. LADY MACBETH : Out, damned spot! out, I say! (Clock strikes two.) (Starts.) One, two : why, then 'tis time to do it. - Hell is murky! - Fie, my lord, fie! a soldier and afraid? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? - Yet who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him? GENTLEWOMAN: Do you mark that? LADY MACBETH : The Thane of Fife had a wife ; where is she now? - What, will these hands ne'er be clean? - No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that : you mar all with this starting. GENTLEWOMAN : (Aside.) She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that. LADY MACBETH: Here's the smell of the blood still : all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. - Oh, Oh, Oh! GENTLEWOMAN : What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. LADY MACBETH : Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale : - I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave. GENTLEWOMAN : Even so! LADY MACBETH : To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate! Come, come, come, come; give me your hand. What's done, cannot be undone; to bed, to bed, to bed. She crosses the stage, and goes out, followed by GENTLE- WOMAN. The lights are turned on. PROSPERO: Well may her doctor say, "Infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : More needs she the divine than the physician." ELEANOR: And I would repeat, with her Gentlewoman in the same scene - "I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for the dignity of the whole body." PROSPERO : Let us turn to the picture of one who was the victim of others' evil passions rather than a sufferer from her own, King Lear's faithful child, Cordelia. RUTH : She is indeed a lovely character, a true and devoted daughter. But do you deem her wholly guiltless of the disasters that wrecked her hapless father's life and finally her own? PROSPERO : You are referring, I suppose, to the assertions of her filial affection, so brief and blunt as to offend her unreasoning father. But the sincerity of her nature revolted at the base hypocrisy of her false sisters, and drove her into an excess of sincerity. But nobly did she later reveal her true character, and display the tender love which finally restored to reason the poor, distracted king, the brokenhearted Lear. Let me once more use my magic power, that the touching scene may be enacted before your eyes. The lights are lowered. Soft music plays, preferably the violin. A screen is withdrawn, and LEAR is seen asleep on a couch, the faithful KENT standing near him. CORDELIA enters, and kneels beside the couch. CORDELIA : The king still sleeps. 0 you kind gods, Cure this great breach in his abused nature! The untuned and jarring senses, 0 wind up Of this child-changed father! KENT So please your majesty, That we may wake the king : he hath slept long. I doubt not of his temperance. CORDELIA : Very well. KENT: Please you, draw near. - Louder the music there! CORDELIA: 0 my dear father! Restoration hang Thy medicine on my lips ; and let this kiss Repair those violent harms that my two sisters Have in thy reverence made! (Stands.) KENT: Kind and dear princess! CORDELIA : Had you not been their father, these white flakes Had challenged pity of them. Was this a face be opposed against the warring winds? stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder? In the most terrible and nimble stroke Of quick cross-lightning? to watch - poor perdu! - With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog, Though he had bit me, should have stood that night Against my fire. (Kneels.) And wast thou fain, poor father, hovel thee with swine, and rogues forlorn, In short and musty straw? Alack, alack! 'Tis wonder, that thy life and wits at once Had not concluded all. - He wakes ; speak to him. KENT: Madam, do you ; 'tis fittest. (Music ceases.) SUMMER

7 CORDELIA : How does my royal lord? How fares your majesty? LEAR : (Slowly.) You do me wrong, to take me out o' the grave : - Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears Do scald like molten lead. CORDELIA: Sir, do you know me? LEAR: You are a spirit, I know. When did you die? CORDELIA: (Stands.) Still, still, far wide. KENT: He's scarce awake : let him alone awhile. LEAR: Where have I been! Where am I? - Fair daylight? - I am mightily abused. - I should even die with pity, To see another thus. - I know not what to say. - I will not swear these are my hands : - let's see ; I feel this pin prick. Would I were assured Of my condition. CORDELIA : (Kneels.) 0, look upon me, sir, And hold your hands in benediction o'er me. - LEAR attempts to rise. No, sir, you must not kneel. LEAR: Pray, do not mock me : I am a very foolish, fond old man, Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less ; And, to deal plainly, I fear, I am not in my perfect mind. Methinks I should know you, and know this man ; Yet I am doubtful, for I am mainly ignorant What place is this ; and all the skill I have Remembers not these garments ; nor I know not Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me ; For, as I am a man, I think this lady To be my child Cordelia. CORDELIA : And so I am, I am. LEAR : Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray, weep not ; If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me; for your sisters Have, as I remember, done me wrong : You have some cause, they have not. CORDELIA: No cause, no cause. (Both rise.) LEAR: Am I in France? KENT: In your own kingdom, sir. LEAR : Do not abuse me. KENT: Be comforted, good madam : the great rage, You see, is killed in him. LEAR : Bear with me. Pray you now, forget and forgive : I am old and foolish. Exeunt LEAR, CORDELIA, and KENT. The lights are raised. RUTH: It is a sight to wring tears from the hardest nature. ANGELA : How pitiful that so often the innocent must suffer with the guilty. If King Lear's unnatural daughters, Goneril and Regan, alone suffered the penalty of their evil schemes, we should feel that the claims of justice had been satisfied. Enter PORTIA, in her robes as Doctor of Law. PROSPERO : What says the noble Portia? PORTIA: Though justice be thy plea, consider this. - That in the course of justice, none of us Should see salvation ; we do pray for mercy ; And that same prayer cloth teach us all to render The deeds of mercy. It is twice bless'd. It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes. 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest ; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown : His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings ; But mercy seasons justice. PROSPERO : In the words of another, let me say : 0 wise young judge, how I do honour thee! PORTIA withdraws. (Looking aside.) Whom do I see approaching? Surely, my delicate Ariel has found some fairy spirits like himself, and is conducting them hither, to grace our evening entertainment. Enter TITANIA in a little flower-decked carriage drawn by two elves and preceded by Puck skipping and dancing, and blowing from time to time on a small trumpet. A number of little fairies follow, while soft music plays ; others may enter from different sides.) PROSPERO : All hail, Titania, queen of fairies, beauteous sovereign of the land of dreams. Like the sweet flowers of your own fairy-land, you bring light and joy and beauty with you. The fairies, lightly dancing back and forth, and around their queen, sing the following words :2 Over hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough brier, Over park, over pale, Thorough flood, thorough fire, 8 4 CTR Ill

