FESTIVAL PLAYS

[2]

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

PICTURE PLAYS

With cover inlay and illustrations. $1.25 net.

HOLIDAY PLAYS

Cover inlay and frontispiece in color by John Rae. $1.25 net.

CRANFORD: A PLAY

A comedy in three acts from Mrs. Gaskell’s novel. Cover design and frontispiece by Edwin Wallick. 12mo, $1.25 net.

THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD: A PLAY

Cover inlay and frontispiece in colors by John Rae. $1.25 net.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE: A PLAY

Based on Jane Austen’s novel. Frontispiece and cover inlay. $1.25 net.

[3]

FESTIVAL PLAYS

ONE-ACT PIECES FOR NEW YEAR’S DAY, ST. VALENTINE’S DAY, EASTER, ALL HALLOWE’EN, CHRISTMAS AND A CHILD’S BIRTHDAY.

BY MARGUERITE MERINGTON

NEW YORK DUFFIELD & COMPANY 1913

[4]

Copyright, 1913 By DUFFIELD & COMPANY

[5]

[6]

TO MY SISTER MARY E. MERINGTON

ILLUSTRATIONS

[8]

FATHER TIME AND HIS CHILDREN

[9]

FATHER TIME AND HIS CHILDREN

Characters

Father Time and the Twelve Months of the Year.

Costumes, etc.: Time, an emblematic figure; Months dressed according to characters: January wears a mask at back of head, resembling face; February is the shortest child, and walks with a skipping leap at every fourth step; March’s costume suggests the lion and the lamb, etc. Scenery may be elaborate, or simple, or dispensed with entirely. A sun-dial or a clump of rocks may be placed at back of stage, where Time will take his position while the Months recite. Snow may be simulated by small pieces of white paper being gently dropped from above, or by a little salt being placed in the folds of a character’s coat, so that it drops off lightly, or by a frosty little dab of[10] soap-suds on the shoulder melting almost immediately. Taking a commanding position Time will summon each Month in turn by name, through a megaphone, then when the Month appears will retire to the back of stage till the recitation shall have been concluded. The Months will appear when summoned, in turn, disappearing on the opposite side of stage, if possible behind a piece of scenery, reappearing

at back of stage, there to remain quietly till the ensemble at close. Appropriate music for exits and entrances may be used. The songs and dances may be arranged to popular tunes. Colored lights if skilfully handled may be used.

Music: It ends with heavy chords marking time. Curtain rises disclosing Father Time. He blows blast through megaphone, then speaks.

[Stops; wipes brow; speaks.] Not so bad for an ancient eh?... And that is the way I shall dance to the End of Time! [Goes to centre of stage.] And now let me present to you my twelve beautiful children! [Begins to call through megaphone.] What, ho! [Just then an unseen clock strikes twelve. Time counts the strokes. As the last dies away he summons January. Instantly there is a great to-do behind the scenes: bells, horns, whistles, people cheering, etc. January appears.]

CURTAIN.

[25]

TERTULLA’S GARDEN or THE MIRACLE OF GOOD ST. VALENTINE (founded on a legend)

Valentine’s Day

[26]

[27]

TERTULLA’S GARDEN or THE MIRACLE OF GOOD ST. VALENTINE

Characters

Valentinus, a priest of the Christian Church in Rome.

Asterius, chief officer of the Prefect Calpurnius.

Pertinax, overseer of farm and gardens at the country villa of Asterius.

Nerva, a boy, servant in the town house of Asterius.

Tertulla and Quartilla, unmarried daughters of Asterius.

Maronis, a woman servant in attendance on Tertulla and Quartilla.

Other servants.

Time: The fourteenth of February [the sixteenth day before the Kalends of March] during the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius II [A. D. 268-270].

Scene: A room in the town house of Asterius. The scene shows a room furnished in Roman style, but plainly, with table, chair, bench and stool. High up on one wall is an aperture with wooden shutters, now open to admit light and air. Through this window may be seen the branches of a tree, bare of leaf, yet with buds swelling, and a glimpse of sky. In the[28] same wall is a door which gives exit to the lane at the back of the house. On the other side is a curtained opening to another room.... On the table are writing materials of the kind in use at the time. Seated so as to catch the light Valentinus is busily engaged in writing. Enter Nerva bearing a jar of steaming pottage, with a spoon, also a platter with a square, flat cake of bread.

