jfaft*W>

"HARROW ALLEY"

by

WALTER BROWN NEWMAN

>
\.

PROPERTY OF CAMPBELL-DEVON PRODUCTIONS

1.
NEWGATE PRISON'S CONDEMNED KEEP
is pitch-black and silent until, up above, the manhole
cover laboriously is lifted aside and set down with a
harsh, echoing clang. A moment later, a Jigglingly plump
turnkey named SMOLLET squints past the flickering candle
in his hand into the darkness below.
SMOLLET
Ratsy...Ratsy,Gamaliel Ratsey.
RATSEY'S VOICE
(grumbles reproof)
Captain Montresaor, if you mean me.
Captain Montressor, you old belch.
A ladder starts down.
SMOLLET
Up you come.
Why?

RATSEY'S VOICE
Is it today?
SMOLLET

Today and nov.

Some seconds pass while Ratsey might be digesting this
Then, a clank of irons as he bestirs himself.
TEE PASSAGE ABOVE THE KEEP
is a shadowy stone vault vith Smollet's candle at the
core. In the center of the floor is the manhole, the
top of the ladder projecting above its rim; before it is
a small anvil. A keeper named LEVIDGE is kneeling alongside the anvil, spike in one hand, mallet in the other.
Across the anvil, standing next to Smollet, is the prison
chaplain, FIELDING, a small, spare, clerical hack* Their
attitudes reflect the tedium of routine.
Dirty, fettered hands grasp the top of the ladder and
GAMALIEL RATSEY heaves himself up into view, pausing half
in and half out to blink at the light. A burly, vigorous
ruffian and (till lately) swaggering vhorehouse-bully,
his face is filthy and long unshaven. The battered hat
atop his lousy head dejectedly sports a ragged, broken
feather* His coat and shirt, once fine, are grimy nov
and foodstained; one sleeve is ripped at the shoulder;
at his throat and wrists are bits of tattered lace. Yet
his bearing is not without authority.
Levidge pulls his hands to the anvil and starts tapping
them free.
CONTINUED

2.
CONTINUED
FIELDING
A fev vords of comfort before we
begin the service,
(clears throat)
Resignation to God's will
But Ratsey is concerned with matters of greater import.
RATSEY
(to Levidge)
How's the weather?
LEVIDGE
You couldn't ask for better.
RATSEY
(pleased)
Much of a crowd?
LEVIDGE .
Packed solid from here to Tyburn,
RATSEY
(assumed indifference)
None of the nobility, I suppose.
LEVIDGE
None? Most of the court. I never
knowed London so feverish with
excitement. Got a good, rousing
farewell speech for them?
With a smirk of self-assurance, Ratsey gives Levidge a
taste.
BATSEY
Let British pluck match British
generosity and we may bid defiance
to the world.
(conversationally)
That'8 just the start.

,v

/sf*^-

LEVIDGE
Oh, that has a ring to it. And
it's Just the start. Oh, they'll
be cheering like Bedlams, And
the effect on the ladies, bono.
Now the legs,

Ratsey climbs out and straddles the anvil, his soiled and
laddered stockings drooping about his calves and ankles.
CONTINUED

XjMPTfri^

CONTINUED

He fingers his beard and surveys his attire as Levidge

resumes work,
FIELDING
A few words of comfort before we
begin the service,..Resignation
to God's will RATSEY
(to Smollet)
What about a razor?
SMOLLET
And a comb, too, I suppose, and a
needle and thread.
That's right.
like this.

RATSEY
I can't go out there

SMOLLET
Show me your money,
RATSEY
If I had money would I have spent
six weeks in the Condemned Hole?
I'd have had a room upstairs,
wouldn't I? I asks a favor,
SMOLLET
Oh, yes, you'd like a favor now,
wouldn't you? Well, I told you many
and many a time, you be kind to
Mother Smollet and Mother Smollet
will be kind to you. But was you
kind? You was not,
RATSEY
It wasn't nothing personal. I
just didn't see the need. Was I
expecting a reprieve or was I not?
,<

SMOLLET
Oh, you just didn't see the need.
Well, when you stands there with
the rope around your neck and no
money for Jack Ketch, no money to
give him to grease the noose and
pull hard on your legs BO'S you're
turned off quick, when the cart
(cont.)
CONTINUED

k.
CONTINUED

VjrSJflTV

SMOLLET (cont.)
moves out from under and you're
kicking and thrashing and squirming
and choking, you Just remember
Mother Smollet would have helped
you and maybe then you'll see the
need,
Ratsey tenderly massages bis throat.

After a moment;

FIELDING
A few words of comfort before we
begin the service, R RATSEY
(to Smollet)
If you likes, we can go to your
room this minute,
SMOLLET
Oh, it's too late now.
v

And with a lift of his chin Smollet turns away from

Ratsey, leaving him in a brown study and oblivious to:
FIELDING
Resignation to God's will is the way
to His mercy, "Mercy?" you say,
"For me? A highwayman? A murderer?"
Yes, if you are resigned. And you
should be, as I will now prove.
There is happiness in suffering
atonement, is there not? And the
more you suffer, the happier you
are? It follows, then, that you,
with the gallows before you and the
possibility of roasting in hell
through all eternity, should be
happiest of all. Let us pray.
Fielding thumbs through bis prayer book, Levidge has
done with Ratsey, removed the ladder, covered the manhole and picked up his tools. They now follow Smollet
down the passage.
FIELDING
(reads)

z**v

Comfort, w e beesech Thee, most

gracious G o d , this Thy servant, cast
d o w n and f a i n t o f h e a r t a m i d s t CONTINUED

y$KV

CONTINUED

The door to the Press Yard is before

is a Dutch door leading to Smollet's
enters his room and swings the lower
shut. It has a shelf like a counter
places the candle, Levidge moves to
the Yard.

them. At their side

quarters, Smollet
part of bis door
and on this he
open the door to

FIELDING (cont.)
- the sorrows and difficulties of
the world; and grant that, by the Hold on,

RATSEY
I'd like a drink.

SMOLLET
Not without money.
With a smile meant to be ingratiating, Ratsey looks at
Fielding for the first time.
RATSEY
(to Fielding)
What about some wine?

yf^StS^

FIELDING
(shakes bis head)
Scripture cautions us against it
time and again.
RATSEY
My treat.
FIELDING
Well, nowhere, I find, does Scripture
mention brandy* That's what I'll
have, Mr* Smollet*
Smollet waits till Ratsey takes out his purse and empties
it above the counter, producing one last coin* While the
drinks are being served, Ratsey brings his head close to
Fielding'8 and grows confidential*
,

RATSEY
Parson. You know the ten miles of
Dover Road between Gravesend and
Chatham? The right to work that
stretch belongs to me, I paid the
Brotherhood a hundred pounds for it.
It's your8 for a pound for. Jack Ketch.
You can sell it at a handsome profit,
CONTINUED

6.
/*WSK

CONTINUED
Fielding shakes his head.
tation and drink,

They lift their mugs in salu-

RATSEY
I'll sell you my corpse. You must
know a saw-bones who wants one.
FIELDING
Your corpse, if unclaimed, is one
of Ketch's perks of office. It's
certain he has already arranged
for its disposal,
RATSEY
Tell you what, then. You've heard
of Captain Baines?
FIELDING
Who has not?

\.

RATSEY
If I tells you where he's hiding,
will you go to him immediate and
borrow a pound for me? He'll give
it to you if you mention my name.
He's my mate, has been for years,
and there never was a better.
FIELDING
I'm afraid there's no time for that,

RATSEY
Well, then, suppose I sells you his
address for a pound and you can turn
him in for the price on his head.
Fielding declines with a gesture.
SMOLLET
Another round?
Ratsey turns inquiringly to Fielding whose hand goes to
.his vest-pocket. And comes out with bis watch.
FIELDING
We really must be getting on,
Levidge opens the door to the Yard. Fielding opens his
prayer book and, as he exits, resumes where he left off.
CONTINUED

/#^N

>

CONTINUED

FIELDING (cont.)
- power of Thy Holy Spirit, he may
be enabled to go upon his way
rejoicing Ratsey, after a futile effort to tidy himself, squares
his shoulders and swaggers to the threshold,
I

TEE PRESS YARD

is a high-walled enclosure with a great, iron door leading to the street at the far end. Near it, a Sheriff and
a dozen armed Bailiffs, all mounted, are waiting in a
vide double-file. Not far from the door to the passage
above the Condemned Keep is a cart with a horse and a
Carter, Fielding is standing near its rear.
It's a hot summer day. Tolling intermittently in the
distance, some near, some far, are the bells of perhaps
ten of London's 137 parish-churches, each with its distinctive tone (bells, in increasing numbers in later
scenes, will never be silent until otherwise stated),

v$N

Ratsey pauses in the shade of the doorway, Levidge behind

him, and cocks an ear,
RATSEY
What'8 that, a call to arms?
Dutchmen invading us?

The

Passing-bells,

LEVIDGE
A l l f o r you.

G r a t i f i e d , Ratsey s t e p s out i n t o t h e g l a r e and a p p r o a c h e s

the carti
A MAN'S VOICE
(calls)
Pick up the step, mate, the worms
is hungry*
Ratsey turns and looks up* Newgate's barred windows are
jammed with the grinning faces of Prisoners, male and
female* He waves a greeting as he straightens his neckband,
A WOMAN'S VOICE
Don't bother, dear, Ketch has a
collar Just your size*
Ratsey guffaws and blows her a kiss*
CONTINUED

8.
CONTINUED
yrffif^v

PRISONERS' VOICES
You'll fry in hell, mate,.,
Ta-ta, cat'8 meat...
They'll stretch your neck for you..
The words become undistinguishable as these and other
voices blend in a prolonged roaring interspersed with
whistles and cat-calls,
FIELDING
(to Ratsey)
Are you familiar with the Litany for
the Dying?
.RATSEY
(to a prisoner above)
So are you, a chamber-pot full.
FIELDING
There are various responses for
you to make,
(points to a page)
I 8ay this and you that* Then I
this and -- You can read?

r \

RATSEY
I'm a gentleman, I should hope, a
knight of the road, not a bloody
clerk*
(to a prisoner)
So's your mother. Your sister, too.
LEVIDGE
Pardon, gentlemen.
They step apart and Levidge moves between them carrying
on his shoulder a coffin which he slides onto the cart.
As it passes Ratsey'8 nose, he gazes at it thoughtfully.
At once, a high, clear tenor knifes through the din which
simmers down at the sound,

v,

A PRISONER
(sings)
It all comes out even
As you pays your debt Lilliburlero bullen ala Your mouth may be dry
But your britches is wet Lilliburlero bullen ala.
CONTINUED

CONTINUED

RATSEY
(shaking his fist)
Whose mouth is dry, you bastard?
But the last word is drowned out by the Prisoners as they
crash into the chorus which they sing as Ratsey spits and
spits again, pointing to the splashes on the ground to
show how mistaken they are,
PRISONERS* VOICES
Lero, lero, lilliburlero;
Lilliburlero bullen ala Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala,
ANOTHER PRISONER'S VOICE
No need now for doctors,
No need now for pills Lilliburlero bullen ala Jack Ketch has a cure
For all of your ills Lilliburlero bullen ala,
/0*\

PRISONERS' VOICES
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala.

During this last, Ratsey has grasped the cart, preparing

to enter, but the' next verse spins him around in a rage
to face the Prisoners again,
A THIRD PRISONER'S VOICE
Help the poor man
To climb in, if you please Lilliburlero bullen ala His guts is now water,
He's weak in the knees Lilliburlero bullen ala.
RATSEY
Who's weak in the knees?
i.

And, as the next chorus starts, Ratsey vaults nimbly up

into the cart and begins to Jig, feet pounding, fingers
snapping,
f

PRISONERS' VOICES
(faster)
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala (cont,)
CONTINUED

10,
CONTINUED
PRISONERS' VOICES (cont.)
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala.
They repeat the chorus at once, clapping their hands to
the beat. Ratsey's hat flies off unnoticed as his rigadoon gets wilder and wilder. God knows what demon he is
exorcising or what virtue - courage? manhood? daring?
- he is trying to prove.
PRISONERS' VOICES
(even faster)
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala.
Now Ratsey leaps into the air and there he is dancing
atop his own coffin, heels drumming, hair tossing,
possessed.
PRISONERS' VOICES
(and faster and faster)
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala.

,
\

On the last word, Ratsey concludes with a thunderous stomp

and a triumphant leer up at the Prisoners. A moment of
hard-breathing silence* Then pandemonium as the Prisoners
shout, scream and whistle* Chest heaving, Ratsey accepts
the plaudits before clapping his left hand to the inside
of his crook'd right elbow in the ancient gesture* That
done, he faces the front of the cart and assumes a debonair pose.
The cheering continues while Fielding clambers into the
cart and the Sheriff raises his hand in signal. It increases as a Guard swings open the metal door and the
cart rolls toward it and, with and between the files of
mounted Bailiffs, out into the street,
U

THE'-STREETS LEADING TO TYBURN

are deserted. Utterly, Ratsey's expectant grin fades
as his bewilderment grows* His eyes dart about. And he
sees:
Here and there, on both sides of the street, houses with
windows shuttered and, lounging at their front doors,
Watchers with halberds in their hands.
CONTINUED

11.
CONTINUED
FIELDING
0 God the Father; Have mercy upon
the soul of Thy servant, 0 God the
Son; Have mercy upon the soul of
Thy servant, 0 God the Holy Ghost;
Have mercy upon the soul of Thy
servant, 0 Holy Trinity,. One God;
Have mercy upon the soul of Thy servant.
Ratsey looks back toward the Press Yard and sees Levidge,
Just inside, doubled up with laughter as the metal door
shuts.
FIELDING (cont.)
From all evil, from all sin, from
all tribulation; Good Lord, deliver
him.
About to question Fielding, Ratsey is forestalled by what
he sees as they come abreast and pass the graveyard of a
small parish-church: mounds of a dozen new graves;
diggers at work in others; mourners following a shoulderborn coffin through the tombstones; a huddle of mourners
about a grave being filled.
FIELDING (cont.)
By Thy Holy Incarnation, by Thy Cross
and Passion, by Thy Precious Death
and Burial; Good Lord, deliver him.
The cart is approaching another house with a Watcher on
guard. Ratsey, again about to question Fielding, again
is forestalled: by the abrupt bursting open of a groundfloor window's shutters to reveal a Man In A Nightshirt
struggling with a HAGGARD WOMAN and a TEEN-AGE BOY.
The Man In A Nightshirt, eyes rolling in delirium, breaks
free and leaps down to the street,
No.

No.

Father.

HAGGARD WOMAN
Simon. Come back.
TEEN-AGE BOY
Father. Please. Father.

t.

The Watcher gives chase. The Man In A Nightshirt lurches

between the horses in the file nearest him, staggers to
the oncoming cart and tries to grasp the Carter's arm.
In terror, the Carter avoids him and, lashing him again
and again, sends him reeling back. Also terrified, as
the Man In A Nightshirt clutches at him to keep from
falling, a Bailiff savagely kicks him away. The Haggard
Woman shrieks as he collapses to the cobbles, inert. She
CONTINUED

12.
CONTINUED
raises her arms imploringly to the cart as it rolls on.
HAGGARD WOMAN
(weeping)
Pray for us. Pray for us.
Ratsey turns to Fielding.
FIELDING
The Plague is upon us. The Black
Plague.
TYBURN HILL
is in open country. The gallows is on its crest with a
ladder going from the ground to the cross-beam. JACK
KETCH is sitting on the ground with his back against the
upright, a grizzled, stumpy man smoking a pipe. On the
slope below him, fashioning a noose, is his savagely
morose assistant, DAN, Below Dan is an open-faced teenager, the 'prentice MORTIMER.

<

DAN
No more hangings after this for fear
the plague'11 spread if there's crowds.
(spits)
MORTIMER
You can't blame him.
DAN
What do you know about it? We had
a touch of plague twenty years ago
and another twenty years before that
and they didn't call off hangings then,
did they, Mr, Ketch? How do I support
my family if no one hangs? Does the
Lord Mayor ask hisself that?