8 We do wander everywhere Swifter than the moon's sphere ; And we serve the fairy queen, To dew her orbs upon the green. The cowslips tall her pensioners be ; In their gold coats spots you see ; Those be rubies, fairy favours, In those freckles live their savours. RUTH : (Standing.) We are honoured, fair Titania, by your presence at our graduation festival. Stay, we pray you, to grace it to the end. PUCK : What! a play toward! I'll be an auditor ; An actor, too, perhaps, if I see cause. ANGELA : (Standing.) You are most welcome, little Puck. You shall not only witness our evening revels, but take part in them, too, if so it please you. Your merry pranks will be an added charm. PUCK: I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round, Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier! Sometimes a horse I'll be, sometimes a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometimes a fire ; And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. MABEL: But attempt not here, mischief-loving sprite, the merry tricks you played one Midsummer Night in the forest near Athens, dropping the magic juice of flowers in the eyes of distracted lovers. PUCK: Ah! those things do best please me, That befall preposterously. The GRADUATES resume their seats. PROSPERO : (To Puck.) Now, little elf, display the power residing in your magic flower, and waft into dreamland these fairy sprites. PUCK skips from one to another, beginning with TITANIA, touching their eyelids with a poppy ; whereupon, all the elves and fairies sink to the ground and fall asleep. PROSPERO : (Looking aside.) Here comes a gentle maiden, whose mind is wandering, from the shock of a father's sudden death and the sorrows of unhappy love. Here is a case for your elfin arts, my little Puck. All persons would approve, should you drop the juice of Oberori s magic herb on the sleeping eyelids of the Prince of Denmark, and turn his affections towards the unhappy Ophelia. PUCK: (Gaily.) Shall we their fond pageants see? - Lord, what fools these mortals be! Withdraws among the fairies. OPHELIA enters slowly, carrying a basket offlowers. OPHELIA : There's rosemary, that's for remembrance ; pray, love, remember ; and there is pansies, that's for thoughts. There's rue for you ; and here's some for me : we may call it herb-grace o' Sundays. 0, you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all, when my father died. They say he made a good end - (Sings.) He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone ; At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone. Pray you, mark! White his shroud as the mountain snow, White his shroud as the mountain snow, Larded with sweet flowers ; Which bewept to the grave did go With true-love showers. 3 I hope all will be well. We must be patient; but I cannot choose but weep, to think they should lay him i' the cold ground. My brother shall know of it; and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good-night, ladies ; good night, sweet ladies! good night, good night. (Goes out slowly backward, throwing kisses to the audience.) RUTH : Poor innocent Ophelia! I could join the Danish Queen in scattering flowers o'er her bier, and murmur, "Sweets to the sweet; Farewell!" PROSPERO : A poor broken reed; but too frail a support for the tortured Prince of Denmark. ANGELA: The shades of Shakespeare's women have shown themselves obedient to your summons, Prospero, and well has your faithful Ariel performed his task ; is it not time to grant him his freedom? PROSPERO : Yes, if he is not playing some malicious trick on his arch-enemy, Caliban - (Calls.) Ho, Ariel; ethereal spirit, here! ARIEL appears. ARIEL : Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure? PROSPERO : Why, that's my dainty Ariel! I shall miss thee, But yet thou shalt have freedom : - so, so, so. ARIEL prances with delight. Behold these fairy sprites, in nature kindred to thine own. Arouse them from their magic slumbers, and when thou hast led them safe to their forest home, amid the waving trees and fragrant flowers, thou, too, shalt have thy liberty. ARIEL: (Joyfully.) I drink the air before me, and return Or ere your pulse twice beat. Sings gaily as he wakes each elf and fairy with a touch of his wand or flower. (Sings) Where the bee sucks, there suck I ; In a cowslip's bell I lie ; There I couch when owls do cry. On the bat's back I do fly. After summer, merrily. Merrily, merrily, shall I live now, SUMMER

9 Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.4 4 Music by Dr. Thomas A. Arne; published by G. Schirmer, New York. [Note in original] PROSPERO : (To the audience.) In conclusion, let me quote the words of Shakespeare's Prospero after the pageant he had presented to entertain Prince Ferdinand : Our revels now are ended. These our actors. As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air : And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces. The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded with sleep. May that sleep bring pleasant dreams to each one here present. Now I will lay aside the magician's robe with my potent wand, and leave the stage to the heroines of the evening. (Bows to the GRADUATES.) Instructed by the lessons drawn from the lives of Shakespeare's women, they are no doubt fitted to grace the career to which Fortune may call them; and now let them receive their well-merited laurels. (Bows to the GRADUATES, then to the audience, and withdraws.) THE END Notes 1 Any other reference may be made to current events. [Note in original] 2 "Amoroso," by Andrew J. Boex. In The Capital Collection of Two- Part Songs, published by The John Church Co., Chicago or New York. [Note in original] 3 Music in Werner's Readings and Recitations, No. 27, published by Edgar S. Werner & Co., New York. [Note in original] 8 6 CTR 111