Nerva.

Behold, your supper, Valentinus! [He sets down his burden.] Supper, I say. And though but prisoner’s fare, yet, through some bewitchment you exercise over the entire household, myself excepted, seasoned with the cook’s best art! [He sniffs the pottage.] M-m-m!

Quartilla.

[Head between the curtains.] Bo!... Valentinus! Tilla says Bopeep!

Valentinus.

Ah, my little Quartilla! One sixtieth portion of an hour and I shall have done!... [Still engrossed with work.]

Quartilla.

Sh! [She enters on tiptoe, and one sees that she is an attractive child.]

Nerva.

What have you there, Quartilla? [He tries to help himself from a basket of dainties she carries.] What, cheese cakes, almond cakes, and little tarts! M-m-m!

[29]

Quartilla.

Nerva! Audacious one, forbear! These are for Valentinus!

Nerva.

Wasted on him, when all day he does nothing but spoil good parchment with the juice of the cuttle-fish, only pausing to mend his split reed, or erase a mark with pumice-stone!

Quartilla.

He writes words of comfort to his afflicted people whom our godlike Emperor thinks fit to persecute!

Nerva.

[Devouring a tart.] Persecute! By the immortal gods I like such persecution!

Quartilla.

Peace, brazen one! [She goes to the curtains.] Enter, Pertinax, and gaze on our distinguished guest!

Nerva.

Distinguished guest! A jail-bird whom the jail is too full to hold, and so committed by the Prefect Calpurnius to the care of my master, Asterius, and in his absence to mine! Distinguished guest, forsooth!

[30]

Pertinax.

[Enters, a manly young fellow of pleasing personality. His arms are full of flowering branches, also he carries a basket of flowers.] So this is Quartilla’s wizard!

Nerva.

Quartilla’s wizard, everybody’s wizard. Well may you say so! How else but by wizardry do you account for Asterius sending him dainties from his own table ... Asterius who seals up the very salt-cellar in his thrift!

Quartilla.

[Laughs.] Hush! That is my secret! I steal them for him! Though I present them to him with my father’s greetings, else, so honest is he, he would make me put them back! [The Others exclaim.] Yet, do you know, sometimes I fancy my father sees the theft, but turns his head aside!

Nerva.

Magic! [Going.] By the gods and goddesses, why am not I a Christian and a prisoner!

Valentinus.

[Laying work aside.] These lengthening days tempt me to prolong work! Now, Tilla; is it a doll to be mended, or a table in weights and measures to be learned, or.... [He pauses, seeing Pertinax.]

[31]

Quartilla.

This is Pertinax, overseer at my father’s farm!

Valentinus.

Greetings to you, Pertinax!

Pertinax.

And to you kindly, Valentinus. May the blessing of the gods be to you as a plenteous year’s harvest! [He sets down his burden.] Though I am told that you Christians no longer believe in our ancient gods of Rome!

Valentinus.

But we believe in blessings, from whatever source!

Pertinax.

That lies beyond my comprehension. But then, I am told, you work miracles!

Quartilla.

Indeed he does! He has mended my doll’s nose, and made me remember how many quarts of water you can pour into an amphora!

Nerva.

[Entering with an amphora of water while she speaks.] As if anyone could not do as much!

[32]

Quartilla.

None other has ever done it, all the same!

Nerva.

[Arms akimbo.] Come, then, wizard; prove yourself! dispose for us some prodigy!

Valentinus.

What, Nerva, would you consider such?

Nerva.

Oh, that a hen should crow, or a black dog should suddenly bound through the room, or a snake come down the pipe into the cistern, or that the statue of Jupiter should laugh!

Valentinus.

None of which things can I bring to pass! Nor do I call them miracles!

[Nerva laughs, sneering.]