/*-

KETCH
You want to think of it like this,
Dan* They won't be sending nobody
somewhere else for hanging, will
they, like France, say, or Italy?
No, they'll just be accumulating till
the proper time like money in the
bank. We'll soon enough get our
hands on them*
DAN
Soon? Did you see last week's
Mortality Bill? Over eighty dead
(cont.)
CONTINUED

13,
CONTINUED
DAN (cont.)
of plague and seven parishes infected
in less than a month. It's spreading
like brush-fire. I'd like to get my
hands on him.
KETCH
Here, now, none of that,
DAN
Not the Lord Mayor, That damned
Dutchman who started it,
MORTIMER
My dad says it was a witch,
DAN
I ain't surprised, seeing his offspring. It was a Dutch bosun from
a Dutch merchant-brig. He comes
ashore with two sailors and they
takes lodging not ten houses from
mine in Drury Lane. And does he
tell anyone them same two sailors
is dying of plague? We didn't know
it till they turned up their toes.
And when we looks for him, he's gone,
MORTIMER
Probably back in Holland by now,
DAN
Use your brain, you young snot.
Between the time they come ashore
and the time they died, we started
a war with Holland, didn't we?
How's he going to leave London when
there'8 been no Dutch shipping?
He's still here, somewhere. If
anything happens to my family, I'll
find him and kill him with these
two hands,
(tosses noose to Ketch)
How's that, Mr, Ketch?
KETCH
I always likes the loose end tucked
in more like this, see?
MORTIMER
Here they come, Mr, Ketch,
CONTINUED

1U.
CONTINUED
Ketch tosses Mortimer the rope.
KETCH
Up you goes, young Mortimer.
Mortimer heads for the ladder with the rope in his hands.
Led by the Sheriff and flanked by the Bailiffs, the cart
with Ratsey and Fielding in it comes up the hill and
stops directly beneath the cross-beam. The Sheriff and
Bailiffs ride on a few feet, bunching, before reining in;
most dismount. Ketch and Dan climb up into the cart.
KETCH
(to Ratsey)
Now, now, it won't be so bad,
RATSEY
(explodes)
A fine hanging, I must say.
one bloody spectator,

Not

DAN
(fingering Ratsey's
coat)
We won't get much for this,
KETCH
It's the custom at this time in
the proceedings to make me and my
lads a small gift by way of saying
thank you for whatever small courtesies we can render, if you knows
what I mean,
RATSEY
(taking out a watch)
Here, will this do?
KETCH
(reaching for it)
Oh, a very handsome piece,
,'

/***v

I -

FIELDING
(snatching it)
That'8 mine* Really, how could you?
At this awesome moment? Let me implore you again to make an open
confession of sins, repenting them
heartily for the good of your soul,
CONTINUED

15.
5

CONTINUED
Ratsey spits.

Fielding gives it up as hopeless.

KETCH
That all you had, that watch?
(hardening)
Too bad, bucko. Ready up there,
young Mortimer?
Dan ties Ratsey's hands behind him as Mortimer lets down
the noose,
FIELDING
(meanwhile - reads)
The Almighty and merciful Lord grant
thee pardon and remission of all thy
sins, and the grace and comfort of
the Holy Spirit. Amen,
Ketch prepares to put the noose around Ratsey's neck.
KETCH
Any last words?

,
v_
%

RATSEY
Let British pluck match British
generosity - Ah, to hell with it.
As Ketch raises the noose, Mortimer creates a disturbance
by slipping down the last few rungs of the ladder.
KETCH
You wants to be more careful, young
Mortimer.
MORTIMER
(approaching)
Mr, Ketch, I suddenly feels queer
and that'8 the truth,
Mortimer sits down heavily near the wheel, holding his
head,
FIELDING
Almighty God, the soul Then a thought occurs to Fielding, the same that has just
occurred to Ketch and Dan,
FIELDING (cont.)
It's not the plague? Boy, you don't
have the plague?
CONTINUED

16.

CONTINUED
Mortimer topples over on his side, moaning. With a shout,
the Sheriff and the Bailiffs fling themselves into the
saddle and ride a little distance off before bunching
again and milling around uncertainly.
DAN
Let's get on with it, quick.
Ketch raises the noose but Ratsey Jerks his head away.
RATSEY
I've changed my mind, I wants to
repent heartily of my sins.
KETCH
Oh, no, not now you don't,
FIELDING
We cannot deny him repentance.
KETCH
It won't take long, will it?

RATSEY
(takes a deep breath
- then)
When I was three years old DAN
Oh, Christ.
KETCH
Mr, Fielding, I appeals
to you.
FIELDING
(to Ratsey)
It's quality that matters,
not quantity* Just once
moment'8 true repentance
and the Good Thief's case
was accepted*
DAN
I don't care if I goes to
hell for this*

RATSEY
- I committed my first crime.
My mother kept her money in
a jar in the pantry and one
day I wanted to buy some
barley-sugar awful bad so I
goes to the pantry and I
takes a stool and I stands
on that stool and steals a
penny out of that there jar.
My next crime was a few
months later when I was
three-and-a-half* A playmate of mine, he had a
spinning-top and I had none.
Well, -

jffiT--'11'^'

Dan puts the noose around Ratsey*s neck and tightens it,
shoves Fielding off the cart and, with Ketch, jumps down.
CONTINUED

17.
/^

CONTINUED
KETCH
(to the Carter)
All right, now, pull away, quick.
But the Carter, standing well away from the cart and
Mortimer, shakes his head in stubborn refusal, Dan
dashes to the driver's seat and snatches up the whip.
FIELDING
(quickly)
Depart, 0 Christian soul, out of
this world* In the name of Dan raises the whip to lash the nag's rump.
HARRY'S VOICE
Hold on.

/m^

\
%.

HARRY POYNTZ descends from his coach before it has stopped

and hurries toward the cart* A prospering tradesman and
rising politician in his late thirties, he is self-made
and solidly middle-class* Until recently, when this best
of all possible worlds, in which all was for the best,
began to rock beneath his feet, he was also self-confident
and self-satisfied; now he is disturbed, although this is
glossed over by his habitual forcefulness and inoffensive
heartiness* He has a sturdy body; his face reflects a
fair intelligence; his attire is conservative and devoid
of frills* As he nears Mortimer, Fielding makes a warning
gesture.
FIELDING
That boy may be infected,
Harry stops short and recoils a step before addressing
Ratsey.
HARRY
You, up there, I'm Harry Poyntz,
Alderman of St* Barnabas parish,
I*m here to offer you the chance to
escape hanging* Would you be willing to do as you're told, no matter
whatj risking death by plague if
need be, in return for a pardon?
Ratsey nods*

/"*"*v

HARRY (cont.)
Are you certain you understand?
Death by plague?
CONTINUED

18,
5

CONTINUED
Ratsey nods.
HARRY (cont.)
Free him.
And, taking a paper from his cuff, Harry hurries toward
the Sheriff, After a moment, Dan overcomes his reluctance to be closer to Mortimer; he scrambles up into the
cart to remove the noose and untie the dazed Ratsey.
Harry, alongside the Sheriff on his horse, holds up the
paper for him to read,
HARRY (cont.)
Mr. Lawrence directs you to place
him in my custody. You acknowledge
the Lord Mayor's signature?
A glance at the order and the Sheriff, eager to be gone,
turns his mount and rides off, followed by the Bailiffs.
Ratsey freed, Dan shoves him out, kicks his hat after him
and looks up at Ketch on the cross-beam picking at the
knots in the rope. The Carter mounts quickly to his seat.
DAN
For God's sake, Mr, Ketch, leave it,
I'll buy you another rope.
FIELDING
What about the boy?
DAN
Damn the boy and let's be out of
this, he's poisoning the air.
Harry, in the coach, puts his head out the door, impatient,
HARRY
(to Ratsey)
Well? Well?
Ratsey heads for the coach* As he arrives, his knees
buckle and he clutches the door to save himself from
falling.
s

HARRY ( c o n t . )
Too narrow a squeak f o r y o u , was i t ?
Harry d i s a p p e a r s t o reappear a moment l a t e r with a f l a s k .
Ratsey grabs i t and g u l p s as he i s p u l l e d i n ,
CONTINUED

19.
CONTINUED
HARRY (cont.)
(to the Coachman)
Back, nov, and quick.
The door is shut and the coach moves off. Ketch comes
slipping down the ladder with the rope over his arm,
Dan
hauls him up into the cart,
DAN
(to Fielding)
In, if you're coming.
FIELDING
You can't leave him.
DAN
Bloody well can and will*
The Carter whacks bis nag and the cart lurches away at
high speed.
No.
Fielding
and runs
cart and
Mortimer

FIELDING
Wait for me.

runs after the cart, stops short in indecision

back toward Mortimer, Again he starts after the
again he returns. Then he sits down, looking at
and plucking at the grass.

IN THE COACH
Harry is sitting between PROTHERO, his clerk, who is
reading, and BLANCHE, a white setter he loves, Ratsey
is on the floor at their feet, his back against a door,
sucking at the flask, Prothero is a smallish, intelligent, young man, neat and sleek as a weasel, with a
guarded but deferential manner,
HARRY
(fondling Blanche)
Oh, God, we'd like to be out in the
fields with a gun today, wouldn't we,
eh? Rabbits, Blanche, rabbits,
(she barks)
If you were human, what a fine wife
you'd make, you sweet, loving,
loving, loving, gentle-mouthed bitch,
jf**-

Harry's last words have brought with them a train of

melancholy thoughts over which he muses. Then he snaps
out of it, puts Blanche aside and idly glances at
CONTINUED

20.
CONTINUED
Prothero's book. After a moment, he takes it from
Prothero's reluctant hand and looks at the title with an
indulgent smile.
HARRY (cont.)
(reads)
William Lilly's Astrological Judgments
For The Year '65.
Prothero reaches for the book but Harry nudges his hand
away,
HARRY (cont.)
(reading a page)
And in June, the Sun entering Cancer
will have many terrible effects,
among them the Sword and the Plague,
And the Plague will be a great one
and a world of miserable people will
perish therein,
(looks up)
Prothero, Prothero,
PROTHERO
The man predicted June, Mr, Foyntz,
and here is June and there's war
and there'8 plague. You call that
nonsense?

HARRY
How can'I, when any month he names
will find war and plague somewhere
in the world? But it is nonsense to
think it means London. You'll notice
he doesn't say so himself,

PROTHERO
Then what of the comet last Christmas?
If it had no import for the City, why
did it come so low? And what of that
man seen running through the streets
one night last week, crying, "Woe to
London, woe to London," naked but for
his drawers?
HARRY
Perhaps the lady's husband came home
unexpectedly,
PROTHERO
What?
CONTINUED

21.
6

CONTINUED
Harry laughs and whacks Prothero's thigh*
HARRY
Don't worry about it* London will
stand whether he runs about with
his drawers or without them,
PROTHERO
Well, of course, I myself don't
believe in any of this*
HARRY
And you should not* What is more
precious to me than my unborn child?
If I thought it endangered would I
sit here so calmly? Yet you see me.
The plague is not a great one and
it's only in the suburbs. Not a
trace of it within the City wall
and none in our parish* If not
for the Lord Mayor's orders, I'd
pay it no mind at all* As it is,
well, it does no harm to be prepared*

zjW\

The coach is slowing,

Harry glances out the window,

PROTHERO
(almost to himself)
Yes, it's best to be prepared.
ALDERSGATE
is, as the name indicates, one of the gates in the massive
old City wall. Thin streams of vehicular and pedestrian
traffic flow through it in both directions under the eye
of a blue-coated CONSTABLE with a red staff of office.
As the coach stops, he comes to the window and carefully
scrutinizes each occupant, Harry leans forward to speak
to him.

<

CONSTABLE
(knuckling his forehead)
Oh, it'8 you, Mr, Poyntz.
(noticing Ratsey)
What's this?
HARRY
Never mind, Constable, it's nothing
to concern you.
CONSTABLE
You knows our orders, Mr. Poyntz.
(cont.)
CONTINUED

22,
j$a&\

CONTINUED
CONSTABLE
He a i n ' t a v a g r a n t ?
Or a
person?
He a i n ' t from a
h o u s e or a l l e y ?
He a i n ' t
HARRY
No, n o , n o , I vouch f o r

him.

The C o n s t a b l e n o d s and s t e p s b a c k .

(cont.)
loose
infected
sick?

The c o a c h moves o n .

IN THE COACH
Prothero is taking several papers out of his hat and a
pencil from his pocket*
PORHTERO
That reminds me. If the plague
should reach the City,, we'll need
additional constables to keep undesireables out of St* Barnabas*
HARRY
Sweet Christ, no matter which way we
turn another expense in the offing.
Watchers, nurses, scavengers, rakers,
grave-diggers. Where do we get the
money?.

,
\

PROTHERO
You could levy a special tax.
*

HARRY
Oh, God, no. They'd never again
elect me to office, I wish I'd
thought of asking the Lord Mayor for
convicts last week, when they were
hanging a dozen. We must find a
way to cut corners,
PROTHERO
Well, I've pencilled in John Hayard
for one of the corpse-bearers, if
that meets with your approval,
>'

HARRY
Is that safe?
j ^ c ^ .

PROTHERO
He hasn't actually harmed anyone as
yet* It won't be an easy position
for us to fill, Mr. Poyntz,
(cont,)
CONTINUED

23.
8

CONTINUED
PROTHERO (cont.)
No one will be eager to handle the
bodies of plague victims. Unless,
of course, there's great unemployment. Then they will be fighting
for the work*
HARRY
I was about to send him to Bedlam*
PROTHERO
That would be another charge
against the parish for his keep,
HARRY
Hayward for corpse-bearer it is.
And what have we in mind for - ?
(indicates Ratsey)
RATSEY
Captain Montressor's the name.

/^"N

PROTHERO
I've put Ratsey down for corpsebearer, too.
Me?

RATSEY
Corpse-bearer?

HARRY
Listen, you. If you now prefer
hanging, say so and I'll have you
back on the gallows before you can
blink* If not, you'll do your
duty, no matter what the risk, as
we all will, from His Majesty on
down* Understood?
Ratsey is about to protest when, without more warning
than the abrupt neighing of a horse, the coach stops
with a spine-Jarring crash.

i<d^*S

HARROW ALLEY
is*"a narrow, refuse-strewn way hemmed in on both sides by
three- and four-story buildings* A few are tenements.
The rest, occupied by merchants, tradesmen and artisans,
are shops below and homes above, with gardens and stables
in the rear. Projecting on iron branches over most of
the front doors are vividly colored shops signs - a Red
Bull, a Green Dragon - to catch the eyes of illiterate
customers and patrons.
CONTINUED

2U
CONTINUED

The Alley stretches from St. Barnabas Church on the corner,

and the Pye Tavern opposite, to Barnabas Gate, an archway
in the old City wall leading to open fields. There are
twenty to thirty buildings on each side. The church has
a churchyard with a shade-tree or two among the headstones
and a clock-tower where a wooden figure of Death, an hourglass in one hand, a dart in the other, appears to strike
the hour.
There is the usual week-day bustle and clamor of Shopkeepers and 'Prentices haggling with Customers, Foodvendors crying their wares from door to door, a Drover
with a cow or two, an Old Clothes Man with a tower of
half-a-dozen hats on his head, a Small Coals Man with a
sack on his back, a Tinker and a couple of streetmusicians, the Fiddler here and the Bagpiper there. It
is almost impossible to distinguish the

/SiS&v

STREET CRIES
Any milk here? Milk below...
Come buy, come buy, what d'ye lack?,*.
Cherry-ripe,,*
Kitchen-stuff,.*
Any pots to mend? Any pans?
Here's fine herrings,..
Fine mackerel I have to sell...
Peas, white-hearted cabbages...
Come buy my oysters...
Vinegar, lily-white.*.
Silks and laces from Spanish places,..

Entering the Alley from a side-6treet that runs past the

Pye, Harry's coach has locked front wheels with one turning into the Alley at the church corner, an ornate,
emblazoned vehicle with a liveried COACHMAN, liveried
Footmen and a six-horse team.
LIVERIED COACHMAN
(to Harry*8 Coachman)
No bloody eyes in your bloody head,
you bloody abortion?
Both jump down from their seats and hurry to the wheels
to determine the damage,
OpiVning the door of hie coach and coming erect preparatory
to stepping down, Harry sees something that brings a
puzzled frown to his face:
d*e^

Behind the other coach is a line of scores and scores of

similarly ornate coaches interspersed with baggage-wagons
CONTINUED

25.
CONTINUED
and laden pack-animals; mounted, armed Retainers guard
the flanks; dozens of devil-may-care Cavaliers, dressed
for travel, race up and down the line as though on a
spree; here and there, a horse or two rears in the press.
Harry descends to the street. Inside the coach with
which his has locked, behind the raised window of its
door, are Two Ladies in dazzling apparel, a YOUNG COURTIER
singing to his own lute accompaniment and a young nobleman
named SIR FRANCIS, Sir Francis opens the door and gets
out.
SIR FRANCIS
(to his Coachman)
Abel, Abel, How much
longer, damn it?
LIVERIED COACHMAN
I'll have it right in a
minute, my lord,

/0^>\

SIR FRANCIS
(noticing Harry)
Why, it's the tailor.
HARRY
Sir Francis.
SIR FRANCIS
(to the ladies)
My dears, this is, my
tailor and the finest
in England,
HARRY
Ladies,
SIR FRANCIS
Have you come to dun me?
I say, are you chasing
after me to - ?

