60 Plays: The George Bernard Shaw Edition (Illustrated). GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

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СКАЧАТЬ side Ferrari, the wounded officer, priest, and a doctor, in a group on the right. The Gadfly enters in custody of the Sergeant and his four soldiers. He marches firmly to the tree.

      GADFLY [brightly] Shall I stand here, Sergeant? Good morning, gentlemen! Ah, and his reverence is up so early too! How do you do, Captain? This is a pleasanter occasion for you than our former meeting, isn’t it? I see your arm is still in a sling; that’s because I bungled my work. These good fellows will do their’s better — won’t you, lads? There’ll be no need of slings this time, anyway. There, there; you needn’t look so doleful over it! Put your heels together and show how straight you can shoot. Before long there’ll be more work cut out for you than you’ll know how to get through; and there’s nothing like practice beforehand.

      PRIEST. My son, in a few minutes you must enter into the presence of your Maker. Will you approach His awful throne with a jest upon your lips?

      GADFLY. A jest, your reverence? Friend Ferrari there will not find it so. When our turn comes, we shall use field-guns instead of half a dozen secondhand carbines; and then you’ll see how much we’re in jest.

      PRIEST. You will use field-guns! Oh, unhappy man!

      Have you still not realized on what frightful brink you stand?

      GADFLY [glancing over his shoulder at the grave] And so your reverence thinks that when you have put me down there, you will have done with me! True, I shall lie as still as a mouse, just where you put me. But, all the same, we shall use field-guns.

      PRIEST. Merciful God, forgive this wretched man!

      SERGEANT. Amen. [He produces a bandage for the prisoner’s eyes], gadfly. Colonel Ferrari: I have your promise that I shall look my death in the face.

      FERRARI. It is true. Never mind the bandage.

      SERGEANT. It’s hard on the men, sir, to see his face, if they are to shoot straight.

      FERRARI. That’s his affair, not ours. Obey your orders. Are you ready, there?

      GADFLY. I am quite ready.

      WOUNDED OFFICER. Ready — Present — Fire!

      They fire. He — the Gadfly — staggers a little but recovers his balance. He is wounded in the face; the blood drops on his cravat. He raises his mutilated hand to wipe it away. He is smiling.

      GADFLY. A bad shot, men! Have another try.

      SERGEANT [to his squad of four] Change carbines with them, quick. Load for them.

      WOUNDED OFFICER. Pull yourselves together, will you? The squad changes carbines with the firing party, which is reformed.

      GADFLY. You have brought out the awkward squad this morning, Colonel. Let me see if I can manage them better. Now men. Are you all straight? Now then. Ready. Present —

      FERRARI. Fire. The gates open and the Cardinal rushes in. The Gadfly falls into his arms. Is your Eminence hurt? That was a frightfully dangerous thing to do. Let the fellow drop; he is dead.

      GADFLY [with an effort] Not quite yet, Colonel. The soldiers utter a groan of horror. The wounded officer draws a pistol, but hesitates.

      FERRARI [snatching it from him] Make an end of him, in God’s name. [He raises the pistol].

      MONTANELLI [solemnly] In God’s name — no absolution for you if you do. [Ferrari’s hand drops].

      GADFLY. It is all over; my blood is choking me; but I smell the sunrise. [He falls]. The soldiers, throwing down their weapons and falling on their knees, cry.

      SOLDIERS. Absolution, absolution.

      MONTANELLI [raising his fingers in benediction] In the name of the Father, and of the Son — the son who died for the people, the Father who gave his son to be slain!

      Curtain

       The Admirable Bashville Or Constancy Unrewarded (1901)

       Table of Contents

Table of Contents

       PREFACE

       ACT I

       ACT II

       ACT III

       NOTE ON MODERN PRIZEFIGHTING

      PREFACE

       Table of Contents

      The Admirable Bashville is a product of the British law of copyright. As that law stands at present, the first person who patches up a stage version of a novel, however worthless and absurd that version may be, and has it read by himself and a few confederates to another confederate who has paid for admission in a hall licensed for theatrical performances, secures the stage rights of that novel, even as against the author himself; and the author must buy him out before he can touch his own work for the purposes of the stage.

      A famous case in point is the drama of East Lynne, adapted from the late Mrs. Henry Wood’s novel of that name. It was enormously popular, and is still the surest refuge of touring companies in distress. Many authors feel that Mrs. Henry Wood was hardly used in not getting any of the money which was plentifully made in this way through her story. To my mind, since her literary copyright probably brought her a fair wage for the work of writing the book, her real grievance was, first, that her name and credit were attached to a play with which she had nothing to do, and which may quite possibly have been to her a detestable travesty and profanation of her story; and second, that the authors of that play had the legal power to prevent her from having any version of her own performed, if she had wished to make one.

      There is only one way in which the author can protect himself; and that is by making a version of his own and going through the same legal farce with it. But the legal farce involves the hire of a hall and the payment of a fee of two guineas to the King’s Reader of Plays. When I wrote Cashel Byron’s Profession I had no guineas to spare, a common disability of young authors. What is equally common, I did not know the law. A reasonable man may guess a reasonable law, but no man can guess a foolish anomaly. Fortunately, by the time my book so suddenly revived in America I was aware of the danger, and in a position to protect myself by writing and performing The Admirable Bashville. The prudence of doing so was soon demonstrated; for rumors soon reached me of several American stage versions; and one of these has actually been played in New York, with the boxing scenes under the management (so it is stated) of the eminent pugilist Mr. James J. Corbett. The New York press, in a somewhat derisive vein, СКАЧАТЬ