Pertinax.

How, sir, do you define a miracle?

Quartilla.

Instruct them, Valentinus! Give them proof!

[33]

Valentinus.

[Rolling up his parchment, thoughtfully.] Hm! Well, then, will you, Pertinax, and you, Nerva, walk a few paces from me toward the door?

Quartilla.

[Dancing with joy.] A proof! A demonstration!

Valentinus.

Not so! Merely a definition!... Toward the door!

Nerva.

[Mocking, though complying.] Which, no doubt, will fly open of its own accord at our approach!

[The Two comply, walking toward the door.]

Quartilla.

[Dancing about.] Now you’ll see; you’ll see!

[With his rolled parchment Valentinus gives each youth a sharp blow across the shoulders. With an indignant cry they turn about.]

Pertinax.

Now, by Hercules...!

Nerva.

May Castor and Pollux rend me if I see...!

[34]

Valentinus.

[Mildly.] Did you feel that blow, Pertinax?

Pertinax.

By Hercules, how should I not do so!

Valentinus.

Ah! And you, Nerva?

Nerva.

By Castor and Pollux, am I a stone!

Valentinus.

Ah! Well, it would have been a miracle if you had not felt it!

[The Two look rather discomfited, then Pertinax laughs, seeing the humour of it, while Nerva goes, crest-fallen.]

Quartilla.

[Recovering from delighted mirth.] Oh, that was lovely! But, come, now. Pertinax has a secret to confide in you. Meanwhile eat your supper. It is past the ninth hour, and all day you have worked fasting! Oh, not that bread! My father’s greetings and will you partake of this! [Substitutes fine bread from her basket for that which Nerva has brought, whereon Nerva at the curtains coughs.] Now, Pertinax! What, bashful? Then I’ll tell! He writes poetry! Beautiful poetry!

[35]

Pertinax.

[Modestly, though flattered.] Oh, modest strophes that call for an indulgent ear! Numbers whose measures course through my brain while I superintend the pruning and grafting, the ploughing and planting! As for instance, by your leave! [Taking out a scroll he reads.]

Quartilla.

[Rapturously.] Is it not heavenly?

Valentinus.

Truly it has ever been a favourite of mine since in my schoolboy days I conned my Anacreon! [Pertinax looks discomfited, Quartilla sympathetic, while Nerva, looking in at the curtains, bursts into peals of laughter.]

Nerva.

Anacreon! By Momus, but that’s funny! Anacreon, indeed, my poet!

[36]

Pertinax.

[Seizing on Nerva.] Shameless one than whom none is more contemptible! To perdition with you! May the gods give you your deserts! May you be buffeted with fists, jerked with rods, pricked with goads, pinched with red-hot tongs, roasted over a scorching fire, and thrown to wild beasts to be devoured!

Nerva.

Help, help! Hercules, I invoke thy aid! Oh, I’m destroyed utterly!

Quartilla.

[Dancing for joy.] Thumbs up! Don’t spare him, Pertinax! Thumbs up! [She presses her thumbs upward in the manner of the spectators at a gladiatorial contest when they wished the vanquished contestant to be slain.]

Valentinus.

[Interposing, rescues Nerva.] There, there! That is punishment enough for youthful levity!

Pertinax.

[Sinks into a seat and wipes a heated brow.] Levity? No cork on water was ever of character more light! Had I you under me at the farm ... [Threatens Nerva who runs off.] ... I’d change your tune!

[37]

Nerva.

[As he goes, taunting.] Anacreon! Ha, ha! Anacreon!

Pertinax.

Master, I confess to the theft of an older poet’s words, but the feeling they clothe is all my own, generated here! [Hand on breast.] Suffer me to explain! But, first, Quartilla, leave us!

Quartilla.

[Grumbling.] As usual! Whenever things become interesting it is, “Quartilla, leave us!”

Valentinus.

How fares our sister Tertulla whom not since early morning have I seen?

Quartilla.

Not well!

Pertinax.

[Starting up, agitated.] What! Tertulla ... Asteria Tertia ... she is ill?

Quartilla.