YOUNG COURTIER
(singing)
Drink today
And drown all sorrow,
You may all
Be dead tomorrow.
Best while you have it
Use your breath,
There is no drinking
After death.
Wine works the heart up,
Wakes the wit,
There is no cure for age
But it.
It helps the headache,
Cough and phthisic
And is for all diseases
Physic.
Then let us swill now
For our health,
Who drinks well
Serves the commonwealth,
And he that will
To bed go sober
Falls like the leaf
In sere October,

Sir Francis slams the coach-door shut,

SIR FRANCIS
I say, are you here for the money
I owe?
HARRY
No, no, Sir Francis, of course not,
I live in Harrow Alley,
CONTINUED

26.
CONTINUED
SIR FRANCIS
Do you, Mr. Poyntz, do you.
(to his Coachman)
Well, Abel? Well? Well?
(to Harry)
Haven't a penny with me now.
Come see me in Oxford and we'll
settle it there,
HARRY
Oxford, Sir Francis?
SIR FRANCIS
Of course,
(gestures towards the
coaches behind)
We're all going. The entire Court,
No plague there, you know. You
come see me in Oxford,
HARRY
I'm remaining in the City, Sir
Francis,
\

SIR FRANCIS
Despite the plague?
HARRY
It'8 not as bad as all that,
SIR FRANCIS
Then you 'haven't seen this week's
Mortality Bill? No, no, how could
you? Doesn't go on sale till
tomorrow.
Sir Francis takes a copy of the bill from his pocket and
hands it to Harry*

SIR FRANCIS
There* See? One hundred and ninetythree dead of plague and five more
out-parishes infected* All in one
week* Frightful, eh?

Sir Francis's Coachman approaches and opens the door.

COACHMAN

/FN

Ready, my lord,
CONTINUED

27.
/g^K

CONTINUED

SIR FRANCIS
Good, good.
(to Harry)
No need for such a long
face. You come along
to Oxford and you'll be
safe,
HARRY
I wasn't thinking of
myself, Sir Francis,
SIR FRANCIS
What then?
HARRY
With all of you going
off, His Majesty will
be left to carry the
entire burden alone.

/ri$|S\

SIR FRANCIS
His Majesty, Mr, Poyntz?
His Majesty was the
first to leave.

YOUNG COURTIER
(singing)
Wealth, my lad,
Was made to wander,
Let it wander
As it will;
Call the bawd
And call the pander,
Bid them come
And take their fill.
When the bonny
Blade carouses,
Pockets full
And spirits high,
What are acres?
What are houses?
Only dirt.
Or wet or dry.
Should the guardian
Friend or mother
Tell the woes
Of wilful waste;
Scorn their counsel,
Scorn their bother,
You can hang
Or drown at last.

And, with this, Sir Francis enters his coach and it speeds
down Harrow Alley and through Barnabas Gate to the open
country beyond. It is followed by a seemingly endless
cavalcade of coaches containing Ladies and Gentlemen and
their Children and their Children's Nurses, laughing and
singing as though bound for the merriest of picnics.
Harry watches them pass, then turns to his coach which
has backed into the side-street* His eyes are wet as he
meets Prothero's gaze*
HARRY
Well, after all, the King's life
is not to be jeopardized*
PROTHERO
Precisely what I was thinking,
Mr* Poyntz*

Z5*""**

HARRY
I mean to say, I'm happy he had
the good sense to go*
PROTHERO
His advisors probably had their
(cont.)
CONTINUED

28,
CONTINUED
PROTHERO (cont.)
hands full persuading him. How
he must have protested,
HARRY
Yes, how he must haveWe111
walk the rest of the way. Come,
Blanche,
The setter bounds down out of the coach. Prothero and
Ratsey descend to follow a thoughtful and deeply disturbed
Harry as he shoulders his way into the Alley, staying
close to the buildings to avoid traffic.
Near the entrance to the Pye, there is a recessed angle
in the wall. Standing in it, as he has daily for many
years, is SOLOMON EAGLE, He is elderly, gaunt and tall;
his eyes are unwaveringly fixed on the ground before him.
In response to a Call, he is preaching in a steady monotone, seemingly not caring whether anyone pays attention
or not. No one ever has.
/^&\

EAGLE
And after this I looked and behold
a door was opened in heaven and the
first voice which I heard was as it
were of a trumpet talking with me
which said come up hither and I will
show thee things which must be hereafter and As Harry approaches with Blanche, Prothero and Ratsey,
MAG FEENY, wife of the proprietor, comes out of the Pye
to empty a bucket of slops, A harrassed, slatternly,
undersized, middle-aged bag of bones, she bobs her head
at Harry and gives him one of her marvelous smiles.
HARRY
Is your husband about,
Mrs, Feeny?

/ff*V

MRS* FEENY
He's upstairs agonizing
ovtr the accounts once
more, poor man, seeing
if he can find another
penny or two for the
taxes we owes,

EAGLE (cont,)
- and immediately I was in the
spirit and behold a throne vas
set in heaven - and one sat on
the throne and he that sat vas
to look upon like a jasper and
a sardine stone and there vas
a rainbow round about the throne
throne in sight like unto an
emerald and round about the
throne were four and twenty s
seats and upon the seats I saw
four and twenty elders sitting
clothed in white raiment and
(cont,)
CONTINUED

29.
f^

CONTINUED
HARRY
Be good enough to ask
him to come down, Mrs,
Feeny.
(to Prothero)
Arrange with him for
Ratsey's keep.

EAGLE (cont.)
they had on their heads crowns
of gold and out of the throne
proceeded lightnings and
thunderings and voices and
there were seven lamps of
fire burning -

Harry walks on with Blanche as Prothero shepherds Ratsey

into the Pye.
10

INT THE FEENY'S BEDROOM

JACK FEENY, wearing only a shirt, lies half off the bed,
searching for something under it. Overbearing, disgruntled, humorless, he naturally fancies himself a host
without peer. He raises his head as Mrs. Feeny enters.
JACK FEENY
Where's the bloody pot?
MRS. FEENY
Under the bloody bed,
JACK FEENY
Where under the bloody bed?
MRS. FEENY
Here under the bloody bed*
She snatches it out and hands it to him. Sitting up, he
overturns it* A handful of coins cascades to the cover,
JACK FEENY
Seems to me we should have taken
in more than this last night* '
Half a barrel was emptied*
MRS. FEENY
And I knows who emptied most of it*

JACK FEENY
Must I drink with the trade or
mustn't I? Get out of here*
MRS. FEENY
Alderman Poyntz wants a word with
you. About what we owes the parish,
most like.
CONTINUED

30,

10

CONTINUED

JACK FEENY
Tell him he don't get blood from
a stone* Tell him I may have
some money next veek. Tell him
I'm doing my best. Tell him MRS. FEENY
And who's to do the cooking and
the cleaning and the serving while
I tells him all that?
JACK FEENY
Tell Beck I says she's to do it,
MRS, FEENY
Beck ain't home*
JACK FEENY
Not home yet? Why, the old goat,
A whole night of it and now most of
the day. Bloody marvel at his age*
All right, I'll come down.
MRS, FEENY
If that girl don't start helping
her Ma around here, she'll get
this hand in her face,

/$^v

JACK FEENY
She'll put all he pays her in
that hand, won't she? How many
can say that of their daughters,
eh? Send Toby to fetch her. And
you let her alone, A good girl,
Beck.
11

IN DR. HODGES' BEDROOM

BECK shuts the door to the anteroom, which she had opened
a crack, and turns to DR. NATHANIEL HODGES who is sitting
cross-legged on the bed* She is eighteen, with a pretty,
sulky face and a figure that makes men gasp* Hodges,
almost seventy, is. a corpulent giant, cynical, irreverent,
humane and misanthropic; he has absolutely no illusions.
Ee.uh wears only a blanket,
BECK
Says he's a patient of yours name
of Spicer, Should I tell him to
wait? Or do you want to try again?
CONTINUED

31.
11

CONTINUED
HODGES
What's the use of trying?
BECK
Maybe a drink would help,
HODGES
A drink would kill me.
done with that, too*

No, I'm

BECK
Maybe tomorrow will be better.
HODGES
Tomorrow I'll be even older.
Beck shrugs, A pebble rattles against the window-pane.
She pads across the room and looks out.
In the street below is a gentle, sad, little thirty-yearold Jamaican Negro named TOBY,
TOBY
(calls to Beck)

^*v
\v

Your Ma wants you immediate if

you're done.
Beck nods and turns back to the room.
BECK

(to Hodges)
I have to go* Lots of the gentry
seems to be traveling*
She starts to dress,
coins on a table*

Hodges gestures vaguely toward some

BECK
Oh, that's all right. Ain't as
though something happened.
HODGES
Take some...Take some, Beck*
BECK
How much?
/*"*

HODGES
Whatever you like.
BECK
The usual, then.
CONTINUED

32.
11

CONTINUED

Hodges gets off the bed and, holding the blanket about
him, goes into the anteroom as Beck resumes dressing.
12

IN HODGES' ANTEROOM
the Patient, a slack-jawed mechanic, gets up as Hodges
enters and holds out to him a small, glass bottle halffilled with liquid. Bemused, Hodges takes the bottle
and goes to the window,
HODGES
(sadly humming)
King David and King Solomon
Led merry, merry lives,
With many, many lady-friends
And many, many wives*
Hodges flicks aside the curtain, holds the bottle up to
the light and squints at it.
HODGES (cont.)
But when old age came on them,
With many, many qualms,
King Solomon wrote the Proverbs,
King David wrote the Psalms,

During the last, Hodges dips a finger into the liquid and
tastes it,
HODGES (cont.)
I wish I had your kidneys, Spicer.
Beck enters, dreBsed, from the bedroom and goes toward
the door to the staircase,
HODGES
(to Beck)
Deliver a message to Mr, Poyntz for
me, like a good girl?
13

IN HARROW ALLEY
Harry is discussing the Mortality Bill with SAM KILLIGREW,
the Grocer; MR, WICK, the Linen-draper, an elderly little
shopkeeper, looks over his shoulder. Sam, with his tense,
six-year-old son DICKIE sitting on his arm, is bareheaded
and wears an apron* Harry's age, he is meaty, bluff,
shrewd and successful: in his large, crowded shop behind
them Two 'Prentices are waiting on Customers; in the warehouse alongside, Another 'Prentice is helping Mrs. Killigrew, SAL, unload a barrow of cheeses. Sal is a sturdy,
comely helpmeet, good-humored and patient.
CONTINUED

33
13

jft'fp^y

CONTINUED
SAM
(reading the bill)
Saint Brides' parish now, too.
Oh, I'm glad I changed my mind
about opening another shop there.
Trade must be fallen off to
nothing. And St. James' parish
as well*
(shakes his head)
I tell you, Harry, boy, death is
coming too close for comfort.
Dickie's face puckers and he lets out a wail*
SAM (cont.)
What is it, Dickie? Tell me.
DICKIE
Humphrey says if I die they*11
put me in a hole in the ground
and the worms will eat me*

f*^

'#

SAM
Now, now, now, would your Da-da
let that happen to you? Would I?
I'd keep the worms out by first
shutting you up in a big, strong
wooden box. Only after that would
I put you in the hole in the ground.
See?
Oddly enough, Dickie cries harder than before*
HARRY
Oh, for God's sake, Sam, give
him to me* Big, strong, wooden
box*
Harry takes Dickie in his arms and soothes him*
snatches the bill from Sam and avidly reads it*

Mr. Wick

HARRY (cont*)
(to Dickie)
Now, you listen to your Uncle Poyntz,
DICKIE
You're not my uncle,
HARRY
Well, true, but we've known each
other a long time, haven't we?
(cont,)
CONTINUED

3U,
13

CONTINUED
HARRY (cont.)
Didn't you dandle me on your
knee when I was a baby?
DICKIE
(delighted)
You dandled me on your knee,
HARRY
Oh, was that the way of it?
Anyway, no one's going to shut
you up in a wooden box and no
one's going to put you in a hole
in the ground. And if you see
any worms - catch them and we'll
go fishing, you and Blanche, here,
and I. Agreed?
Beginning to hiccup, Dickie nods vigorously. As Harry
puts him down, Mr. Wick returns the bill to Sam and
scuttles off*

,
\

SAM
Sal. He 1 B got the hiccups.
something about it.

Do

SAL
(looking up from
the barrow)
Hiccups is nothing.
SAM
You heard what I said.
SAL
Oh, Sam, you'd think he's the
first child we ever raised.
SAM
He's the first son.
(to Dickie)
Go to your ma.
As Dickie goes to Sal, Beck approaches. Seeing Harry
bei'ore he sees her, she tugs her bodice down a bit for
better display.
(****-

BECK
Mr, Poyntz, sir. Doctor Hodges
sends you a message. He says he
will not be at your celebration
this evening, much as he regrets,
CONTINUED

35.
r*

13

CONTINUED
Oh?

HARRY
Did something come up?

BECK
(after a giggle)
No, sir. His spirits is low, he
says*
HARRY
Thank you*
Beck walks on,

Harry and Sam follow her with their eyes

SAM
Ever crossed your mind you'd
like to play at slaps-andtickles with that one?
HARRY
Oh, no, no, no. No.
SAM
One no would have been enough,
Harry,
HARRY
She'd prove more trouble than she's
worth*
SAM
Not with proper handling, A woman,
a dog and a walnut tree, the more
you beat them the better they be,
HARRY
(indicating the bill)
Done with that?
SAM
(returning it)
It's bad, bad news, Harry, boy,
v

/^

HARRY
If Mr. Lawrence is not greatly
alarmed, why should we be?
SAM
(tapping the bill)
Ah, but when you met with the Lord
Mayor this morning, this had not
(cont.)
CONTINUED

36.
13

CONTINUED

SAM (cont.)
yet come out. How does he feel
about it nov? You understand, it's
not so much me I'm troubled for
but the little ones. The younger
they are, they say, the more dangerous it is, I'm told that simply
from the mother's having seen a
plague victim at a distance, a
child in the womb came dead before
its time. Not only that, it had
turned monst- Ah, forgive me,
Harry, I had no right to be saying
that to you. It's an old woman's
tale, I'm certain,
HARRY
Come, Blanche,
Harry turns away from Sam and starts down the street.
As Sam enters his shop to attend to a customer, Sal calls
j?ft$*\

V
\

Harry, Harry,
will you?

SAL
Send Nan home,

Harry'8 pace quickens until he is almost running. He

passes Mr, Wick's shop. Mr. Wick and MRS. WICK are on
the steps of the front door.
MRS. WICK
What are we to do, Mr* Wick?
MR. WICK
Do, Mrs. Wick? We're leaving the
City at once and we'll stay away
till the infection's gone.
MRS* WICK
What about the shop? It's all we
own*
MR. WICK
What's it worth to us if we die?
Begin to pack, Mrs. Wick, my mind's
made up* We leave this very day,
C~*

lU

IN HARRY'S SHOP
OKESHOTT, the elderly Journeyman, is fitting a Patron
before a mirror* WILL and HARVEY, the 'prentices, are
CONTINUED

37.
lU

CONTINUED

seated cross-legged on a worktable, sewing,

in with Blanche at his heels,

Harry hurries

HARRY
Will, have the coach fetched
'round again. 1*11 be leaving
at once.
Going to the rear of the shop, Harry nods to the Patron
and dashes up a staircase*
(A word about Harry's residence: below the shop and storehouse on the ground flooris a cellar with a wash-room and
a store-room; to the rear of the shop is a garden with a
stable for the coach and horses; the middle floor has a
large dining-room, a kitchen, two small bedrooms - one
of them Prothero's - and a 'house of office* or privy;
the upper floor has a fine parlor, two bedrooms, a storage
room and a little 'closet* or study; sleeping cubicles for
the cook, maidservants and 'prentices are in the attic.)
15
\

IN THE PARLOR
JEM (for Jemimah) POYNTZ and NAN KILLIGREW are at the
splnnet playing a lively duet and enjoying themselves
enormously. Nan is a pretty girl of fifteen. Jem, the
same age, is a beauty, petite and dainty, intelligent
and sensitive; she is six months with child*
They break off as Harry enters with Blanche, Nan with a
welcoming smile, Jem sobering instantly, all the vivacity
and sparkle fading*
NAN
Did you hear us, Uncle Poyntz?
Wasn't it atrocious? We*ve been
laughing so,
HARRY
Your mother wants you now, Nan,

,'

j W

NAN
(kissing Jem)
Until later, dear Jem,
(to Harry)
Wait till you see me, Uncle Poyntz*
Mother says I may wear beauty
patches here and here, like a
lady of the court*

Nan pecks Harry's cheek, pats Blanche on her way across

the room and goes out the door,
CONTINUED

38.
15

CONTINUED
Harry and Jem are alone and there is a gulf between then.
HARRY
Mrs, Poyntz, JEM
I wasn't being idle, I'd made
every preparation for tonight
before we began to play,
HARRY
No, no, I JEM
I told Cook how I wanted the
chickens roasted and the carp
stewed and I decanted the wine
myself and saw to it the silver
vas polished and only then did
I ask Nan to come visit*

/&**.

v
%

HARRY
I don't question it at all,
You're mistress of this house
and you may spend your time as
you please, I came only to ask
about the child,
JEM
(hands to belly)
To ask what about the child?
HARRY
Is it stirring? Has it been
kicking?
JEM
No, not for awhile,
Not for awhile?
say so at once?
Doctor Hodges.

