KING LEAR'S WIFE
THE CRIER BY NIGHT
THE RIDING TO LITHEND
MIDSUMMER-EVE
LAODICE AND DANAE
PLAYS BY GORDON BOTTOMLEY
BOSTON SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY PUBLISHERS
MADE AND PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND GRIGGS (PRINTERS), LTD. AT THE CHISWICK PRESS, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
CONTENTS
PAGE KING LEAR'S WIFE 1
THE CRIER BY NIGHT 49
THE RIDING TO LITHEND 81
MIDSUMMER EVE 131
LAODICE AND DANAE 169
APPENDIX A (KING LEAR'S WIFE) 207
APPENDIX B (THE CRIER BY NIGHT) 211
NOTE.--_Throughout the stage-directions in the following pages the words "right" and "left" are used with reference to the actor's right and left, not the spectator's._
"REMEMBER THE LIFE OF THESE THINGS CONSISTS IN ACTION."
JOHN MARSTON: 1606.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
THE plays here collected were originally published separately at various dates during the past eighteen years, and are now brought together for the first time. The details of the previous issues, now for the most part out of print, are appended.
I. THE CRIER BY NIGHT. (1900.) Published by the Unicorn Press, London, 1902. 32 pp. Quarto, boards. 500 copies.
II. MIDSUMMER EVE. (1901-2.) Printed and published at the Pear Tree Press, South Harting, near Petersfield, 1905, with decorations by James Guthrie. iv+ 36 pp. Large post 8vo, boards. 120 copies.
III. LAODICE AND DANAE. (1906.) Printed for private circulation, 1909. iv + 26 pp. Royal 8vo, wrappers. 150 copies.
IV. THE RIDING TO LITHEND. (1907.) Printed and published at the Pear Tree Press, Flansham near Bognor, 1909, with decorations by James Guthrie. vi + 40pp. Foolscap 4to, boards. 120 copies (20 of which had an extra plate and were hand-coloured.)
V. KING LEAR'S WIFE. (1911-13.) Published in "Georgian Poetry, 1913-1915," pp. 1 to 47. The Poetry Bookshop, London, 1915.
THE CRIER BY NIGHT, THE RIDING TO LITHEND, and LAODICE AND DANAE have been reprinted in the United States of America, the first in 1909, the second in two separate forms in 1910, the third in 1916.
NOTE
APPLICATIONS for permission to perform these plays in Great Britain and the Colonies should be addressed to the author, care of Messrs. Constable and Co. Ltd., 10-12 Orange Street, Leicester Square, London, W.C.2; and in the United States of America to Mr. Paul R. Reynolds, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York.
KING LEAR'S WIFE _is copyright by Gordon Bottomley in the United States of America_, 1915.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: King Lear's Wife; The Crier by Night; The Riding t
- 2: By life shut in creative deeds
- 3: Enters abruptly by the door beyond the bed
- 4: MERRYN goes out by the door beyond the bed
- 5: HYGD stirs uneasily in her sleep
- 6: And GONERIL appears in hunting dress
- 7: Does Regan worship anywhere at dawn
- 8: And ride with him and ride to the heron marsh
- 9: GORMFLAITH enters by the door beyond the bed
- 10: LEAR seats himself and takes GORMFLAITH'S hand
- 11: Merryn has left her Queen in unwatched loneliness
- 12: She watches LEAR and GORMFLAITH for a short time
- 13: Everybody asks me For Gormflaith
- 14: How easily you save me But soon will Gormflaith come
- 15: Leading GORMFLAITH by the hand
- 16: Until I knew you unkingly and untrue
- 17: She leads GORMFLAITH to the door near the bed
- 18: Ahee Her savour is neither warm nor sweet
- 19: Your Gormflaith could not answer a woman's eyes
- 20: On one of which HIALTI is sitting mending harness
- 21: THORGERD Spare her and have my firing spoilt
- 22: As she crosses the house at the back HIALTI turns and
- 23: THORGERD takes the pot from the fire
- 24: HIALTI and THORGERD draw stools to the table
- 25: HIALTI enters the sleeping chamber
- 26: She reels against the wall and stands there motionlessly
- 27: Unseen imaged faces within life
- 28: HIALTI hurries in half dressed
- 29: It was the Crafty Crier I heard that wail
- 30: His voice growing fainter and fainter
- 31: The curtain descends on silence and darkness
- 32: ODDNY stands spinning at the far side
- 33: To hold this house with Gunnar
- 34: Then are we out of peril in the darkness
- 35: Gunnar should have kept the atonement set
- 36: Call Gunnar to you there HALLGERD is motionless
- 37: STEINVOR enters with the veil folded
- 38: GUDFINN wears a felt hood buttoned under her chin
- 39: GUDFINN joins her in a sing song utterance
- 40: GUNNAR goes out again to the left
- 41: HALLGERD re enters by the dais door
- 42: Snatching the distaff from Biartey
- 43: And Hallgerd drives them out with her hands
- 44: And STEINVOR go out by the dais door
- 45: Here's a red kirtle on the lower roof
- 46: ORMILD totters up the hall from pillar to pillar
- 47: Thrusting at THORBRAND with the bill
- 48: RANNVEIG covers her face with her hands
- 49: The bower is barred Hallgerd
- 50: And in a while a little noise Hou
- 51: Presently a cow is heard moaning sickly beyond this door
- 52: The year's sad luscious over ripening
- 53: Mease for two kisses left the staple loose
- 54: Had it been Mease he'd not have chaffered kisses
- 55: The udder turned a dull and shivering white
- 56: As they all seat themselves by MAUDLIN
- 57: Peg was clouting her Nightcaps
- 58: And so she's gotten shawls and shoes as well
- 59: I have on my old plum petticoat
- 60: Come through the neat house ere we too see ours Ursel
- 61: URSEL rises and goes toward her
- 62: Always holding out her arms to NAN
- 63: He had espoused Laodice his kinswoman
- 64: Berenice and Laodice then warred
- 65: There was no more of Sophron afterward
- 66: Though Berenice sits in Antioch Safe with her suckling
- 67: DANAE looks at SOPHRON and shakes her head
- 68: DANAE ceases fanning without LAODICE heeding
- 69: In the meantime Mysta has continued
- 70: She sweeps out followed by BARSINE
- 71: Who has entered noiselessly and come close behind DANAE
- 72: Steep in her wine the herb that makes insane LAODICE
- 73: The duplicate queen holds Babylon
- 74: Her arms heaped with robes LAODICE fingers them
- 75: Clustering about DANAE and seizing her
- 76: LAODICE has thrown herself on the divan
- 77: Cordeil Miss Betty Pinchard
- 78: APPENDIX B THE CRIER BY NIGHT was first performed by Mr
- 79: Bottomley knows what they don't say
- 80: The Riding to Lithend is
- 81: In The Riding to Lithend he rises with his story
- 82: Gordon Bottomley had written a prelude to King Lear
- 83: Hallgerd is an exceptionally fine creation