CORP. Is that true? Where is your passport?
SASHA. I have none.
CORP. We are looking for such men as you. Come!
SASHA. This woman is my mother.
CORP. That's her affair. You have no passport; that is enough for me.
You'll soon be back on the road to the North with the rest of them.
SASHA. Woman! woman! Have pity on your son.
CORP. Come along, lad, and leave the old woman in peace.
[_Exit Sasha in custody._]
PRAS. The Lord help me!
[_Praskóvya stumbles towards the eikons and sinks blindly before
them._]
FOMÁ [_looking after Sasha_]. Poor devil!
ASTÉRYI. What's a man compared to an idea?
[_Praskóvya rolls over, dead._]
[_Curtain._]
MARY'S WEDDING
A PLAY
BY GILBERT CANNAN
Copyright, 1913, by Sidgwick and Jackson.
All rights reserved.
MARY'S WEDDING was first produced at the Coronet Theatre, in
May, 1912, with the following cast:
MARY _Miss Irene Rooke_
TOM _Mr. Herbert Lomas_
ANN _Miss Mary Goulden_
MRS. AIREY _Miss Muriel Pratt_
BILL AIREY _Mr. Charles Bibby_
TWO MAIDS.
VILLAGERS AND OTHERS.
SCENE: _The Davis's Cottage_.
NOTE: There is no attempt made in the play to reproduce exactly
the Westmoreland dialect, which would be unintelligible to ears
coming new to it, but only to catch the rough music of it and the
slow inflection of northern voices.
Reprinted from "Four Plays," by permission of Mr. Gilbert Cannan.
MARY'S WEDDING
A PLAY BY GILBERT CANNAN
[_The scene is the living-room in the Davis's cottage in the hill
country. An old room low in the ceiling. Ann Davis is at the table
in the center of the room untying a parcel. The door opens to
admit Tom Davis, a sturdy quarryman dressed in his best and
wearing a large nosegay._]
ANN. Well, 'ast seed un?
TOM. Ay, a seed un. 'Im and 'is ugly face--
ANN [_untying her parcel_].'Tis 'er dress come just in time an' no more
from the maker-up--
TOM. Ef she wouldna do it....
ANN. But 'tis such long years she's been a-waitin'.... 'Tis long years
since she bought t' dress.
TOM. An' 'tis long years she'll be a livin' wi' what she's been waitin'
for; 'tis long years she'll live to think ower it and watch the thing
she's taken for her man, an' long years that she'll find 'un feedin' on
'er, an' a dreary round she'll 'ave of et....
ANN. Three times she 'ave come to a month of weddin' an' three times 'e
'ave broke loose and gone down to the Mortal Man an' the woman that
keeps 'arf our men in drink.... 'Tis she is the wicked one, giving 'em
score an' score again 'till they owe more than they can ever pay with a
year's money.
TOM. 'Tis a fearful thing to drink....
ANN. So I telled 'er in the beginnin' of it all, knowin' what like of
man 'e was. An' so I telled 'er last night only.
TOM. She be set on it?
ANN. An', an' 'ere's t' pretty dress for 'er to be wedded in....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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