The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson – Swanston Edition. Volume 15

Brodie (to Mary). I know you forgive me now; I ask no more. That is a good man. (To Leslie.) Will you take her from my hands? (Leslie takes Mary.) Jean, are ye here to see the end?

Jean. Eh man, can ye no’ fly? Could ye no’ say that it was me?

Brodie. No, Jean, this is where it ends. Uncle, this is where it ends. And to think that not an hour ago I still had hopes! Hopes! Ay, not an hour ago I thought of a new life. You were not forgotten, Jean. Leslie, you must try to forgive me … you too!

Leslie. You are her brother.

Brodie (to Lawson). And you.

Lawson. My name-child and my sister’s bairn.

Brodie. You won’t forget Jean, will you? nor the child?

Lawson. That I will not.

Mary. O Willie, nor I.

SCENE VII

To these, Hunt

Hunt. The game’s up, Deacon. I’ll trouble you to come along with me.

Brodie (behind the table). One moment, officer: I have a word to say before witnesses ere I go. In all this there is but one man guilty; and that man is I. None else has sinned; none else must suffer. This poor woman (pointing to Jean) I have used; she never understood. Mr. Procurator-Fiscal, that is my dying confession. (He snatches his hanger from the table, and rushes upon Hunt, who parries, and runs him through. He reels across the stage and falls.) The new life … the new life! (He dies.)

CURTAIN

BEAU AUSTIN

DEDICATED WITH ADMIRATION AND RESPECT TO GEORGE MEREDITH

BOURNEMOUTH,

1st October, 1884

The Time is 1820. The Scene is laid at Tunbridge Wells. The Action occupies a space of ten hours.

PROLOGUE

“To all and singular,” as Dryden says,
We bring a fancy of those Georgian days,
Whose style still breathed a faint and fine perfume
Of old-world courtliness and old-world bloom:
When speech was elegant and talk was fit,
For slang had not been canonised as wit;
When manners reigned, when breeding had the wall,
And Women – yes! – were ladies first of all;
When Grace was conscious of its gracefulness,
And man – though Man! – was not ashamed to dress.
A brave formality, a measured ease,
Were his – and hers – whose effort was to please.
And to excel in pleasing was to reign,
And, if you sighed, never to sigh in vain.

But then, as now – it may be, something more —
Woman and man were human to the core.
The hearts that throbbed behind that quaint attire
Burned with a plenitude of essential fire.
They too could risk, they also could rebel.
They could love wisely – they could love too well.
In that great duel of Sex, that ancient strife
Which is the very central fact of life,
They could – and did – engage it breath for breath,
They could – and did – get wounded unto death.
As at all times since time for us began
Woman was truly woman, man was man.
And joy and sorrow were as much at home
In trifling Tunbridge as in mighty Rome.

Dead – dead and done with! Swift from shine to shade
The roaring generations flit and fade.
To this one, fading, flitting, like the rest,
We come to proffer – be it worst or best —
A sketch, a shadow, of one brave old time;
A hint of what it might have held sublime;
A dream, an idyll, call it what you will,
Of man still Man, and woman – Woman still!

    W. E. H.

Musical Induction: “Lascia ch’io pianga” (Rinaldo), Handel

ACT I

The Stage represents Miss Foster’s apartments at the Wells. Doors, L. and C.; a window, L.C., looking on the street; a table, R., laid for breakfast

SCENE I

Barbara; to her, Miss Foster

Barbara (out of window). Mr. Menteith! Mr. Menteith! Mr. Menteith! – Drat his old head! Will nothing make him hear? – Mr. Menteith!

Miss Foster (entering). Barbara! this is incredible: after all my lessons, to be leaning from the window, and calling (for unless my ears deceived me, you were positively calling!) into the street.

Barbara. Well, madam, just wait until you hear who it was. I declare it was much more for Miss Dorothy and yourself than for me; and if it was a little countrified, I had a good excuse.

Miss Foster. Nonsense, child! At least, who was it?

Barbara. Miss Evelina, I was sure you would ask. Well, what do you think? I was looking out of the window at the barber’s opposite —