Peep show

“ Do you suppose the mob that comes swarming into Broadway at eight o'clock every evening is on the hunt for pathos and charm? They want to see women with the latest Paris fashions on them—or with nothing on them at all! They want to see men in evening dress, drinking high-balls, lighting expensive cigars, departing from palatial homes to the chugging sound of automobiles.
Will. But Peggy, this play will have two dress-suit acts. I can show the world I used to live in—I can use Dad's own house for a scene. ”

“ The other said nothing, but carefully lowered a round, compact bundle from his shoulder to the ground, and sat upon it.
At this juncture Felisi, who had watched their advent from the doorway of her father's house, saw fit to make her presence known; and a very engaging presence it was, consisting of five feet two inches and fifteen years of bronze femininity, lithe and upstanding like a boy, clad in her best sulu, a red hibiscus blossom, and a dazzling smile. But what would you? It is not for nothing that one is the eldest daughter of the chief of a village like Luana. ”

“ At the pile of mats it paused, kneeling, peering, outstretching an arm. It was a hesitant shadow even now, and not without cause, for in its gropings under the mats its arm became suddenly transfixed, and in a moment the guest house was a chaos of struggling men.
But it did not last long. Morgan was infinitely the stronger. With a wrench he was free and away, the bundle under his arm, his partner, a gaunt, dishevelled figure, stumbling impotently in his wake. Felisi watched them go—down through the moon-mottled fringes of the palm grove and out on to the beach. ”

“ They came from the world that she knew and loved so well, throbbing centre of civilization such as Levuka and Suva, where governors and their ladies drove in glittering carriages, where immense ships unloaded impossible freights of passengers and cargo on to the groaning wharves, and where, incidentally, it was possible to amass a fortune by merely looking as charming as one happened to be, and selling imitation pink coral to credulous tourists. ”

“ To the King's house, and there saw "The Mad Couple;" which is but an ordinary play; but only Nell's and Hart's mad parts are most excellent done, but especially her's: which makes it a miracle to me to think how ill she do any serious part, as the other day, just like a fool or changeling; and, in a mad part, do beyond all imitation almost. It pleased us mightily to see the natural affection of a poor woman, the mother of one of the children brought on the stage: the child crying she by force got upon the stage, and took up her child and carried it away off of the stage from Hart. ”

“ But, Lord! to see how they were both painted would make a man mad, and did make me loath them; and what base company of men comes among them, and how lewdly they talk! and how poor the men are in clothes, and yet what a shew they make on the stage by candle-light, is very observable. But to see how Nell cursed, for having so few people in the pit, was pretty; the other house carrying away all the people at the new play, and is said, now-a-days, to have generally most company, as being better players. ”

“ He turned slowly and looked full into the venomous eyes of his partner. "I found you out—that's why you hate me so, Morgan. I suppose you've forgotten all that happened back there in the mangroves. I haven't. Why, man, you wouldn't be here now if I hadn't dragged and carried and kicked you here! Yet ever since I ran across this stuff your one thought has been how to rob me of my share of it. Twice I caught you, Morgan, slinking off. The first time I believed the yarn you put up, instead of leaving you to rot. ”

“ He doth indeed, in this GRAND DRAMA, rather perform the part of the prompter, and doth instruct the well-drest figures, who are strutting in public on the stage, what to say and do. To say the truth, a puppet-show will illustrate our meaning better, where it is the master of the show (the great man) who dances and moves everything, whether it be the king of Muscovy or whatever other potentate alias puppet which we behold on the stage ”

“ Here we dined, and Sir J. Minnes come to us, and after dinner we walked to the King’s play-house, all in dirt, they being altering of the stage to make it wider. But God knows when they will begin to act again; but my business here was to see the inside of the stage and all the tiring-rooms and machines; and, indeed, it was a sight worthy seeing. But to see their clothes, and the various sorts, and what a mixture of things there was; here a wooden-leg, there a ruff, here a hobbyhorse, there a crown, would make a man split himself to see with laughing ”

