Will Shakespeare: An Invention in Four ActsDane, Clemence
General
Will Shakespeare: An Invention in Four Acts
Dane, Clemence
Dramatists -- Drama; Historical drama; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Drama
ANOTHER. If Love and I should meet,
I’ll catch her to me--
ANOTHER. Luck, you fool, not love!
ANOTHER. Where’s the difference? If you’re in love you’re in luck.
ANOTHER. Here, stop the boy!
MARY. Let me pass, gentlemen!
THE MAN. Sing another verse!
ANOTHER. If Love and I--
ANOTHER. Shut up now and let the kid sing it!
MARY. Why yes, if you’ll let me pass afterwards, sir, like love
in the song.
THE MAN. Sing another verse! Sing twenty other verses!
MARY [_singing_]. If Love should pass me by,
I’ll follow till I find him,
And when I hear him cry,
I’ll tear the veils that blind him!
THE MAN. Now then, chorus!
ALL TOGETHER. Hey, Love! Ho, Love!
None shall know, Love!
Keep but a kiss for me!
MARY _disappears in the crowd. The door swings to as_
SHAKESPEARE _turns back into the room_.
SHAKESPEARE. Marlowe! Marlowe!
She is gone, Marlowe, that was a fume of wine
Between us. Marlowe, Marlowe, speak to me!
Never a sound. We have seen many a dawn
Creep like a house-wife on the drunken night,
And tumble him from heaven with work-day hand
And bird-shrill railing; but such a waking up
As this we never knew. Sorry and cold
I look on you. Kit, Kit, this mark of the knife
Is the first blot I ever saw in you,
The first ill-writing. Kit, for your own sake,
You should have wronged a stranger, not your friend;
For like a looking-glass my heart still served you
To see yourself, and when you struck at me,
You struck yourself, and broke this mirror too.
_A knock._
Mary? Is it Mary? Lie you quiet, Marlowe!
We will not let her in.
HENSLOWE. Within, who’s within there?
SHAKESPEARE. Two dead men.
HENSLOWE. Is it Marlowe?
Is Shakespeare there?
SHAKESPEARE. Come in, come in, come in!
HENSLOWE _comes in hurriedly. He leaves the
door half open behind him._
VOICES [_singing_]. Ho, boy! Hey, boy!
Come this way, boy!
Who’ll have a drink with me?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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