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
JOB ARTHUR. It's no use fooling. You've fooled for thirty years, and
we're no further. What's got to be done will have to be begun. It's for
every man to sweep in front of his own doorstep. You can't call your
neighbours dirty till you've washed your own face. Every parish has got
its own vermin, and it's the business of every parish to get rid of its
own.
VOICES. That's it--that's it--that's the ticket--that's the style!
WILLIE. And are you going to comb 'em out, or do you propose to use
Keating's?
VOICES. Shut it! Shut it up! Stop thy face! Hold thy gab!--Go on, Job
Arthur.
JOB ARTHUR. How it's got to be done is for us all to decide. I'm not one
for violence, except it's a force-put. But it's like this. We've been
travelling for years to where we stand now--and here the road stops.
There's a precipice below and a rock-face above. And in front of us
stand the masters. Now there's three things we can do. We can either
throw ourselves over the precipice; or we can lie down and let the
masters walk over us; or we can GET ON.
WILLIE. Yes. That's all right. But how are you going to get on?
JOB ARTHUR. Well--we've either got to throw the obstacle down the
cliff--or walk over it.
VOICES. Ay--ay--ay--yes--that's a fact.
WILLIE. I quite follow you, Job Arthur. You've either got to do for the
masters--or else just remove them, and put them somewhere else.
VOICES. Get rid on 'em--drop 'em down the shaft--sink 'em--ha' done
wi' 'em--drop 'em down the shaft--bust the beggars--what do you do wi'
vermin?
WILLIE. Supposing you begin. Supposing you take Gerald Barlow, and
hang him up from his lamp-post, with a piece of coal in his mouth for a
sacrament---
VOICES. Ay--serve him right--serve the beggar right! Shove it down's
throttle--ay!
WILLIE. Supposing you do it--supposing you've done it--and supposing you
aren't caught and punished--even supposing that--what are you going to
do next?--THAT'S the point.
JOB ARTHUR. We know what we're going to do. Once we can get our hands
free, we know what we're going to do.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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