_.
!

HARRY
Why didn't you
I'll send for

JEM
The child is often quiet at
this time of day, I think it
sleeps. It kicks hard enough,
certainly, in the night and
morning.
CONTINUED

39.
15

/$^N.

CONTINUED
HARRY
The child is well, then?
JEM
Yes.
Will pops his head in at the door.
WILL
The coach is at Pye corner. Ned
says he can't come nearer the house
for the great to-do in the Alley.
Will disappears*
and turns to go.

Harry stares at Jem a moment, then nods

JEM
Mr, Poyntz?
HARRY
(without turning)
Yes7
JEM
I'm well, too.

Harry pauses, then leaves, Blanche follows him. Jem

takes some unfinished needlepoint from the spinnet, goes
to a window-seat and looks out.
The courtiers' coaches are still moving through the Alley
in an unbroken line, Harry, with Blanche, is nearing Pye
corner.
16

IN HARROW ALLEY
Toby comes out of the Pye followed by Prothero, points
toward Harry'8 coach and re-enters the Tavern* Prothero
goes toward the coach, passing Eagle on the way, A Few
Men have stopped to listen to him*

v'

EAGLE
- and the kings of the earth and
the great men and the rich men and
the chief captains and the mighty
men and every bond man and every
free man hid themselves in the dens
and in the rocks of the mountains
and 8aid to the mountains and rocks
hide us hide us for the great day
of his wrath is come and who shall
be able to stand and CONTINUED

uo.
16

CONTINUED
Harry looks out the coach-window as Prothero comes up.
HARRY
I'm off to Mr. Lawrence's again.
If I'm late returning, help Mrs.
Poyntz greet our guests,
Harry hesitates, gazing off at Eagle,
PROTHERO
Yes, Mr. Poyntz?
HARRY
This is the first time I've ever
known anyone to pay the slightest
attention to Solomon Eagle.
(to the Coachman)
Ned.
Prothero returns to the Pye as the Coachman backs the
coach down the side-street, turns it and drives off.

, 17
\

IN THE PYE TAVERN

Ratsey, Prothero- and Jack Feeny are seated at one of the
tables, the Pye is a dim, lov-ceilinged affair, none too
clean, with a bar and a rack of barrels behind it; there
is a rear-door and, near it, a staircase leading to the
upper floors where there are rooms for guests*
JACK FEENY
Oh, to be sure, Jack Feeny is
rolling in wealth, so let him lodge
and feed this one, too* I'm
already saddled with Mrs. Tolliver
and Mrs Povey and Toby and John
Hayward and my back's not broke
yet so up with another. They're
eating me out of house and home,
I tells you.
PROTHERO
Yes, I can imagine how sumptuously
you feed them.

'
f

JACK FEENY
Well, I ain't got a mattress stuffed
with gold, you know. You seen me
flinging the Crown jewels around here,
Mrs. Tolliver? You, Mrs. Povey?
CONTINUED

M.
*xm*\

17

CONTINUED
From a nearby table, MRS. TOLLIVER, a bleary drunkard of
sixty, and MRS. POVEY, a feeble-minded woman of fifty,
stare vacantly at Feeny. They are dressed in black and
each grasps a white staff of office,
PROTHERO
It's all being credited to what
you owe, Mr. Feeny.
Beck has come to the table with a pitcher of beer, mugs
for Prothero and Feeny and a much smaller mug and a heel
of bread for Ratsey, who shuts his eyes and sniffs at her.
RATSEY
Oh, God, two months since I smelled
female.
Ratsey tosses off the beer at once and attacks the bread.
Feeny watches him with distaste.
JACK FEEBY
And how long does I board this
bottomless pit?
PROTHERO
Depends on the plague. If it lifts
tomorrow, say, back to Newgate for
hanging he goes. If it strikes our
parish and grows hot, as long as he
survives. That shouldn't be very
long.

Ratsey guffaws and reaches for the pitcher.

it out of his reach*

Feeny puts

PROTHERO
(to Ratsey)
That's a most peculiar, superior
attitude toward the plague you
have, friend, and I'm wondering why*
Are you thinking of running away,
is that it?
Ratsey shakes his head, amused at some secret thought,

jl^^V

PROTHERO (cont.)
You wouldn't get far. Not even if
we failed to chase you and you had
money. Towns and farms on the road
are shy now of people from London,
Some who fled here were murdered
when they came too close,
CONTINUED

U2.
17

CONTINUED
Ratsey shrugs with a tantalizing smile and wolfs his
bread. What, then, can it be? wonders Prothero and,
eyes narrowed, levels a speculative gaze upon Ratsey.
RATSEY
(after a moment)
I once met a Gypsy in the woods.
Gypsies, they knows things we
don't. He'd been poaching, see,
and he was caught in a trap. When
I frees him, he says, I've no money
to reward you but I'll show you how
my people protects theirselves from
plague. There'8 a certain plant,
says he.
(yawns)
Where does I sleep?
Wait.

JACK FEENY
What plant would that be?

RATSEY
Well, he - All right to have some - ?
(gestures toward the
pitcher)
Feeny refills Ratsey's mug.

Ratsey drains it at once.

RATSEY (cont.)
He takes me to the Gypsies' graveyard. It's midnight and there's a
full moon. He heaves up a great
rock and I sees a trap-door. Down
we goes. All right to - ?
Feeny refills Ratsey's mug and Ratsey gulps it down.
RATSEY
We're in a cave, see? He lights
a candle and there before me is A dark-skinned hand has crept from under the table and
toward the remains of Ratsey's bread. Ratsey suddenly
seizes the hand and drags up the terrified Toby.
Twisting his arm, Ratsey sets his foot against Toby's
back and sends him spinning across the room.
/""!K

RATSEY (cont.)
Can't stand their color, I can't.
And they stinks*
CONTINUED

U3.
17

CONTINUED
PROTHERO
(reasonably enough)
So do you.
RATSEY
Ah, but mine's a white stink.
There's a difference, see how I
mean?
PROTHERO
No.
JACK FEENY
And what happened then?
Puzzled, Ratsey turns to Feeny as Beck comes to clear the
table.
JACK FEENY (cont.)
The story, man, the story. What
happened then?
RATSEY
Oh. Oh, I went for a roll with
the duchess right there on the
poop-deck.
Ratsey nods several times in vigorous confirmation of the
truth of his story and, reaching for the pitcher, looks
up at Beck.
RATSEY (cont.)
And what might your name be,
darling?
Glaring at Ratsey, Feeny snatches the pitcher and stomps
away from the table. Ratsey squeezes Beck's bottom.
Annoyed, she twitches it out of reach and leaves him.
Ratsey shrugs and, after inspecting and rejecting Mrs.
Tolliver, turns to Mrs* Fovey*
RATSEY
And who might you be, darling?
^

/""^
'

MRS. POVEY
I'm Povey. I'm a searcher of the
dead, I am. Her, too.
RATSEY
Are you? Come to the stable, dear,
and we'll hunt for fairy gold in the
hay.
CONTINUED

uu.
/**

17

CONTINUED
Claping the giggling Mrs. Povey's wrist, Ratsey gets up
and pulls her to her feet.
PROTHERO
Is that it, after all? A mumboJumbo Gypsy charm?
RATSEY
(snaps his fingers)
That was the yarn I was spinning.
I couldn't remember*
PROTHERO
(with a superior smile)
If it'8 any such thing you're
depending on, friend, I pity you.
RATSEY
Stick the pity, friend, where it'll
do most good. You'll need it more
than me if the plague comes close.
PROTHERO
What makes you so certain, friend?

Ratsey brings his face close to Prothero's.

RATSEY
Because I once had the plague,
friend, and you don't, get it. twice.

Ratsey points at Prothero's stricken expression, shouts

with laughter and, seizing Mrs. Povey in a bear-hug,
whirls her in a clumsy dance toward and out the rear-door.
RATSEY (cont.)
(bellowing as they go)
Why stand we here?
Why dance we not?
Falalalala lala la la*
My blood*s a-boil
Like water in the pot*
Falalalala lala la la.
i.

Prothero is alone except for the sodden M r s . Tolliver.

/rav

PROTHERO
(perhaps to God)
But that*s not Just.

1*5.

18

jC^^>\

OUTSIDE THE LORD MAYOR'S HOUSE

MINGS, an efficient, graying bead clerk, is on the doorstep with a list of the City's aldermen in his hand,
issuing hurried instructions to a dozen mounted and
mounting Couriers, one of whom gallops off as Harry's
coach stops and Harry gets out with Blanche*
MINGS
And you, Tom, you summon Alderman
Lovelace, Alderman Bunn and Aldermen Stayner, Bartlett, Cuttance
and Greatorex. Nick Another Courier gallops off as Harry and Blanche come up
the step.
MINGS (cont.)
Mr. Poyntz. I vas about to send
for you. His Worship is in the
office.
As Harry goes through the door with Blanche, Mings crosses
off his name.
MINGS (cont.)
Nick, you go 'round to Aldermen
Mortlake, Carey, Clutterbuck and
Tookey. Jonas?

I
V.

19

IN THE LORD MAYOR'S OFFICE

a spacious, sunny, sparsely furnished room with white
plaster walls, JOHN LAWRENCE, Lord Mayor of London, is
dictating to TEDDIMAN and Another Clerk as he paces. He
is sixty, with a wrestler's build, cropped hair, a scowl
and a stubborn chin. Messengers silently come and go
with papers for Teddlman,
LAWRENCE
And to slow the further spread of
the infection, I order all assemblies
prohibited except for worship. I
want the schools closed, theatres
closed Teddiman gestures for Lawrence to slow.
Blunche behind a hurrying Messenger.

Harry enters with

LAWRENCE (cont.)
Yes, Harry?
HARRY
I've seen the latest Mortality Bill,
(cont.)
CONTINUED

1*6.
/pp*v

19

CONTINUED
HARRY (cont.)
John. Tomorrow's. A hundred and
ninety-three dead of plague.
(fishing) .
The situation's very bad, isn't it?
LAWRENCE
A hundred and ninety-three would
make it sad enough but not too bad.
HARRY
(brightening)
There's no cause for alarm, then.
LAWRENCE
Not if it were only a hundred and
ninety-three. But the true figure,
I'd say, is nearer four hundred.
Shocked, Harry can only stare at Lawrence.
LAWRENCE (cont.)
The Bills have never shown more than
seventy dead from all causes in any
one week. Tomorrow's shows five
hundred. One hundred and ninetythree admittedly by plague. The
rest, some three hundred, laid to
Old Age, Consumption, Small Pox but what would you say most are?
There'8 a great temptation to lie
when someone in your family dies of
plague and you face forty days
quarantine in an infected house.

/$$Z\

Four hundred.

t.

HARRY
In one week.

LAWRENCE
It's an ugly truth and we face many.
Would you rather not hear them?
That there'8 great unemployment and
it's growing with the great houses
and shops shutting down as their
owners run away and turn out servants
and working-men without a penny or a
place to live for us to take care of?
That there*s almost no City Cash, the
King having borrowed it to fight the
Dutch? That the farmers grow angry
(cont.)
CONTINUED

1*7.
19

CONTINUED
LAWRENCE (cont.)
with us for letting the plague
spread and threaten to bring no
more food and fuel to our markets?
HARRY
My God, John, you take the heart
out of me.
LAWRENCE
Harry, Harry, it*8 not as though
there's nothing to be done.
HARRY
(brightening again)
Of course. What provision did His
Majesty make before he left?

-PS
(

LAWRENCE
His Majesty? His Majesty graciously
granted me a two-minute audience as
he stood with a foot in the coach,
ready to depart. It might have been
longer but his spaniel began choking
on a chicken-bone and that being a
truly serious matter the audience
ended. Off he went with his whores
and a 'Do what you can' and 'Ask
people to send alms for the afflicted
to the Bishop of London.' That's a
good manj incidentally, that Bishop
Henchman, Harry. I never cared for
him personally but he's vowed to stay
at his post and he will.

,
\s

Harry is slumped in dejection.

LAWRENCE (cont.)
Never mind, Harry* We managed without a king for twenty years after we
chopped off his father's head and
we'll manage now*
,'

f^

HARRY
(with a nervous glance
at the clerks)
John. For God's sake.
LAWRENCE
Aach. When I said there's something
to be done, I meant we will do it.

(contTT
CONTINUED

1*8,
19

CONTINUED
LAWRENCE (cont.)
Doctor Alston has assured me the
College of Physicians will soon
devise effective medicines and
measures. And from now on, no one
will be allowed to leave the City
without a health certificate signed
by the alderman of his parish.
That'll soothe the farmers and, if
you hand them out as slowly as
possible, it'll serve to keep people
here, too. So you see all's not
lost yet, is it?
HARRY
It*s not so much myself I'm concerned about, John. But I have a
child soon due.
LAWRENCE
I have five already here so I do
understand. Naturally, we think
of the children first.

HARRY
That's it. You know how much it
means to me. I waited so long
before marrying, to make something
of myself first. Perhaps too long.
This child will be very dear to me.
And so, while I've been happy to
serve as alderman, I LAWRENCE
(forestalling)
Of course it will be dear to you.
And that'8 why you'll want it to
be proud of you when it's old enough
to understand you stayed and did
your duty in a critical time,
HARRY
What I have in mind, John ,'

J0&+*.

LAWRENCE
No, Harry, no. What panic you'd
feel if the sun failed to appear
one day or the moon. Well, we are
the planets to London town, a bond
and a surety that order will be
preserved, suffering alleviated
(cont,)
CONTINUED

1*9.
19

CONTINUED
LAWRENCE (cont.)
and the plague fought. I will
ride through the streets every
day to let myself be seen. And I
expect every alderman to do the
same and discharge the trust reposed in him to the utmost of his
power. I'll break any man who
tries to wriggle out of it. I'll
break him, Harry, I swear it. I'll
fine him to the limits of his
fortune, blacken his name and see
to it he never again holds office.
This City will be kept going. I
was not elected Lord Mayor of London
to see grass grow in the streets.
HARRY
I'll send the child, I mean, my
wife to her father's in Dover.
LAWRENCE
(shakes his head)
It won't do. Forbid people to flee
but aldermen may send away their
families? No, Harry, Not that
either,
HARRY
My God, what sins have we committed
to deserve all this?
LAWRENCE
Great ones, surely, I'm proclaiming
tomorrow and every Wednesday hereafter a day of humiliation and public
confession of sin. We will all attend
church and implore His mercy by opening our hearts* His hand, they say,
is heavy upon the silent sinner,
MRS. LAWRENCE, her husband's age, comes in with his gold
chain of office and arranges it about bis neck*
'

MRS* LAWRENCE
The aldermen are g a t h e r i n g . Jack*
LAWRENCE
Thank y o u , w i f e .
( t o Harry)
You n e e d n ' t s t a y for t h e m e e t i n g .
You*ve heard i t a l l .
CONTINUED

50.
stm*

19

CONTINUED
HARRY
I'll not, then. Tonight*s my annual
feast for the cutting of the stone,
LAWRENCE
Oh, yes. What an absurd man you
are, Harry, to be sure,
HARRY
Doctor Hodges cut thirty for the
stone that year and I alone survived, I'm grateful,
LAWRENCE
Teddiman will bring you a copy of
the plague orders as soon as they're
drawn. Make a note, Teddiman.
TEDDIMAN
It won't be before morning, Mr.
P oynt z.

f0^

LAWRENCE
Read them in church after the
service so that all may know.

\
\

Lawrence starts to leave, then turns, back to Harry.