“ Her father's eyes goggled at her over the typewriter.
"Ambergris!" he repeated in an awed undertone.
"Yes. It is one hundred pounds for a piece no bigger than a pigeon's egg in Suva. I have seen."
And the Chief of Luana knew this to be so. For a while his brow was creased by a myriad wrinkles, which signified that he was trying to think; then he waved Felisi from the presence. ”

“ Felisi nodded and retired, whereupon the tall man drew a battered pouch from his pocket and thoughtfully filled his pipe.
"Look here, Morgan," he said, "it's about time you and I understood one another."
"I'm on," agreed Morgan.
"We're partners," the other continued slowly, "until we sell and divide the proceeds; there's no avoiding that. But there's no need to hide the fact that we dislike each other pretty thoroughly, is there?" ”

“ Peggy had no desire to be serious, except about the theater. And even the theater, she thought, should stay in the background tonight. She and the others had been living nothing but theater lately, and it was good for them to sit in this cozy, candlelit room and talk about things that didn’t matter; things like the coming of spring, rowing on the lake, or what to have for dinner.
But keeping actors from talking about the theater is as hopeless as trying to keep the tide from coming in. No matter what they start to talk about, it always ends up on stage. ”

“ Here I saw the organ; but it is too big for my house, and the fashion do not please me enough; and therefore will not have it. Thence to the 'Change back again, leaving him, and took my wife and Deb. home, and there to dinner alone, and after dinner I took them to the Nursery,— [Theatre company of young actors in training.] —where none of us ever were before; where the house is better and the musique better than we looked for, and the acting not much worse, because I expected as bad as could be: and I was not much mistaken, for it was so. ”

“ As a newly elected member of the local native district council, he had been inordinately impressed at the first assembly by the importance of anything in the nature of a printed form. Whatever its shape or colour or size, it was apparent to him that all things had their inception, their proper conduct, and ultimate fruition in "forms," so he had brought away a kerosene tin full of them for his own use. ”

“ After dinner to Whitehall Chappell with Mr. Child, and there did hear Captain Cooke and his boy make a trial of an Anthem against tomorrow, which was brave musique. Then by water to Whitefriars to the Play-house, and there saw "The Changeling," the first time it hath been acted these twenty years, and it takes exceedingly. Besides, I see the gallants do begin to be tyred with the vanity and pride of the theatre actors who are indeed grown very proud and rich. Then by link home, and there to my book awhile and to bed. ”

“ Felisi wriggled in delicious self-consciousness on the mats.
"Oh, cut it out, Slade," interposed Morgan. "They don't want thanks. Don't understand 'em. They look after us for the honour of the thing. Pleases the chief, and all that. As long as we are looked after, what does it matter who does it, or why? You make me tired. Hi, Mary, some more taro, lively!"
"Will you go to the Chief of Luana," continued the tall man, as though the other had not spoken, "and convey to him our thanks?" ”

“ But the play, when it come, though there was, here and there, a pretty saying, and that not very many neither, yet the whole of the play had nothing extraordinary in it, at all, neither of language nor design; insomuch that the King I did not see laugh, nor pleased the whole play from the beginning to the end, nor the company; insomuch that I have not been less pleased at a new play in my life, I think. And which made it the worse was, that there never was worse musick played—that is, worse things composed, which made me and Captain Rolt, who happened to sit near me, mad. ”

“ But also the theatre introduced movable scenery. There is an attempt toward elaboration of stage effect. "To the King's playhouse—" says Pepys, "a good scene of a town on fire." Women take parts. An avalanche of new plays descends on it. Even the old plays that have survived are garbled to suit a change of taste.
But if you would really know what kind of theatre it was that sprang up with the Stuarts and what the audiences looked like and how they behaved, you must read Pepys. With but a moderate use of fancy, you can set out with him in his yellow coach for the King's house in Drury Lane. ”