Oh, not ill! Tulla is sad. All day Tulla sits apart and sighs, “Eheu! Woe is me!” And all because my father has not taken her as usual to the country!

[38]

Valentinus.

Tertulla has fewer pleasures than those who can see!

Quartilla.

That is true! Wait! [She has an inspiration.] I have a way to cheer her! I’ll tell her Pertinax is here! [About to go.]

Pertinax.

[Greatly agitated.] The gods forbid! Quartilla, if so you do, never again will I pluck sweet pears for you and grapes and pomegranates when you steal out to me in the orchard!

Quartilla.

[Teasing.] See now how frightened he is! One would think my poor sister to be accursed, the way he always runs from her! However as I love sweet pears and grapes and pomegranates I promise I won’t tell!

Pertinax.

The heavens reward you!

Quartilla.

[Running off.] I’ll make her guess it for herself!

Pertinax.

[Sighs.] Eheu! Wretched I! Master ... [He waxes confidential.] I have a secret! I love!

[39]

Valentinus.

In the springtime of your life and of the year why not?

Pertinax.

Why not, indeed! But.... There is a but!

Valentinus.

As always!

Pertinax.

But never was a but so insurmountable as mine!

Valentinus.

Again, as always!

Pertinax.

While occupying an enviable position as overseer of my master’s farm I should be happier as a public slave working in the stone-quarries or the mill! Worn to the heart with longing I am of mortals the most wretched! I cannot sleep, I cannot eat! [Absent-mindedly he helps himself to a little cake from Quartilla’s basket and nibbles it with relish.] To such a degree has love inflamed me that, but for my tears, I should be consumed with fire! My wits wander like cows at pasture! No longer do I remember when to sow the three months’ wheat, or how to set out a rose-bed! A row of lilies or of leeks, it is all the same to me! [Sighs deeply.]

[40]

Valentinus.

Not so, judging by the fruits of your husbandry! [Indicating the flowers.]

Pertinax.

Ah-h! These are different! These are sacred blooms ... my source of inspiration! These come from Tertulla’s garden!

Valentinus.

[Understanding the position.] Hm! Tertulla!

Pertinax.

[Corroborating.] Even so! Tertulla! I have looked with inclination on the maid from the day when I, a by-standing youth, drew her from the reach of the fateful flames of her mother’s funeral pile into which in her grief she was about to cast herself ... an act of filial piety which, combined with excessive weeping, cost her the sight of her lovely eyes! When, rewarding me, Asterius purchased me, I rejoiced in the exchange of masters, for the opportunity this would afford me constantly to behold my divinity-on-earth! I have watched her grow like the sapling trees under my care ... and with her growth and mine my love has kept apace! The garden she calls her own have I made my especial care, tending it not only by day, but also by night when none might guess my secret, till the fame of Tertulla’s garden is a proverb! [He pauses a second for breath.] To me she is the breath of life! But.... Eheu! Woe’s me!

[41]

Valentinus.

You fear the opposition of Asterius?

Pertinax.

That, doubtless, would be terrible, since, when roused, he blusters like the Adriatic in a storm! However, the more violent the tempest, the shorter-lived! With your all-powerful intercession, Valentinus, Asterius might be reconciled! He might suffer me with my hoardings to buy my freedom, and since, through the merits of the gods and of my ancestors, my name is no less honourable than his own, and since no wooers besiege his door for his blind daughter he might be brought to look with favour on me as a son-in-law! Lies not the trouble there!

Valentinus.

Then where?

Pertinax.

With Tertulla! With the maid herself!

Valentinus.

You mean she holds you in aversion!

Pertinax.

Worse, worse! O by a thousand times worse! Myself as Pertinax she hardly knows, hardly ever has thrown a word to, yet she loves me! More, she worships me!...[42] She thinks me an emissary from the immortal gods, if not, indeed, myself a god!

Valentinus.

You offer riddles to one called Valentinus, not Œdipus!

Pertinax.