LAWRENCE (cont.)
Come see me at any time, Harry,
day or night. God bless you. And
good luck,
20

IN HARRY'S GARDEN
that night a table has been set out under a tree. The
feast has ended and GOSNELL, Jem's maidservant, an indolent slovenly girl her own age, is removing the dishes.
Harry, at one end, Blanche's head on his knee, is busy
with his thoughts* Jem, at the other, is playing'a guitar
and singing. At the table with them are Sal and Nan
Kllligrew; CECIL CHANDLER, the silver-haired, aristocratic
vicar of St. Barnabas church; his awkward, gentle, young
curate, LUCIUS MORRELL; and the baker's wife, BETTY
BUCKWORTH, a handsome, strongly built, capable woman.
JEM
(sings)
Why so pale and wan, fond lover?
Tell me, why so pale?
(cont.)
CONTINUED

51.
/f^ar\

20

CONTINUED
JEM (cont.)
Will, when looking well
Can't win her,
Looking ill prevail?
Tell me, why so pale?
Harry's gaze has gone to Sam Killigrew and JASPER BUCKWORTH, a broad, simple man Harry's age, standing together
at a corner of the garden wall nearest the Alley. He
leaves the table to join them.
NAN
(taking it up)
Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
Tell me, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well
Can't win her,
Saying nothing do't?
Tell me, why so mute?
The song goes on. Sam and Jasper have ears cocked to the
tolling bells. Beyond them, between Harry's building and
the next, the drift of coaches and wagons toward Barnabas
Gate is visible. At Harry's look of inquiry:
SAM
Brickbats and tiles say the bells
of St. Giles. That's the second
death bell for St. Giles in less
than five minutes.
JASPER
Sshh. Oranges and lemons say the
bells of St. Clement's. God rest
the soul, whoever it is.
HARRY
(eyeing the traffic)
And on it flows. I hear one of the
aldermen is thinking of going away*

SAM
If I knew his name I'd tell him
what I think of him, I would. I'm
staying, why can't he?
HARRY
Are you, Sam?

jflS^v,

SAM
Of course I am. I've got enough
(cont.)
CONTINUED

52.
20

CONTINUED
SAM (cont.)
produce and beer in my storehouse to feed an army for a year.
I can't leave it, can I? And how
would I carry it with me?
JASPER
I wish I could go away,
SAM
It would be easy enough for you.
JASPER
I don't understand. Folks need
bread, don't they? How could I
go? Who'd bake it?
Chandler joins them, a fiddle under his arm, Morrell
trailing after him.
CHANDLER
The ladies would like you to Join
them in a roundelay.

stf^\

HARRY
We were speaking of an alderman who
thinks of running away.
CHANDLER
What a contemptible man he must be.
*

HARRY
Perhaps he has good reason.
CHANDLER
Anyone in a responsible position
who leaves now out of fear is twice
condemned. Condemned for inhumanity
in turning his back upon us and for
stupidity as well - for if God
intends to send him the infection
where can he go to escape it?
b

SAM
(cutting him off)
Listen,,.St, Giles again. Damn
them over there. That's where it
all began.
MORRELL
N-not their fault, surely,
CONTINUED

53.
20

CONTINUED

SAM
You don't know how they live in
St, Giles if you can say that.
Homes not fit for pigs and what
they eat you wouldn't give a dog.
I know. I own two tenements and
a grocer's shop there.
MORRELL
H-how p-perverse the poor are.
We set them g-good examples and
they will not f-follow it.
CHANDLER
Gentlemen, the ladies are waiting.
As the others return to the table, Harry holds Sam back.

yr*w.lp\

HARRY
Sam, if it comes to the parish,
I'll be in the thick of it. My
house will not be safe. May Jem
stay with you, if need be, and the
child when it's born? Till the
sickness has passed?
SAM
Of course, Harry. Of course.
HARRY
You're a.good friend, Sam.
SAM
And you're the brother I always
wanted and never had.,.We'll take
care of them for you. And Sal's
a good midwife, if it comes to that.
Harry and Sam join the others.
under his chin.

_^
(

Chandler has his fiddle

CHANDLER
Are we ready, now?
(bow to strings then breaks off)
The key of C, remember.
(another false start)
When I count three.
(another false start)
What song was it? Oh, yes.
CONTINUED

51*.
20

CONTINUED
Jem and Nan begin to giggle at Chandler. When he puts
his bow to his fiddle again and still does not play, they
burst into laughter - which dies away when they see he
has remained frozen in position, his face ashen. Then
they hear the same bell he has just heard.
CHANDLER (cont.)
Two sticks,,.and an apple...
Say the bells of Whitechapel.,.
The plague is within the wall.
Everyone is still as a statue.
except for the bells.

There is utter silence

CHANDLER (cont.)
(bemused)
I must prepare my sermon. For
tomorrow.
Like a sleep-walker, he gets up and makes his way slowly
to the garden door and out. Each family draws together.
SAM
We'd all best go home.
The group disintegrates without another word. When the
last guest has gone, Harry snuffs all the candles but
one. Carrying that, he leads Jem across the garden and
they enter the darkened shop by the rear door. Blanche
follows,
21

IN HARRY'S HOUSE
Harry and Jem go up the stairs from the shop, Blanche
behind them. On the middle floor landing, there is a glow
of light from an open door: Prothero is writing at a
table in his room. Harry hands the candle to Jem and
let8 her go up alone. From the doorway:
HARRY
The plague is in the City,
Yes, sir,

PROTHERO
I heard the bell.

HARRY
What is it you're doing?
PROTHERO
Writing health certificates for
those wanting to leave.
CONTINUED

55.
21

CONTINUED
HARRY
You can't work day and night.
We'll engage another clerk.
PROTHERO
The parish cannot afford it.
HARRY
(nods dully)
Bed Blanche down for the night.
(to Blanche)
Stay, girl,
Harry turns away and slowly goes up the stairs.

22

IN HARRY'S BEDROOM
Jem is taking off her shift and putting on her nightgown.
Undressing, Harry looks at her body.
HARRY
Oh, God, how I want you tonight.
Jem hesitates at this, then slips between the sheets.

HARRY (cont.)
Christ, not since our weddingnight. If you weren't pregnant,
I'd find it hard to remember we'd
ever done it at all.
Jem turns her face away, tears coming to her eyes. Harry
puts on his nightshirt and gets under the cover beside
her. After awhile, Jem turns her head to him.
JEM
You can if you like*
HARRY
I know I can if I like* Thank you .
for nothing* But if there's no
Joy in it for you, there's none for
me.
Ha;?ry snuffs the candle.
23

The room is black*

IN ST. BARNABAS CHURCH

next day the benches are packed solid with parishioners;
many must stand in the rear and against the side-walls.
Harry and Jem are here, in a pew up front, and the
CONTINUED

56.

(~*

23

CONTINUED
Killigrews, the Buckworths, the Feenys.
the pulpit.

Chandler is in

CHANDLER
Variable, and therefore miserable,
is the condition of Man. This
minute I was well and the next I
am ill. We deliberate upon our
meats and drink and air and exercises, we polish every stone with
which we build that building,
Health, but in a minute a Cannon
demolishes all; a Sickness unprevented for all our diligence
seizes us and destroys us in an
instant. 0 miserable condition
of Man. God had put a coal of
immortality into us which we might
have fanned into a flame. But we
blew it out with Adam's first sin.
So that nov we not only die, we
die upon the rack of fear. We
are not sure we are ill, we are
not sure we are well. One hand
asks the other by the pulse and
our eye asks our urine how we do...

/$&*y

Lawrence's clerk, Teddiman, enters, looks about for Harry

and, seeing him, makes his way through the press to his
side. He hands Harry a copy of the plague orders and
leaves.

fc

/****

CHANDLER (cont.)
Behold us, 0 God, here gathered
together in confidence of Thy
promise that when two or three are
gathered together in Thy name Thou
wilt be in the midst of them and
grant them their petitions. We
confess that we are not worthy so
much as to confess* Vanities have
covered us and thereby we are naked.
Licentiousness hath inflamed us and
thereby we are frozen. Voluptuousness
hath fed us and thereby we are starved*
These distempers Thou only, Who art
true and perfect harmony, canst tune
and rectify and set in order again.
Do so, then, most merciful Father.
Shut out none of us. But with as
many of us as begin their conversion
(cont.)
CONTINUED

57.
(^

23

CONTINUED
CHANDLER (cont.)
and newness of life, this minute,
this minute, this minute, 0 God,
begin Thou Thy account with them
and put all that is past out of
Thy remembrance...We will pray now,
silently, and let those who wish
to confess rise and do so.
Everyone bows his head. After a time, little Dickie
Killigrew gets to his feet.
DICKIE
I took an apple from the barrel
and brought it to bed with me
and ate it in the dark and I had
been told not to. I won't do it
again.
Dickie sits down. Chandler waits. But perhaps the peril
is not yet close enough: no one else rises.

CHANDLER
Alderman Poyntz?
Chandler leaves the pulpit as Harry comes to the front
and faces the assemblage, unrolling the plague orders.
HARRY
(reads)
Orders Concerning The Infection Of
The Plague. First, it is thought
necessary and so ordered that every
householder keep the street before
his house clean and swept* That
the sweeping* and filth of houses be
daily carried away by the rakers.
That no hogs, dogs, cats or tame
pigeons be kept within the City
and that the dogs.be killed...by
dog-killers appointed for that
purpose...
Harry'8 voice trails off*
ing, he goes on,

(*

His eyes meet Jem's.

HARRY (cont.)
(reading)
That special care be taken that no
rotten fish, unwholesome flesh -

Recover-

58.
/*B*N

2U

IN THE VESTRY
Morrell's eyes are fixed upon Chandler who is stuffing
a few last things into a saddle-bag. Chandler is increasingly uncomfortable under the level gaze.
CHANDLER
I would not have anyone misinterpret my departure, Mr. Morrell,
I depend upon you to explain it
fully after I have gone. I am
not leaving out of fear* Make
that clear. My plans were made
long, long before there vas even
a breath of plague. Stress that.
I always go to the country at this
time of year. It's simply my
normal summer vacation. That's
understandable enough, isn't it?
That it's not desertion in the
face of peril?
Morrell is silent.
CHANDLER (cont.)
I say it's not. And I've never
given anyone cause to doubt my
word, have I? Have I? Well?

Morrell remains silent.

CHANDLER (cont.)
Self-preservation is the first
law of life, Morrell.
MORRELL
Is it? I was t-taught it's love
thy n-neighbor.
There 'is nothing more to be said. Chandler takes up his
saddle-bag and leaves by a side-door.
25

OUTSIDE ST. BARNABAS CHURCH

a dazed Harry stands on the steps with Jem as the
parishioners flow out past them. Emerging, Prothero
pauses next to Harry who hands him the plague orders vith
a few muttered words and dully watches as. Prothero scans
the crowd, sees the man he's looking for across the Alley
and raises a hand*
PROTHERO
(calls)
Hayward* John Hayward.

Over here.
CONTINUED

59.
(^

25

CONTINUED
JOHN HAYWARD, lounging in the Pye's doorway, is a maniac,
a hulking brute with beetling brows, gleaming eyes and
a set, twisted smile. At Prothero's summons he crosses
the Alley, dodging between the vehicles in the endless
procession to Barnabas Gate; these are no longer the
courtiers' elaborate coaches but the unadorned equipages
of merchants and tradesmen. People in his path give him
a vide berth,
PROTHERO (cont.)
(to Hayward)
You're to kill every dog in the
parish. Do you understand?
They carry the infection in their
hair. Kill them all. If anyone
tries to prevent you, report him
to me.

_^
(

Hayward is delighted. Stooping, he rips out a loose

cobble and looks about for game. A little mongrel is
nosing a bit of offal a few doors down and Hayward lopes
toward it. It shies as he nears and scurries behind a
barrel. There, Hayward catches it. The dog yammers as
his arm goes up and is silent when it has come down.
Harry shudders at the sight and starts home with Jem.
Across the Alley, two strangers turn their horses out of
the cavalcade moving toward the Gate and stop before the
house next to the Pye. MERLIN is a striking figure:
tall, emaciated, clad in black, with a black cloak; he
has a sombre mien, and wears a black eye-patch. AZAZEL,
his assistant, is a fat little man with knowing eyes and
a greasy smile* He addresses Beck, in the Pye's doorway.
AZAZEL
Is this, the Robinson house?
BECK
Yes. But they left the City this
morning.

/"***

AZAZEL
(producing a key)
I know. They've rented it to us*

Azazel opens the front door and lets Merlin in, then lifts
their baggage from his horse and deposits it inside. A
small knot of Curious Spectators gathers, Beck among them,
as he hangs a large, colored cloth with the zodiac on it
from a nail on the door and proceeds to beat a small drum.
CONTINUED

6o.
^

25

CONTINUED
AZAZEL
Merlin is here. Merlin the vise
and all-knowing, Merlin the great.
He knows the past, the present and
the future and has been praised by
all the crowned heads in the world.
He has infallible preventive pills
against the plague, never-failing
preservatives against the Infection,
sovereign cordials against the
corruption of the air. He has long
studied the doctrine of antidotes
and is nov prepared to save you
from any contagious distemper whatsoever. He carries a full line of
charms and amulets against all ills
and, friends, he directs the poor
gratis, absolutely free of charge*
Merlin, Merlin is here*
BECK
You say it's free?

AZAZEL
I said it's free and it is free.
(lower)
His advice, that is. For everything
else there is a small fee.
BECK
Will the. sickness come to this
parish, can you tell me?
AZAZEL
The planets have revealed to Merlin,
I regret to say, that it will and
the many of you, I will not mention
the names, no, no, don't press me,
many of you will die of it. Unless,
that is, you avail yourself of
Merlin's help.
And, with a final rat-tat-tat upon the drum, Azazel enters
the*,house and shuts the door,

f ^-

26

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Blanche bounds down the stairs as Harry and Jem enter from
the Alley. Tail wagging, rump wriggling, she stands and
. puts her forefeet on Harry's chest; he scratches her head.
CONTINUED

61.
/sJPfcy

26

CONTINUED
Darting away, she goes searching for something under a
table. Harry opens a drawer in a nearby chest and takes
out a knife. Jem watches in horror and pity as Blanche
comes to Harry and lays a slipper at his feet, begging
to be played with. Harry picks it up and, going to the
rear-door, opens it and flings the slipper into the
garden. With a happy bark, Blanche flings herself after
it.
No,

No,

JEM
Please.

Running to Harry, Jem grasps his arm.

JEM (cont.)
No. You can't. Not you* Let
Prothero. Or Will or Harvey.
HARRY
They might hurt her.
Putting Jem aside, he goes into the garden, Jem's eyes
follow him until, abruptly, she covers them and turns
away. After awhile, Harry returns, panting, tears running
down his cheeks. He notices the knife still in his hand
and, in loathing, hurls it aside. Then he hurries out
into the Alley.
27

IN HARROW ALLEY
blindly half-running, half-walking, Harry passes the Pye
on his way out of the quarter. Eagle's audience has
grown: a Dozen Men And Women now stand listening to him.
EAGLE
- and it was commanded them that
they should not hurt any grass of
the earth neither any green thing
neither any tree but only those men
which have not the seal of God in
their foreheads and -

28

IN THE PYE
trade is brisk: the inhabitants of the Alley have much
to discuss and are excitedly doing so. Yawning hugely,
Ratsey enters through the rear-door with Mrs* Povey.
There are bits of straw in their hair and on their
clothes. He goes directly to Jack Feeny jawing at one
of the tables with some patrons,
CONTINUED

62.
/#*N

28

CONTINUED
RATSEY
I'm hungry.
Feeny waves him away.
RATSEY (cont.)
I says I'm hungry.
Feeny ignores him* Ratsey lets out a howl that silences
the room and doubles up, clutching his thigh*
JACK FEENY
For the love of God* What is it?
RATSEY
Sorry, mates* Happens every nov
and then* Ever since I was a
little boy and had the plague.
It's easing off a bit, now.
JACK FEENY
(snorts)
Had the plague,
RATSEY
Plague's what I said and plague's
what I had. Look here. See?
Ratsey shows Feeny a deep, criss-cross scar behind his
ear.
t

RATSEY (cont.)
Ever seen one before? That's where
the swelling was before they cut
it and let out the pus* Some gets
it there, some under the arm, some
in the crotch* Some in all three*
JACK FEENY
My God, he's telling the truth.
And you still suffer, after all
these years?

j0**.
>

RATSEY
You knows how it is with rheumatics
when the weather changes? They gets
a twinge? It's that way with me
when I'm in a room where someone
has the plague,
Plague?

JACK FEENY
Someone here?
CONTINUED

63.
28

CONTINUED
It takes a moment for this to sink in. Then, with terrified shouts, a dropping of mugs and an overturning of
benches and stools, the room is emptied in a trice.
Ratsey helps himself to a large slice of meat and some
bread from an abandoned dinner and, noticing Hayward in
a corner studying what appear to be small, hairy whips,
goes over to him. Hayward holds them out for inspection.
A

HAYWARD
tail for every dog I killed.

