Original Plays, Second Series

SCENE: _A tropical landscape. In the distance, a calm sea. A natural fountain--a mere thread of water--falls over a rock into a natural basin. An old sun-dial formed of the uppe...

_Mous._ I left him sleeping soundly in my hut, He did not drink the wine--but still he sleeps. (_Producing veil._) I stole it from his pillow! Here’s a prize! Poor devil that I...

_Vav._ To die as we should die: The night is given to the world that she May mourn her widowhood. _He_ knows no night, But journeys calmly on his heavenly path Wrapt in eternal...

SCENE.--_Garden of a humble but picturesque cottage, near Gretna, on the border between England and Scotland. The whole scene is suggestive of rustic prosperity and content. MAG...

_Min._ Oh, I’m sure we shall, Parker. He has often told me that I am the tree upon which the fruit of his heart is growing; and one couldn’t wish to be more than _that_. And he...

_Miss T._ How marvellous is the power of melody over the soul that is fretted and harassed by anxiety and doubt. I can understand how valuable must have been the troubadours of...

SCENE.--_The Garden of a pretty Country Villa, The house is new, and the garden shows signs of having been recently laid out; the shrubs are small, and the few trees about are m...

SCENE.--_The same as in Act I., with such additions and changes as may be supposed to have taken place in thirty years. The house, which was bare in Act I., is now entirely cove...

now; the general arrangement of the garden is the same, except that the sycamore planted in Act I. has developed into a large tree, the boughs of which roof in the stage; the la...

SCENE.--_Interior of DAN’L DRUCE’S hut, a tumble-down old shanty, of the rudest description; with very small wood fire. The whole place is as squalid and miserable as possible....

SCENE.--_The interior of a picturesque old forge. The forge is open at the back, and DRUCE’S cottage is seen through opening. There is a path off. DAN’L DRUCE, a hearty-looking...

SCENE.--_Interior of DRUCE’S cottage. Time, evening. DOROTHY is discovered pale and weak, sitting by the fire, reading an old and tattered letter, her head resting in her hand....

SCENE.--_Under the cloisters of a monastery. In the centre of the stage a graveyard; in the graveyard, conspicuous among other tombs, is a tall monument. Procession of _Monks_ c...

_Aga._ Changed! Why, at first I couldn’t trust my eyes. You know how jauntily she bore herself-- How daintily she dressed? Well--_that’s_ all changed! Pale, wasted to a shadow--...

_Bar._ (_to BESSIE_). Thou foolish child, Revile not that of which thou knowest naught. Some day, maybe--observe, I say _maybe_-- Some one will love _thee_--strange things come...

_Lisa._ Yes; Yet but one moment I had been too late. Old Karl is dying, and the holy man, Being called in haste to minister to him, Was on the eve of starting as I came.

_Tom._ I haven’t a penny--I haven’t the ghost of a prospect of a penny. In debt everywhere, and now I’m told that judgment’s been signed against me for £250 by the cruellest Jew...

_Whi._ My darling Matilda, who was it who said the course of true love never did run smooth? Are not our loves true? And could anything be smoother than their course during the...

SCENE.--_A drawing-room, shabbily furnished, in MR. EFFINGHAM’S house. COBB is discovered smoking a pipe on balcony with CAROLINE. The EFFINGHAM family is discovered grouped:--M...

SCENE.--_Garden of Sir Marmaduke’s Elizabethan mansion. The end of a large marquee, open, and showing portion of table covered with white cloth, on which are joints of meat, tea...

Happy are we in our loving frivolity, Happy and jolly as people of quality; Love is the source of all joy to humanity, Money, position, and rank are a vanity; Year after year we...

We sail the ocean blue, And our saucy ship’s a beauty; We’re sober men, and true, And attentive to our duty. When the balls whistle free o’er the bright blue sea, We stand to ou...

Fair moon, to thee I sing, Bright regent of the heavens; Say, why is everything Either at sixes or at sevens? I have lived hitherto Free from breath of slander, Beloved by all m...

SCENE.--_A rocky sea-shore on the coast of Cornwall. Under the rock is a cavern. In the distance is a calm sea, on which a schooner is lying at anchor. As the curtain rises grou...

Oh, dry the glistening tear That dews that martial cheek; Thy loving children hear, In them thy comfort seek. With sympathetic care Their arms around thee creep, For oh, they ca...