Let me unravel it that you may extricate me from the sacrilegious maze in which, all-unheeding, I, wretchedest of men, have lost myself!... Thus did it begin!... But, hark! [Voices are heard in the adjoining room.] She comes! Tertulla!

[In great perturbation he hastily opens the door and passes out.]

Maronis.

[In the adjoining room, parting the curtains.] Come, my honeysuckle-sprig, and talk with the disposer of prodigies who always comforts you!

[Enter Maronis and Quartilla leading Tertulla, a young girl of great beauty. Her hair hangs loose, she wears a chaplet and a white, flowing robe; also her feet are bare, or sandaled. Her general aspect is of one prepared to offer sacrifice. Her eyes are bandaged, and her countenance and voice are sad.]

Tertulla.

Salutations, Valentinus!

[43]

Valentinus.

And to you kindly, Tertulla! Whatever you wish I desire it may befall you! [Tertulla sighs.] But wherefore thus deject of countenance?

Quartilla.

I know why!

Tertulla.

Peace, Tilla! At your age how should one comprehend such matters?

Quartilla.

Does one have to be tall as a fig-tree to know that you are bursting with longing for your garden? “Eheu! wretchedest of women I as many as ever have been born! Woe’s me!” [Mimicking her sister.]

Maronis.

It is true. If it were not for the bandage that you, Valentinus, make her wear she would weep so immoderately that she would be turned into a river, like to Ilia, the mother of Romulus and Remus!

Tertulla.

[Explaining.] Always, ever since I was a child, in the days that cut the month of February in twain my father has taken me with him to the country, journeying thither to give directions for the spring work at his farm. But[44] this year, business detaining him in town, he has sent for his overseer to come here to him, instead, and so ... Eheu!

Valentinus.

But the year is young. Barely have the heavens ceased to scatter snow on the Albanian hills. As yet the relaxing earth suffers only the hardiest of her green children to put their noses out of bed! Later you will all go to your father’s villa, avoiding the scorching heat of dog-star days!

Tertulla.

Ah, then it will not be the same! Then will it be too late.

Valentinus.

[Puzzled.] Too late?

Maronis.

[Explaining.] If you were not a deserving but unfortunate Christian, Valentinus, you would not have forgotten that in the days about the Ides of February the young god Faunus, protector of those same green children of the earth, returns from his winter quarters in Arcadia to Italy!

Valentinus.

[Remembering.] Ah, true! Nevertheless.... [Still puzzled.]

Maronis.

[Continuing.] And Tertulla is wonted to celebrate the[45] feast of the Faunalia at the villa, offering sacrifice in her garden to the two-horned god!

Tertulla.

It is indeed so!

[Pertinax opens the door softly a crack and peeps in, seen only by Valentinus.]

Valentinus.

I begin to understand! Well, since Tertulla cannot go to the country perhaps the country will come to Tertulla!

Quartilla.

[Dancing about gleefully.] A miracle! A prodigy! I said Valentinus would work one and set things right!

Valentinus.

My child, I promise nothing! But Tertulla must remember that true sacrifices can be made anywhere, in country or in town!

Maronis.

[To Tertulla.] Aha, girl! Have I not worn out my tongue telling you as much all day?

Tertulla.

But will the god hear, missing me from my accustomed place?

[46]

Valentinus.

No honest petition ever goes unheeded anywhere!

Maronis.

[Nodding approval.] Another statement of my own, and therefore full of wisdom!

Tertulla.

[To Valentinus.] Oh, how you comfort me! And yet ... there is something further!

Quartilla.

[Excited.] Aha! A secret!

Tertulla.

But not for your ears, O little pitcher of two handles! Go from us awhile!

Quartilla.

[Pouting.] As usual when things grow interesting: “Quartilla, leave us!” But this time Valentinus will have to use magic to make me budge!

Valentinus.

Alas! No sorcerer am I! Yet, perhaps.... Hark!

Quartilla.

What do you hear?

[47]

Valentinus.

Surely not the first swallow, returning on the wings of the bird-wind, and seeking where to build a nest! Up, Tilla! Let us see! [Mounting the bench he draws her up, then lifts her to the window.]

Quartilla.