RATSEY
No fear of plague, mate?
HAYWARD
I had it, too, and lived.
RATSEY
G'arn.
Hayward rips his shirt from his shoulder and shows Ratsey
a scarred arm-pit.
HAYWARD
It was after that my head began
to hurt so. After that*
RATSEY
Now, that'8 a miracle, that is.
There can't be a hundred in all
England who've had it and lived.
And two of us is here.
Pondering the ways of the universe and helping himself to
a pitcher of beer, Ratsey saunters out into the Alley.
29

OUTSIDE THE PYE

Ratsey finds a small barrel in the sunshine and takes his
ease with his meat and drink* A shadow falls across him.
Looking up, he sees Dan, the hangman's assistant,
RATSEY
How's young Mortimer?
DAN
Oh, it*s you. They buried him last
night* I*m looking for work. All
public hangings is stopped, did you
know? I must have walked over half
London today and there's a hundred
men for every opening*
CONTINUED

61*.
29

CONTINUED
RATSEY
I'm onto something steady h e r e ,
myself.
Dan h u n g r i l y l i c k s h i s l i p s as Ratsey t a k e s a huge b i t e
of meat and l o u d l y chews i t ,
DAN
I w a s n ' t even able t o buy food
for my family y e s t e r d a y . We'd
planned on e a t i n g y o u . T h a t ' s
how we speak of i t in t h e c r a f t *
RATSEY
And a v e r y good way i t

is,

DAN
But no h a n g i n g , no f e e . What's
g o i n g t o happen t o my w i f e and
l i t t l e ones I d o n ' t know.
/J$SN

'

RATSEY
Starve to death, most likely. If
the plague don't kill them first.

.
\

Don*t say that.

it.

DAN
I couldn't bear

RATSEY
-Maybe you won*t have to.
might kill you first.

It

DAN
Damn that Dutch bosun. Damn him.
If I ever sees him, 1*11 strangle
him.
Dan goes off, cursing.
RATSEY
Hangman.
(spits)
30

OUTSIDE THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS

a small, stately building, there is a courtyard.
near the front door, is a coach with a Coachman,
hurries up the steps and into the building.

In it,
Harry

65.
A**,
(

31

IN THE OFFICE OF THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT

a handsomely furnished, book-lined room with marble busts
of Apollo, Hippocrates, Galen, Aesculapius and other
medical deities and luminaries, SIR EDWARD ALSTON is
standing at his table hurriedly packing the gold head of
his cane, actually a scent-box, with a pinch of this and
a pinch of that from numerous herbal jars before him.
He is a fleshy, middle-aged, highly successful practitioner.
HARRY
(entering)
I beg your pardon Startled, Alston claps the head of his cane shut and holds
it to his nose as he fearfully backs away from Harry.
ALSTON
There's no plague in your house?
You're not a victim yourself?
Your parish is free of infection?

f***-

HARRY
No, no, nothing like that. I'm
Harry Poyntz, Alderman of St.
Barnabas. I'm looking for the
President of the College of
Physicians.

\
\

ALSTON
I, am Sir Edward Alston.
He glances doubtfully once more at Harry, then resumes
stuffing documents into a traveling bag at his feet.
ALSTON (cont.)
I've been besieged by people at
every step. Many with the impudence to come to me directly from
a plague-victim's death-bed. No
consideration at all.
HARRY
The Lord Mayor told me you're
devising effective measures
against the epidemic.
l*

yfff&V

ALSTON
Yes. Tremendously effective
measures. I delivered our report
to His Worship not an hour ago.
HARRY
I'm very concerned, naturally CONTINUED

66,
^'

31

CONTINUED

ALSTON
Of course you are, of course.
HARRY
I can't tell you how relieved I
am to hear from your own lips
that there'8 something we can do.
ALSTON
Plenty to do. We've recommended
the victims' bodies be buried two
feet deeper, at least, than is
usual and sprinkled with quicklime
to hasten decomposition. And HARRY
I'm more interested in the living.
ALSTON
Oh, we've taken care of that, you
may be certain. Got one of these?
Alston shows Harry the gold head of his cane.

J0GS\

,"

j(rf^**\

ALSTON (cont.)
It's a scent-box, you see? You
fill it with aromatics, wormwood,
rue, thyme, bayleaf, even garlic,
and take a deep breath whenever
you suspect you're in the vicinity
of the sickness. It helps combat
the effluvia, the invisible little
beasties in the air that carry the
disease. A garland of roses around
the neck is extraordinarily effective.
'Fill your pockets with posies, that
helps, too* So does a dead, dried
toad: it attracts all the poisons
in the atmosphere to itself and
saves the wearer harmless. And
keep a goldpiece in your mouth at
all times, especially one from Queen
Elizabeth'8 reign* That's philosophi col gold, that is* Hold it always
between the lower lip and the lower
gum* Here, see? Some of my colleagues
say the upper lip and the upper gum
but I say not* Try it both ways, if
you like.
CONTINUED

67.
31

CONTINUED
HARRY
Sir Edward, my wife is pregnant.
We expect our first child in
August ALSTON
My congratulations to you both.
Now, don't youfret about it.
This is what you do. Keep your
good lady inside the house. Bar
the doors and windows to keep out
the air. Then purify the air
inside the house. Burn noxious
materials night and day. Fitch,
tar, brimstone, old shoes. And
sprinkle the walls and floor daily
with vinegar and horses' urine.
Do that, and if anything untoward
happens to your wife and child,
well, I shall be very much surprised.
HARRY
Sir Edward ALSTON
No, no, I can't stay another moment.
My patients have all gone to Oxford
and I should be derelict in duty if
I did not join them at once. Goodby, goodby. And don't worry. Joy,
Temperance and Repose, slam the door
on the doctor's nose, eh?
And he is gone. In a few seconds, his coach is heard
rumbling across the courtyard outside. Someone chuckles
drily and, turning, Harry sees Doctor Hodges at a bookshelf in a far corner.
HODGES
The best cure Sir Edward ever worked
was upon his own purse. When he
began it was lean and sickly and
now it's one of the fattest in the
profession.
Hodges takes down a few books and blows the dust from them.
HODGES (cont.)
Look at that. They haven't been
touched since the day I loaned them
to the College. Too unorthodox.
(cont*)
CONTINUED

68,
31

CONTINUED
HODGES (cont.)
Ah, well, I'm not surprised.
When I first shoved them to Sir
Edward I rather expected him to
put them to his nose, like the ape,
and ask me whether they were something to eat. If your child is a
son and one day decides to be a
physician, be sure to send him to
an English university. They'll
stuff his head properly with the
writings of doctors dead three
thousand years and he'll never be
confused by facts as I vas, studying at Montpellier in France.
HARRY
You have no trust in Sir Edward's
recommendations?
HODGES
Who am I to doubt the words of
Procopius who devised those same
tremendously effective measures
six hundred years before Christ?
And applied them, too, with tremendous effect - until the Black
Death killed him. And twenty
million more. How can we combat
the plague, Harry, when we cannot
say what.causes it? We know it
always starts with the poor and
the filthiness that goes with being
poor and we know it often stops with
the coming of cold weather. Beyond
that,,.

/0^\

HARRY
I refuse to believe there's nothing
can be done*

is

j0**>*.

HODGES
Oh, there's much you can do. Isolate
yourself in your house, bolt your
doors and windows and never look at
the ugliness outside. Think only
pretty thoughts, listen only to
pretty music, fill your eyes only
with pretty things. No? What about
choosing a scape-goat, piling all
your sins upon it and stoning it
(cont.)
CONTINUED

69.
31

CONTINUED
HODGES (cont.)
into the desert? That's always
infallible. I don't mean it
remedies the calamity; I mean it
infallibly kills the goat. Too
bad there are not enough Jews in
London to matter. Why not blame
Papists for the plague and murder
a few of them? Or Quakers? Or
other Non-conformists?
HARRY
(raising a fist)
I will not have you mock me.
HODGES
Then take my advice. The best
preparation for the plague is to
run from it. Like Alston. Like
most of the other physicians.
Like me.

You?

HARRY
You're leaving St, Barnabas?

HODGES
I'm going back to Montpellier.
I can teach there and be of some
use. I always said I'd do that
when I could do nothing else. And
I've reached an age when I can do
nothing else,
HARRY
Leaving us. I hope you go straight
to hell when you die*
HODGES
Ah, well, Harry, hell for company,
they say, and heaven for holiness*
What would be the good of my staying?
**

/""**
'

HARRY
You could comfort us, if nothing
else. Comfort us by your presence,
HODGES
Why should I? What are most of
you anyway but passages for food,
producers of dung? What will you
leave behind for monuments when
(cont.)
CONTINUED

70,
^

31

CONTINUED

HODGES (cont.)
you're gone but full privies?
Risk my few remaining years for
that? Besides, I've already experienced a plague. In Italy,
before you were born. And what I
saw then filled me with no great
love for my fellow-men. You wait,
Harry, wait, and you'll swear it's
only by chance they wear human form
and but for this one might class
them with beasts.
Hodges puts his books under his arm, preparing to go.
HODGES (cont.)
Don't be a fool, Harry. Run,
Run Run
32

A LONDON STREET
doing business as usual and with Lawrence, the Lord Mayor,
on horseback, riding slowly along preceded by his MaceBearer afoot, letting himself be seen.

A SPECTATOR
God bless you, Jack.
LAWRENCE
God bless us all, friend.
ANOTHER SPECTATOR
I look for you each day, Jack.
It gives me heart to stay.
LAWRENCE
And I look for you each day, too,
friend, and it gives me heart to
stay,
A HOUSEHOLDER has run out of his house with two mugs of
wine. He hands one up to Lawrence.
HOUSEHOLDER
Your health, Jack Lawrence.
drinks to it,
y$^K

LAWRENCE
Thank you, friend, I drink to yours,
Lawrence drinks the wine and tosses the mug back, Harry
CONTINUED

71.
32

CONTINUED
comes running down the street and falls in step alongside
Lawrence's horse,
John,

HARRY
I must speak to you.

LAWRENCE
I'm listening, Harry,
HARRY
The King has fled, the Court has
fled, so has the Parliament, the
lawyers, most of the physicians.
How can you Justify asking me to
remain?
LAWRENCE
(eyes straight ahead)
The King has fled, the Court has
fled, so has the Parliament, the
lawyers, most of the physicians.
How can you Justify asking me
leave to go?

/0^\

\.

HARRY
I am going, John. I'm going, I say.
LAWRENCE
No, you're not.
HARRY
Fine me to my last penny*
care*

I don't

LAWRENCE
I know that wouldn't keep you,
Harry.
HARRY
And it doesn't matter to me if I
never again hold office.
v

LAWRENCE
I never thought it would, Barry.
HARRY
There's nothing, nothing, that can
make me stay.

LAWRENCE
Yes, there is, Harry. You'll stay
because you're good.
CONTINUED

72,
32

CONTINUED
Harry is stopped dead in his tracks by this.
ambles on:
HARRY
Damn you, John, Damn you.
you.

As Lawrence

Damn

Unperturbed, Lawrence rides on.

33

/$^\

IN HARROW ALLEY
next day, matters are much the same except that here and
there among the coaches moving toward Barnabas Gate there
are many fleeing on horseback and a few on foot, pushing
barrows with their possessions, carrying children in
their arms and infirm oldsters on their backs.
Harry and Prothero, on a round of inspection, are moving
toward the Pye, pausing occasionally for a word with
Householders sweeping the area before their doors.
Outside the Pye, a Hostler holds a baggage-laden horse
for Hodges who is bidding Sam goodby. Sam has a bottle
of brandy.
HODGES
What would I do with it, Sam?
One sniff of brandy would be the
death of me.
SAM
It's medicinal, isn't it7
it for your patients.

Take

Hodges starts opening a saddle-bag to put in the bottle

as Harry and Prothero pass. Hodges holds out his hand.
HODGES
I'm leaving now, Harry*
we'll ever meet again*

sfi****

I doubt

HARRY
(to Prothero)
They sweep now because the order
is fresh in their minds. But we
must keep after them.

Harry ignores Hodges who shrugs and stows away the brandy.
Listening to Eagle in his niche, now, are a Score of Men
and Women, Jack Feeny on the periphery.
CONTINUED

73.
33

CONTINUED
EAGLE
- and when they shall have finished
their testimony the beast that
ascendeth out of the bottomless
pit shall make war against them and
shall overcome them and kill them
and their dead bodies shall lie in
the street of the great city Coming up with Prothero behind Feeny, Harry taps bis
shoulder.
HARRY
The street before your door
will have to be cleaner
than this. Mr. Feeny?
Please attend to me and not
to that nonsense.
JACK FEENY
It is not nonsense.
HARRY
want this street JACK FEENY
It's deep, very deep,
I do not understand it
all myself but there's
much in what Eagle says,
HARRY
There's much in what I
say, too, I want this
street JACK FEENY
(abruptly)
Sshh.

EAGLE (cont.)
- which spiritually is
called Sodom and Egypt
where also our Lord was
crucified. And they of
the people and nations
shall see their d*ad bodies
three days and a half and
shall not suffer their
dead bodies to ce put in
graves and the/ that dwell
upon the earth shall rejoice over ttem and make
merry and shi.ll send gifts
one to another because
these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on
the earth and after three
days and a half the Spirit
of life from God entered
into them and they stood
upon their feet and great
fear fell upon them which
saw them and they heard a
great voice from heaven...

The cause of Feeny's rudeness is the surprising thing that

has happened: Eagle has lifted his eyes to the sky.

/S R?l *N

EAGLE (cont.)
A great voice from heaven..,
(points)
And there it is. An angel in
white. And a flaming sword in
his hand. Do you see it? Do
you see it?
CONTINUED

7U,
33

CONTINUED
I do.

A WOMAN
I see it plainly,

A MAN
Yes. Yes. There's a sword as
plain can be.
EAGLE
And nov he waves it over his head.
ANOTHER MAN
Over his head. Yes. Oh, yes.
EAGLE
And look, look, nov he points
that terrible sword at us.
ANOTHER WOMAN
(shrieks)
At us. I see it. Oh, spare us.
/f^

There is a gabble of mounting hysteria.

HARRY
There is nothing there.
JACK FEENY
(snarls)
You don't see the sword? The
flaming,, two-handed sword?
A MAN
(hating Harry)
There, right there.
HARRY
It's a scrap of cloud.
A WOMAN
It's a time for God's anger,
dreadful judgments are at hand,
and he denies it, he denies it.
Prothero starts pulling Harry away from the menacing crowd,
Hodges catches Barry's eye and grins at him. There is no
saying where it might end but for the interruption, a
piercing, long-sustained scream from the house next to the
church, across the Alley. Everyone turns and sees:
A Delirious Man, stripped of his shirt, runs capering out
the front door to the middle of the Alley, almost under
the hoofs of a coach-horse, and there sinks to his knees
and beats his head in agony against the cobbles, his hat
CONTINUED

75.
33

CONTINUED
flying off. Clustered in the doorway from which he came
are a MAN WITH A HOT POKER and several Wailing Women.
The Coachman heaves on his reins and detours the coach
down the side-street that runs past the Pye; the entire
cavalcade behind it follows.
Everyone, motionless till now, dashes helter-skelter into
houses, shops and doorways.
Feeny grabs Eagle by the arm and hustles him into the Pye.
There is a slamming shut of doors and windows up and down
the Alley, like scattered gunfire.
And then silence.
Harry looks around. Morrell is on the church-steps, peering to see what has happened. Hodges is in front of the
Pye, a foot in the stirrup, preparing to mount, Just as
the 6cream caught him. And in every window and partlyopened door a frightened face looks at Harry to see what
he will do. Morrell hurries down the steps and runs
toward the Delirious Man, who now lies inert, Harry
takes a deep breath and moves to join him.

zflP^N

Stop.
to him.

HODGES' VOICE
Back, both of you. I'll see

Harry pauses. Morrell kneels beside the Delirious Man

and gently raises him, resting the bloody head on his knee
HODGES
(in self-disgust)
Damn, damn, damn.
Hodges takes out the brandy, empties the bottle down his
gullet and tosses it aside to shatter on the cobbles.
Then he goes and squats next to Morrell. Examining the
Delirious Man, he addresses the Man With A Hot Poker.
HODGES (cont.)
When was he taken ill?
MAN WITH A HOT POKER
Three days ago.
HODGES
An icy chill at first?
shivering?

