Touch and Go: A Play in Three ActsLawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
General
Touch and Go: A Play in Three Acts
Lawrence, D. H. (David Herbert)
English drama
GERALD. I'm waiting for something to happen. I should like something to
happen--very much--very much indeed.
JOB ARTHUR. Yes, but perhaps you'd be sorry if it did happen.
GERALD. Is that warning or a threat?
JOB ARTHUR. I don't know--it might be a bit of both. What I mean to
say---
GERALD (suddenly seizing him by the scruff of the neck and shaking him).
What do you mean to say?--I mean you to say less, do you see?--a great
deal less--do you see? You've run on with your saying long enough: that
clock had better run down. So stop your sayings--stop your sayings,
I tell you--or you'll have them shaken out of you--shaken out of
you--shaken out of you, do you see? (Suddenly flings him aside.)
(JOB ARTHUR, staggering, falls.)
ANABEL. Oh, no!--oh, no!
GERALD. Now get up, Job Arthur; and get up wiser than you went down.
You've played your little game and your little tricks and made your
little sayings long enough. You're going to stop now. We've had quite
enough of strong men of your stamp, Job Arthur--quite enough--such
labour leaders as you.
JOB ARTHUR. You'll be sorry, Mr. Barlow--you'll be sorry. You'll wish
you'd not attacked me.
GERALD. Don't you trouble about me and my sorrow. Mind your own.
JOB ARTHUR. You will--you'll be sorry. You'll be sorry for what you've
done. You'll wish you'd never begun this.
GERALD. Begun--begun?--I'd like to finish, too, that I would. I'd like
to finish with you, too--I warn YOU.
JOB ARTHUR. I warn you--I warn you. You won't go on much longer. Every
parish has its own vermin.
GERALD. Vermin?
JOB ARTHUR. Every parish has its own vermin; it lies with every parish
to destroy its own. We sha'n't have a clean parish till we've destroyed
the vermin we've got.
GERALD. Vermin? The fool's raving. Vermin!--Another phrase-maker, by
God! Another phrase-maker to lead the people.--Vermin? What vermin? I
know quite well what _I_ mean by vermin, Job Arthur. But what do you
mean? Vermin? Explain yourself.
JOB ARTHUR. Yes, vermin. Vermin is what lives on other people's lives,
living on their lives and profiting by it. We've got 'em in every
parish--vermin, I say--that live on the sweat and blood of the
people--live on it, and get rich on it--get rich through living on other
people's lives, the lives of the working men--living on the bodies
of the working men--that's vermin--if it isn't, what is it? And every
parish must destroy its own--every parish must destroy its own vermin.
GERALD. The phrase, my God! the phrase.
JOB ARTHUR. Phrase or not phrase, there it is, and face it out if you
can. There it is--there's not one in every parish--there's more than
one--there's a number---
GERALD (suddenly kicking him). Go! (Kicks him.) Go! (Kicks him.) go!
(JOB ARTHUR falls.) Get out! (Kicks him.) Get out, I say! Get out, I
tell you! Get out! Get out!--Vermin!--Vermin!--I'll vermin you! I'll put
my foot through your phrases. Get up, I say, get up and go--GO!
JOB ARTHUR. It'll be you as'll go, this time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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