“ IV PEPYS AND SHAKESPEARE [14] I
In his capacity of playgoer, as indeed in almost every other capacity, Pepys presents himself to readers of his naïve diary as the incarnation, or the microcosm, of the average man. No other writer has pictured with the same lifelike precision and simplicity the average playgoer's sensations of pleasure or pain. Of the play and its performers Pepys records exactly what he thinks or feels. He usually takes a more lively interest in the acting and in the scenic and musical accessories than in the drama's literary quality. ”

“ Morgan had returned to the chief's house, and was beguiling him with titbits of officialdom when Felisi found time to shift her sphere of activities.
"... and I don't mind telling you, chief, I am favourably impressed with the conduct of affairs in Luana," he was saying in glib dialect, "very favourably impressed. It seems to me you are wasted here. What you want is influence, commonly called 'boost.'"
"Boost," repeated the chief, who was rapidly becoming impressed. ”

“ After dinner I took my Lord Hinchinbroke and Mr. Sidney to the Theatre, and shewed them "The Widdow," an indifferent good play, but wronged by the women being to seek in their parts. That being done, my Lord's coach waited for us, and so back to my Lady's, where she made me drink of some Florence wine, and did give me two bottles for my wife. From thence walked to my cozen Stradwick's, and there chose a small banquet and some other things against our entertainment on Thursday next. Thence to Tom Pepys and bought a dozen of trenchers, and so home. ”

“ The Show-Off, by William Almon Wolff, from the play by George Kelly. Aubrey Piper, the show-off, with his wing collar and bow tie, flower in his button-hole and patent leather shoes, is a character who will appeal universally because we all know him and laugh at him in everyday life. A realistic American novel, a satire that is full of humor and pathos. ”

“ There’s the ability to make the audience sit up and notice you the minute you walk on, whether you have lines or not. And that’s something you can’t learn; you either have it, or you don’t. It’s like being double-jointed. I can make an audience laugh when I have good lines, but you can make them look at you and respond to you and be with you all the way, even with bad lines. That’s why you’re going to go to New York and be an actress. And that’s why I’m not.”
“But, Jean—” Peggy began. ”

“ And, in our discourse, he was very forward to complain and to speak loud of the lewdness and beggary of the Court, which I am sorry to hear, and which I am afeard will bring all to ruin again. So he and I to the Wardrobe to dinner, and after dinner Captain Ferrers and I to the Opera, and saw "The Witts" again, which I like exceedingly. The Queen of Bohemia was here, brought by my Lord Craven. So the Captain and I and another to the Devil tavern and drank, and so by coach home. Troubled in mind that I cannot bring myself to mind my business, but to be so much in love of plays. ”

“ Pepys and Dr. Fayrebrother; and all our talk about to-morrow's show, and our trouble that it is like to be a wet day. After dinner comes in my coz. Snow and his wife, and I think stay there till the show be over. Then I went home, and all the way is so thronged with people to see the triumphal arches, that I could hardly pass for them. So home, people being at church, and I got home unseen, and so up to my chamber and saw done these last five or six days' diarys. My mind a little troubled about my workmen, which, being foreigners,— [Foreigners were workmen dwelling outside the city.] ”

“ They have not spoken. They are asleep."
"Have they many cigars and much wisiky?"
"They have nothing," said Felisi, "except——"
The Chief of Luana had intended to smite the wicker table after the fashion of the Native Commissioner when exasperated, but, instead, his wrist caught the typewriter keys, causing several bars to rear on end and unite in a tangled mass. ”

“ The King’s conjuror, who takes more money from out the pocket than he puts in, made the lank-haired gentry scratch their pates; the walking French puppet-show had hired an apartment, with additional performers; Punch and the Devil, in his [Pg 201] little moving theatre, were performing without doors, to invite the company into the grand theatre. Men with wooden mummies in show-boxes were found straggling about the fair; tall women in cellars, dropping upon their knees to be kissed by short customers; dwarfs mounted on stools for the same civil purposes ”