And then

yf^^N

MAN WITH A HOT POKER

Yes, yes, we thought he'd never
stop sneezing.
CONTINUED

76.
33

CONTINUED
HODGES
And after that convulsions and
nausea?
MAN WITH A HOT POKER
And then the swellings came.
HODGES
And you tried to burn them out.
MAN WITH A HOT POKER
We were told it might save him.
HODGES
Why didn't you ask me? You didn't
want anyone to know, is that it?
The Man With A Hot Poker is silent.
HARRY
Is it plague?

jtm\

HODGES
It's plague. Buboes or swellings
under both arms big as your fist.
And his chest's covered with the
tokens.
HARRY
Tokens? ,
HODGES
These little knobs* Mortified
flesh. Hard as a bunion. They
die within five hours after the
tokens come. He's dead nov.
The Man With A Hot Poker sobs.
him start to keen.

_^
[

The Wailing Women behind

MORRELL
The Almighty and m-merciful Lord
g-grant thee pardon and remission
of all thy s-sins and the g-grace
and comfort of the Holy S-Spirit.
Amen.
(to Harry)
I'll have his g-grave readied.
Morrell gets up and heads for the church.

Hodges lowers
CONTINUED

77.
C

33

CONTINUED
the body and crosses the arms.
away from the corpse.

Harry cannot tear his eyes

HARRY
(calls)
Prothero. Prothero.
Prothero puts his head out the Pye's door.
HARRY (cont.)
He's dead.
Prothero pulls his head in* A moment later, the door
opens wide and out march Mrs* Tolliver and Mrs* Povey,
side by side, with their staffs of office. From Hodges'
position, looking up at them against the sky as they
approach, they have a weird dignity.
HODGES
What the hell do you want, you
old crows?
MRS. TOLLIVER
We are here because we took the oath.
(by heart)
Diligently to search the corpse and
report the cause of death faithfully,
honestly, unfeignedly and impartially.

/^p*\

MRS. POVEY
And then Ve gets our fee.
The Man With A Hot Poker casts a fearful glance at Harry
and calls to Hodges in a low, desperate voice.

i*

f**^

MAN WITH A HOT POKER

Past. Doctor. For God's sake, say
you're mistaken, that it's not
plague. And don't let them report
plague. I'll give you every penny
ve have. Doctor, they'll lock us in
for forty days. In here, with the
infection. We'll all die. Doctor,
please, there are four children in
the house.

Harry has overheard him and the last words spur him to
action.

Sam?

HARRY
(calls)
Sam? Sam Killigrew.
CONTINUED

78.
^

33

CONTINUED
Harry runs to Sam's house. The door is shut. He pounds
on it with his fists,
SAM'S VOICE
Get away from that door.
HARRY
Sam, it's Harry, Sam.
The door opens a bit and Sam looks out.
HARRY (cont.)
Sam, it's come. I'll send Jem
to you as soon as Sam has leveled a pistol at his head,

^
[

SAM
Nobody comes in here but me and
my family. We're going to stay
inside till the plague lifts and
I'll kill anyone who tries to
force a way in.
(raises voice so all
may hear)
Anyone who tries to come in here,
I'll blow his brains out, so help
me God,
Sam.

HARRY
He died of plague.

You said -

SAM
Don't say that word, I'm not going
to think about it. Go away.
Sam slams the door shut.
Nan.

Nan.

The church bell starts to toll.

SAM'S VOICE
Play that pretty song.

The music of a spinet begins inside* Harry looks about in

disbelief. Hodges catches his eye and grins the same
mocking grin. Harry turns away from the door and runs
to his own house. On the way, he passes Mr. and Mrs. Wicks
looking out the partly-opened door of their shop.
J$WP>V

MR. WICKS
Not another word, Mrs. Wicks. I
don't care what happens to the shop.
We're leaving the City at once. My
mind's made up.

79.
f^

3k

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Okeshott, Will and Harvey step back from the front door
as Harry bursts in and dashes to the staircase at the rear.
Mrs. Poyntz.

HARRY
Mrs. Poyntz.

Jem looks down from the upper floor landing.

JEM
I'm here, Mr. Poyntz,
HARRY
The plague is in the Alley, do
you understand? I order you to
remain up there. Up there. You're
not to come a single step below.
IB your girl there with you?
She's to do the same. And close
the shutters. You're not to look
out into the street. Don't ask
questions, do as I say,
Harry leaves the staircase and hurries to the front door.
f^

HARRY (cont.)
(to Will and Harvey)
You're not to go up there. Ever.
For any reason.
HARVEY
But we sleep up HARRY
You'll sleep in the stable. Not
another word, boy. Not another
word.
Harry leaves the shop.
35

IN HARROW ALLEY
Ratsey, Hayward and Toby, who is beside himself with fear,
are lifting the corpse to a broad plank. A Constable is
herding the Man With A Hot Poker and the Wailing Women
bad. into the house with his staff. Another Constable
is nailing shut the shutters on the ground-floor windows.
Hodges is unloading the baggage from his horse, A Watcher
with a halberd is standing by, ready to go on duty.
MAN WITH A HOT POKER
No. No, please. It means our
death. You're sentencing us to
death. Please. Please. Please.
CONTINUED

80.
35

CONTINUED

The First Constable firmly shuts the door and padlocks it.
Hayward is ready at his end of the plank.
RATSEY
(to Toby)
Take hold and off we goes.
Toby is wiping the hands with which he touched the corpse
on his shirt as though they would never be free of the
taint.
RATSEY (cont.)
Hear what I said, you miserable,
cowardly, little black lump?
Take hold or I'll skin you alive.
Take hold,
Ratsey cracks Toby on the back and hurls him at the plank.
Hayward and Toby lift it and, with Ratsey alongside, start
toward the church-yard. On the way, Ratsey sees the
corpse'8 hat is much finer than his and makes an exchange,
RATSEY (cont.)
If it goes on like this, I'll soon
look like a bloody duke.

The corpse gone, Prothero ventures out of the Pye and

joins Harry at the door of the quarantined house. And
nov that the Alley is clear, the procession towards the
Gate resumes.
HARRY
(to the Watcher)
Fetch them what they require. Water,
food, fuel, nurses and doctors if
they ask. Anything, But if even
one of them breaks out, I'll have
you whipped through the City.
Above, the middle floor windows open. The Man With A Hot
Poker, the Wailing Women and the Children are there,
wringing their hands and crying their hearts out,
b

/j9*^

MAN WITH A HOT POKER

Pray for us. Pray for us. Pray
for us. 0 God, what have we done?

Prothero hands a lump of red chalk to Harry who steps to

the front door and inscribes a cross and below it, in
large letters:
LORD
HAVE MERCY
UPON US
FADE OUT

81,
FADE IN:

/JS"**^

36

IN HARROW ALLEY
one day, some weeks later, THREE LITTLE CHILDREN are at
play. Each wears a garland of roses around the neck as
they trudge about in a circle, holding hands.
THREE LITTLE CHILDREN
A ring, a ring of roses,
A pocket full of posies,
(sneezing)
Ah-tchoo, ah-tchoo,
We all fall down.
Suiting the action to the word, their laughter silvery,
they fall down.
ONE OF THEM
(to the others)
The plague got you, you're dead.
And, getting up, they play it again.
There are now Four Watchers with halberds lounging at the
padlocked doors of infected bouses on either side of the
Alley.
A thin trickle of exodus is flowing toward the Gate,
mostly afoot.
Business is going on, but not as usual, A quarter of the
shops have closed and there are only a few 'Prentices
bawling wares before those still open. Half the FoodVendors are gone and the age-old street-cries are
diminished. Nor are there as many Customers.
From an upstairs window in the Killigrew house, little
Dickie, bored and unhappy, watches the Three Little
Children. Sam finds him there, pulls him away and berates him till, seeing something below that alarms him,
he twitches the curtain across the window.
It is a Young Mother with a baby's coffin in her arms that
- has frightened Sam, Followed by a Dozen Mourners, she
walks with unseeing eyes toward the churchyard*
A Man coming down the Alley sees her with the coffin and
quickly crosses to the other side. There, Another Man
is heading his way. Seeing each other, they quickly raise
scent-balls to their noses and, in passing, give each
other a vide berth.
The Young Mother and the Dozen Mourners enter the church
as Harry slowly rides into the Alley wearing his chain
of office. He has lost flesh and, although his features
CONTINUED

82.
36

CONTINUED
remain officially impassive, he is groving bone-weary.
As he rides, he nods to various occupants of the Alley.
An Inmate is at one of the middle floor vindovs of an
infected house and Harry checks his horse to speak to him.
HARRY
Have you enough food? And water?
Is there anything you need?
The Inmate despondently shakes his head and Harry moves
on. As he rides past the house of the first plague victim
in the parish, the WATCHER speaks to him.
WATCHER
Mr. Poyntz, sir. There ain't
been a sound inside since I come
on duty this morning, I've knocked
but nobody answers,
Harry reins in,
HARRY
Not even the nurse? Fetch a
ladder and look in at one of
the windows. If you see no one,
open it and shout for them.
Harry rides on to the Buckworths' bake-shop and dismounts.

37

IN THE BUCKWORTHS' BAKE-SHOP

while Jasper kneads dough, Betty fills a hand-basket with
loaves for THE MUTE, a youngish man, strongly built, with
blond hair and a gold ring in one ear. He smiles his
thanks when Betty gives him the basket, nods to Jasper
and goes, passing Harry on his way out, Harry looks
back at him.
HARRY
I've seen him around here before
lately, haven't I? Who is he?
BETTY
I don't know. He's dumb. He begs
for stale bread like this (hands in prayer)
- and I give it to him.

iH^

HARRY .
A loaf, please, Betty.
CONTINUED

83.
/^^

37

CONTINUED
BETTY
Only one today?
HARRY
From now on. I've let the cook
go and I'm sending Will and Harvey
home to their parents. There
hasn't been enough trade this past
month to warrant two 'prentices.
No trade at all, in fact*
JASPER
Any word of the sickness passing?
HARRY
(shakes his head)
Almost two thousand dead of it
last week according to today's
Bill* But it can't go on much
longer* It will lift soon, I'm
certain*

JASPER
(with no conviction)
Yes, of course.
Harry takes a coin from his pocket and is about to drop
it into one of two jars on the counter when Jasper stops
him.
Wait*

JASPER (cont.)
The vinegar's dried up,

Jasper refills the jar from a bottle and Harry drops in

the coin.
HARRY
Do you suppose that really disinfects?
JASPER
(shrugs)
So they Bay. We must do what we
can. Your change.
Jasper drops a few coins into the other Jar and Harry
takes them out. Taking his loaf, Harry nods good day to
them and leaves the shop.
38

IN HARROW ALLEY
Harry leads his horse from the Buckvorths* tovard his ovn
CONTINUED

81*.
38

/!*ftPV

CONTINUED
house. On the way, he passes the Killigrev house; inside,
Nan is playing the spinnet. Harry tethers his horse at
his front door and goes in.

39

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Okeshott, Will and Harvey are waiting for him, dressed for
travel and each with a few small bundles.
OKESHOTT
The boys and me will be going nov,
sir. We've only been waiting to
say goodby.

1
\

HARRY
There'8 really nothing for us to
say, is there, except God bless?
I couldn't ask for better 'prentices
or a better Journeyman-tailor and
you know, of course, that we'll all
be working together again as soon
as I can manage it.

>
l

HARVEY
You've been like a father to us,
Mr. Poyntz.
(sniffles)

HARRY
Thank you, Harvey. That's kind.
Write to-me, both of you, when
you're home, to let me know you're
safe. Goodby. God be with you.
You have your health certificates?
Okeshott, Will and Harvey nod and, taking their bundles,
leave the shop. After a moment, Harry pulls himself
together and goes to the staircase at the rear, tearing
off a hunk of the loaf as he does.
HARRY
(calls)
Mrs. Poyntz? Gosnell?
I've brought bread.

I'm home.

1.

Harry puts the torn hunk on a small table and mounts to

the middle floor landing. Here he leaves the rest of the
bread and returns to the shop. He shifts the small table
to the bottom step of the staircase, brings a chair and,
going to a chest, takes out a knife and spoon.
CONTINUED

85.
39

CONTINUED
Gosnell, Jem's girl, descends to the middle floor landing
from the upper floor with a platter of food and a mug of
ale. Leaving them, she picks up the torn loaf and returns
to the upper floor. A small table has been set at the
balustrade here. Gosnell sets the torn loaf upon it as
Jem approaches from the parlor and holds the chair for
her mistress as Jem sits down. Jem looks down the stairwell as Gosnell goes to fetch food*
Harry is descending to the shop from the middle floor
with the platter and the mug. He puts them on the table,
sits down and, in weariness, covers his face with his
hands and rubs his eyes.
JEM
Are you well, Mr. Poyntz?
Harry looks up, putting the best face on matters.
HARRY
Yes, thank you, Mrs. Poyntz.
enough. And you?

Well

JEM
Yes.
HARRY
For what we are about to receive,
Lord, we thank Thee.
Harry takes a bite of food and makes a face.
JEM
Gosnell is not a good cook, is
she?
HARRY
It will do.
JEM
(after awhile)
How do matters go in the parish?
HARRY
Remarkably well, all things
considered.
i

JEM
What does that mean,Mr. Poyntz?
HARRY
I'd prefer you didn't trouble
yourself about it.
CONTINUED

86.
39

CONTINUED
JEM
I don't think the child as yet
understands what we say.
HARRY
(after considering
that)
Mrs. Poyntz, my concern is not
entirely for the child. Some is
for you, too...I did not marry
you for your dowry alone.
JEM
Why did you marry me, Mr. Poyntz?
HARRY
(considers this, too)
I found you beautiful. I knew
you were reluctant to have me but
...I found you beautiful.
JEM
Would you have married me without
a dowry?

/rtflfirrs,

HARRY
I don't know, I'd been a Journeyman-tailor for too many years and
I was sick with desire for a shop
of my own. But I think I would
have married you without a dowry.
Why?
me.

JEM
I gave you no cause to love

The day is ending,

Jem's table,

Gosnell brings a lighted candle to

HARRY
Love? Love is something for idlers
at Court to play at and actors to
mouth. If men and women waited for
love before marrying, the race would
long ago have died out, I'm not
certain I know what the word means*
JEM
It's the feeling you had for your
dog, A tender concern for her
well-being.
CONTINUED

87.
39

CONTINUED
HARRY
If that is what it means, then,
I did not love you, I was more
concerned for my own well-being,
I found you beautiful and was hot
for you and that was all I thought
of, I suppose I felt that love,
if you will, would have come to us
both in time. From being together*
I imagine many men make that mistake.
Outside, there is the sound of a hand-bell approaching
and passing,
RATSEY'S VOICE
(calling)
Bring out your dead. Bring out
your dead. Dead-cart's a-coming.
Bring out your dead,
Jem stiffens, food halfway to her mouth.
Harry quickly raises his voice,

Seeing this,

HARRY
Did you hear the nightingale in
the garden last night? I've never
known such a summer for nightingales. Or for flowers, either.
The town smells of lilacs wherever
you go.
*

The cart has passed,

JEM
Thank you. Thank you for that
nightingale. And for those lilacs,
too. Harry,
Harry looks up at this. Jem is looking down at him, the
trace of a smile on her lips.
JEM (cont.)
Tomorrow, I will cook. There will
be a difference.
*.

Thank you.
UO

IN HARROW ALLEY
night has come.

HARRY
Jem.

The dead-cart rumbles slowly over the

CONTINUED

88.
1*0
'

CONTINUED
cobbles. Hayward is driving. Ratsey sits beside him,
ringing the hand-bell. Toby precedes them on foot,
carrying a flaming link or torch. All three wear smocks.
There are three corpses in the cart, one in a shroud vith
bare feet, one bundled in a blanket and one, a man,
dressed as he was when found lying in a doorway.
RATSEY
Bring out your dead. Bring out
your dead. Dead-cart's a-coming.
Bring out your dead.
The Watcher at the house of the first plague victim in the
parish is on a ladder vith a lantern, looking in at an
open window on the middle floor. Waiting patiently at the
foot of the ladder are Mrs. Povey and a new searcher of
the dead, MRS, HOARE, The other Watchers before the doors
of infected houses have lanterns, too.
WATCHER ON THE LADDER
(calls to the cart)
Over here.

(*** '

Hayward pulls up at the door as the Watcher descends and

opens the padlock.
RATSEY
Any alive in there?
WATCHER
I don't think so. I can't rouse
the man or the woman or the nurse.
RATSEY
Keep your fingers crossed, then,
and let's hope for the best. We.
ain't had a chance at a house
all day.
WATCHER
Lean pickings, eh?

^
x

RATSEY
None at all. Every corpse we
found in the streets, someone
else got to first. Empty pockets
was all they left us.

