The Player Queen
By W. B. Yeats
()
About this ebook
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats is widely regarded as one of the finest English language poets. His eclectic output frequently draws on his chief passions for the occult and the history of his homeland. The poetry, while often mystical and romantic, can also be gritty, realistic and frequently political. Yeats was also a major playwright and founded the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theatre. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
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The Player Queen - W. B. Yeats
THE PLAYER QUEEN
BY W. B. YEATS
A Digireads.com Book
Digireads.com Publishing
Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4169-2
Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4231-6
This edition copyright © 2011
Please visit www.digireads.com
CONTENTS
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
SCENE I
SCENE II
PERSONS IN THE PLAY
DECIMA
SEPTIMUS
NONA
THE QUEEN
THE PRIME MINISTER
THE BISHOP
THE STAGE MANAGER
THE TAPSTER
AN OLD BEGGAR
OLD MEN, OLD WOMEN,
CITIZENS, COUNTRYMEN,
PLAYERS, etc.
SCENE I: An open space at the meeting of three streets.
SCENE II: The Throne Room.
SCENE I
An open space at the meeting of three streets. One can see for some way down one of these streets and at some little distance it turns, showing a bare piece of wall lighted by a hanging lamp. Against this lighted wall are silhouetted the heads and shoulders of two old men. They are leaning from the upper windows, one on either side of the street. They wear grotesque masks. A little to one side of the stage is a great stone for mounting a horse from. The houses have knockers.
FIRST OLD MAN. Can you see the Queen's castle? You have better sight than I.
SECOND OLD MAN. I can just see it rising over the tops of the houses yonder on its great rocky hill.
FIRST OLD MAN. Is the dawn breaking? Is it touching the tower?
SECOND OLD MAN. It is beginning to break upon the tower, but these narrow streets will be dark for a long while. [A pause.] Do you hear anything? You have better hearing than I.
FIRST OLD MAN. No, all is quiet.
SECOND OLD MAN. At least fifty passed by an hour since, a crowd of fifty men walking rapidly.
FIRST OLD MAN. Last night was very quiet, not a sound, not a breath.
SECOND OLD MAN. And not a thing to be seen till the tapster's old dog came down the street upon this very hour from Cooper Malachi's ash-pit.
FIRST OLD MAN. Hush, I hear feet, many feet. Perhaps they are coming this way. [Pause.] No, they are going the other way, they are gone now.
SECOND OLD MAN. The young are at some mischief, the young and the middle-aged.
FIRST OLD MAN. Why can't they stay in their beds, and they can sleep too seven hours, eight hours. I mind the time when I could sleep ten hours. They will know the value of sleep when they are near upon ninety years.
SECOND OLD MAN. They will never live so long. They have not the health and strength that we had. They wear themselves out. They are always in a passion about something or other.
FIRST OLD MAN. Hush! I hear a step now, and it is coming this way. We had best pull in our heads. The world has grown very wicked and there is no knowing what they might do to us or say to us.
SECOND OLD MAN. Yes, better shut the windows and pretend to be asleep.
[They pull in their heads. One hears a knocker being struck in the distance, then a pause and a knocker is struck close at hand. Another pause and Septimus, a handsome man of thirty-Five, staggers on to the stage. He is very drunk.]
SEPTIMUS. An uncharitable place, an unchristian place. [He begins banging at a knocker.] Open there, open there. I want to come