Toby puts the link in its socket at the driver's seat and
they all enter the house.

89.
Ul

IN THE BEDROOM OF THE INFECTED HOUSE

the door opens and the Watcher looks in, holding his
lantern in one hand and a scent-ball to his nose vith
the other. One of the Wailing Women lies on the bed.
The Nurse is in a chair, a bottle in one hand, Ratsey
and the others crowd behind the Watcher.
WATCHER
The woman's dead, anyway.
nurse is drunk.

The

Ratsey goes to the Nurse and shakes her,

Joke'8 on you.

RATSEY
She's dead.

WATCHER
Where's the man?
MRS, POVEY
(points to bodies)
Plague, plague. That's two fees,
Hayward has gone to the bed and commenced wrapping the
body in the sheet, Toby hangs back in the doorway.
RATSEY
(to the Watcher)
What rooms does you want?
WATCHER
The dining-room. My missus has
taken a fancy for silver plate.
RATSEY
The rest's ours.
(to Toby)
To work, damn you. Get them down
to the cart,
(to the Watcher)
Still frightened, after all this
time,
Right.

TOBY
You'd be frightened, too, if you
never had plague, same as me,
RATSEY
I ain't in no way same as you,
plague or no plague. And don't
you never forget it. Get to work,
CONTINUED

90.
1*1
f**^

CONTINUED
As Toby reluctantly approaches the Nurse, Ratsey goes to
the vardrobe and begins to loot. None of the clothing
suits him but he finds a pair of men's shoes vith fine
silver buckles and, after matching one against one of his
own, puts them on. Then he heads for the bed.
WATCHER
I'll go look for the man.
RATSEY
You can save yourself the trouble.
Ratsey points to one of the rear windows where a rope,
made of a sheet, has been fastened to the sill. As the
Watcher, worried, hurries to the window, Ratsey probes
the mattress with his hands.
WATCHER
He's escaped. Oh, the Alderman
won't be happy about this. Said
he'd have me whipped through the
town. What'11 I do?

sm*
f

MRS. HOARE
No use our staying. Let's get a
drink, dear.

,
\

Mrs. Hoare and Mrs. Povey leave. Feeling something in the

mattress, Ratsey rips it open and finds a purse. The
diamond ring and gold locket it contains he slips up his
sleeve. The rest,, some coins, he divides and gives half
to Hayward, Hayward takes the body on the bed in his arms
and Toby lifts the Nurse to his shoulder.
RATSEY
Are we done? Then here we goes.
(exits singing)
She didn't know her father,
She was born in a ditch.
Don't fret, said her mother,
One day you'll be rich.
Just let sailors scratch you
Wherever you itch.
That is the way of the world.
V

1*2

IN HARROW ALLEY
Ratsey, Hayward and Toby come out of the infected house
vith the bodies. As Hayward and Toby put them in the
cart, Ratsey removes his smock, tosses it in and takes a
CONTINUED

91.
U2

CONTINUED
magnificent hat from, under the driver's seat. Everything
he nov wears, in fact, is magnificent, from his head to
his toes. The last touch is a gold-headed cane.
RATSEY
That does it for today. Fetch the
harvest to the sexton, stable the
horse and I'll see you at the Pye,

Fluffing his jabot and setting his hat at a more killing

angle, Ratsey swaggers to the tavern,

i
1
1

1*3

I
I

IN THE PYE TAVERN

trade is brisker than ever. The room is crowded and noisy
with riff-raff. Street-musicians, the Fiddler, the Bagpiper and a Drummer are playing a Jig. A large space has
been cleared in the center and here there is dancing, A
TIPSY TENOR is singing, the Crowd joining him in the
chorus,

TIPSY TENOR
The doctors are liars,
Their pills are a sham Liliburlero bullen ala So have a good time, boys,
And don't give a damn Liliburlero bullen ala.

I
i
^

'

CROWD
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala.
i

Ratsey enters and strikes a pose in the doorway as he

looks around. Many in the Crowd wave enthusiastically to
him as they sing. He notes Beck sitting on some Ruffian's
knee as he pushes hie way to Mrs. Feeny who is working
like a Trojan behind the bar. She cocks an ear to him
and replies with a gesture: upstairs. Ratsey goes to the
rear and starts to the upper floors. Meanwhile:

/f^**,

TIPSY TENOR
You'll die if you worry,
You'll die if you don't Liliburlero bullen ala The plague gets us all
And survive it you won't Lilliburlero bullen ala.
CROWD
Lero, lero, lilliburlero -

92.
1*1*

OUTSIDE THE ATTIC DOOR

Ratsey takes the diamond ring out of his sleeve and
polishes it on his cuff before knocking. The Crowd below
can be heard singing. Ratsey knocks again.

1*5

IN THE ATTIC
which extends over the length and breadth of the tavern,
Solomon Eagle has been enthroned upon an armchair atop
a crate, a velvet cloak about him. The attic is a third
filled vith True Believers in a state of hysteria. Many
beat their breasts. A few, Jack Feeny among them, are
practicing self-flagellation.
EAGLE
And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him,
A MAN
Oh, yes, shall worship him,
EAGLE
If any man have an ear, let him
hear,

/"^

A WOMAN
We hear, we hear.

In response to Ratsey's knocking, Feeny backs toward the

door, not stopping his devotions for a moment.
EAGLE
- He that leadeth into captivity
shall go into captivity. He that
killeth vith the svord must be
killed vith the sword,
ANOTHER MAN
Yes, killed, killed. Oh, we are
all guilty.
1*6

OUTSIDE THE ATTIC DOOR

Ratsey holds up the ring as Jack Feeny appears, listening
to Ratsey with one ear and to the revelations behind him
vith the other.
RATSEY
How much will you give?

JACK FEENY
(lashing himself)
Oh, my soul is black but I will
(cont.)
CONTINUED

93
1*6

CONTINUED
JACK FEENY (cont.)
wash it in the Blood of the Lamb
two pounds ten.
RATSEY
It's worth seven if it's vorth
a penny.
JACK FEENY
(lashing himself)
Oh, God, be merciful to me, a
sinner take it or leave it it's
the best I can do,
RATSEY
I'll take it.
Feeny accepts the ring, takes some coins out of his vestpocket and gives them to Ratsey.
RATSEY
(meanwhile)
Are you in the market for furniture?
JACK FEENY
Oh, the Judgment Day is at hand
and I hopes for a glorious resurrection too hard to handle and
there ain't much demand.
And, vith that, Feeny is back inside the attic and the
door is shut, Ratsey starts down the stairs,

1*7

DOWNSTAIRS IN THE PYE

Themusic has stopped. Beck is still with her Ruffian.
Toby and Hayward are at the bar* Ratsey comes down the
stairs and pauses on one of the lower steps.
RATSEY
(calls)
Mrs* Feeny. Here* Drinks for all.
(tosses her a coin)
The<, Crowd cheers him.
musicians

*s>v

Ratsey flings a few coppers to the

RATSEY (cont.)
Let's hear it, good and loud.

The Drummer s c r a m b l e s f o r t h e c o i n s as t h e F i d d l e r and

the Bagpiper s t a r t t o p l a y .
C o u p l e s move t o t h e d a n c e CONTINUED

91*.
1*7

CONTINUED
floor. Ratsey takes the gold locket from his sleeve and
makes his way to Beck, Coming up behind her, he dangles
the locket in front of her nose. As she squeals with
delight end reaches for it, her Ruffian menacingly gets
to his feet. Offhandedly, Ratsey raps his head with the
cane and drops him like a side of beef,
RATSEY (cont.)
Like it, darling?
It's a love.

BECK
Is it for me?

RATSEY
Ain't it always? And that ain't
all Captain Montressor has for you.
Ratsey pulls Beck to her feet,
BECK
Don't be so sudden,

(^

RATSEY
It won't be sudden, I means to
dance with you first.
Ratsey and Beck join the hopping, whirling couples on the
dance-floor. Once around suffices Ratsey: he pulls Beck
toward the rear-door and, when she resists, plasters his
lips against hers. And then Hayward screams. The
Musicians stop, the dancers stop, Ratsey stops. All
eyes are on Hayward as he totters a few steps, clawing
at his shirt and ripping it open, and collapses at
Ratsey's feet.
MRS. FEENY
(looking over the bar)
My God, he's covered vith the tokens.
RATSEY
What?
Ratsey quickly bends over Hayward for a close examination.
MRS. FEENY
Heave him aside, someone,
(to the Musicians)
Here, You. Get on vith it.

j^Wv

The Musicians resume playing and the dancers dance.

Ratsey straightens, his face a study. Then he's off
across the room in a mad rush toward the front door.

95.
1*8
^*^

IN HODGES' ANTEROOM
the walls are lined with waiting Patients. As Hodges
leads one to the door and sees him out, another comes
forward to be treated, Hodges is slack with weariness.
HODGES
You'll have to excuse me for a
moment. It's been a long day and
I need nourishment,
Hodges enters his bedroom and shuts the door.

1*9

IN HODGES' BEDROOM
Hodges takes a bottle of brandy from the table and raises
it to his lips. After several swallows, he puts his hand
to his heart and listens to the beating,
HODGES
Boom-bompa-boon. Boom-bompa-boom.
Hodges looks doubtfully at the bottle and decides to have
another. As he raises it to his mouth, Ratsey bursts in.

(*

RATSEY
Doctor Hodges. Doctor. You can't
get plague twice, can you? You
can't get it again if you've had it.
HODGES
You damned well can,
RATSEY
But I always thought HODGES
An old wives' tale,
RATSEY
Maybe it vasn't plague he had
before.
HODGES
Who's that?
Hayward.

/"*

RATSEY
John Hayward,

HODGES
Yes, he once had plague. When he
was a boy. I treated him myself.
But he was one of the few to survive
in spite of that. Why?
CONTINUED

96.

1*9
(

CONTINUED
RATSEY
He's got it again.
HODGES
It will be the last time, take
my word. What does it matter to
you?
But, vithout another vord, Ratsey has turned and gone.
Hodges finishes the brandy and returns to the anteroom.
HODGES (cont.)
Boom-bompa-boom. Boom-bompa-boom.

50

IN HARROW ALLEY
dark but for the Watchers' lanterns, Ratsey leaves Hodges'
house and walks, as in a dream, along the way. There is
a small barrel near the Buckworth's front door and here
he sits himself down and tries to take it all in. The
Tipsy Tenor staggers out of the Pye and heads past him
for home near the Gate,
TIPSY TENOR

J0&\

(6inging)

My prime of youth
Is but a frost of cares;
My feast of Joy
Is but a dish of pain;
My crop of corn
Is but a field of tares;
And all my good
Is but vain hope of gain;
My life is fled,
And yet I saw no sun;
And now I live,
And nov my life is done*
(conversationally to
a Watcher)
G'night. G'night,
(singing)
The spring is past,
And yet it has not sprung;
The fruit is dead.
And yet the leaves be green;
My youth is gone,
And yet I am but young;
I saw the world,
And yet I was not seen;
My thread is cut,
And yet it is not spun;
(cont,)
CONTINUED

97.
50
(

TIPSY TENOR (cont.)

And now I live
And nov my life is done,
(conversationally)
Where is everybody? That'a vhat
I want to know. Hey, Everybody.
(singing)
I sought my death,
And found it in my womb,
I looked for life,
And saw it was a shade,
I trod the earth
And knew it was my tomb,
And now I die,
And now I am but made:
The glass is full,
And now my glass is run,
And now I live.
And nov my life is done.
51

f"

CONTINUED

,
\

IN HARRY'S SHOP
at sunrise next morning, Harry is awakened by a cock's
crow somewhere in the neighborhood. He finds himself in
good spirits and, for a moment, cannot think why. Then
he remembers the end of his conversation vith Jem last
night and, with a glance at the upper floor, smiles.
Putting aside the blanket, he gets off the work-table
upon which he has made his bed, slips his feet into his
shoes and is fully dressed except for hat and coat.
Yawning, he reaches for a pitcher of water and a washbasin and accidentally knocks the basin with a clatter
to the floor.
JEM'S VOICE
Is that you, Harry?
I'm sorry.
you.

HARRY
I didn't mean to wake

JEM'S VOICE
I've been up an hour. Breakfast
is ready.
(calls)
Gosnell. Mr. Poyntz is awake.
/"^

Harry picks up the basin, fills it and begins to vash.

Gosnell, meanwhile, descends to the middle floor with a
tray of food, deposits it and returns. Harry goes up
and brings the food down to his table.
CONTINUED

98.
51

CONTINUED
JEM'S VOICE
Good morning.
HARRY
(looking up)
Good morning.
JEM
(sitting at her table)
Did you sleep well?
HARRY
(sitting at his)
Better than I have in months.
Good Lord, we thank Thee for
Thy bounty this day. Amen.
(takes a mouthful)
Gosnell never cooked this.
JEM
Did I season it enough?
HARRY
Mmm.

/#>

Good.

JEM
(eating)
You were called out again last
night, weren't you?
HARRY
Yes.
(grins at the memory)
JEM
What?
HARRY
I'm not certain you'd find it
amusing,
JEM
Tell me,
t

/0>*.

HARRY
Well, you know fat Mr* Wright,
seven houses down? And his maidservant, Abby? Abby got drunk
the other night and, yesterday
morning, didn't feel like getting
(cont.)
CONTINUED

99.
51

CONTINUED
HARRY (cont.)
out of bed. Mr, Wright immediately
concluded she had plague, refused
to go near her and sent for a nurse.
Abby, meanwhile, decided another
drink would do her no harm so,
going down the backstairs, she
takes herself off to Pye tavern.
Nov comes the nurse, knocks at
Abby's door in the garret and,
getting no answer, goes down and
tells Wright Abby is dead. When
the dead-cart passed, Wright hailed
it and told the bearers to come get
Abby. But the cart was full so
they told him they'd fetch her
later. Abby spent the day tippling
and, after dark, vent home. There's
a knock at Wright's door, he opens
it and sees her and "Ghost" he
shrieked (Harry can't go on)
JEM
(laughing)
And then?
HARRY
When he was finally convinced she
vas in truth alive and had not come
to haunt,him, his gratitude vas
such be called for me and told me
he would give a hundred pounds for
the care of the sick in the parish,
"Ghost."
This sets them both laughing again till Harry sees the
Mute through his shop-window walking past in the Alley.
After a moment'8 thought, Harry gets up and starts
toward his front door.
HARRY (cont.)
Thank you for breakfast, Jem.
There's something I must attend to*
6
i

52

IN HARROW ALLEY
the Mute, a basket on bis arm, walks past the sleeping
Watchers and comes to a stop at the sound of a child
crying. He enters the open door of a house.

100.
53

JUST I N S I D E T H E DOOR
a T W O - Y E A R - O L D sits wailing near its Mother who lies dead
on the f l o o r . T h e Mute squats next to the M o t h e r , assures
himself s h e is dead and shakes his head in pity. T h e n he
picks u p t h e child and, soothing i t , l e a v e s .

51*

IN HARROW A L L E Y
Harry w a t c h e s t h e Mute come out of the doorway with the
T v o - Y e a r - O l d and m a k e his w a y t o a house near the Gate,
u n o b s e r v e d b y t h e dozing C O N S T A B L E . It 1 B an abandoned
house v i t h its door and ground floor windows boarded u p .
The Mute enters a passageway a l o n g s i d e . Harry quickly
follows.

/w\
(

55

T H E REAR OF T H E BANDONED HOUSE

has a b a c k - d o o r . Coming out of t h e passageway, Harry

h e s i t a t e s , then opens t h e door and e n t e r s .
56

IN T H E K I T C H E N OF THE ABANDONED H O U S E
Harry finds h i m s e l f facing the Mute and a Dozen C h i l d r e n ,
the oldest a G I R L OF T E N , a l l i m m o b i l e , their eyes upon
him.
HARRY
W h a t are y o u doing here?
are you7
He can't t a l k .

Who

GIRL OF TEN
He's dumb.

HARRY
This isn't y o u r h o u s e .
you belongs here.

N o n e of

GIRL O F TEN
He brung u s .
HARRY
Is he y o u r father? A n y relation
at all?

GIRL OF TEN
P a p a d i e d . So did M a m a , W e ain't
n o n e of us got n o b o d y . But h i m .
HARRY
(to the M u t e )
Orphans?
You took them
i n f e c t e d houses?

from
CONTINUED

101.
56
'

CONTINUED
The Mute nods.
HARRY (cont.)
But that's against the law. You
had no right to do that. You
should have left them until...
until,,.And you had no right to
bring them here unless you have
the owner's permission. Have you?
Then you've committed trespass.
The Mute spreads his hands. Harry looks at the Children,
HARRY (cont.)
Do you get enough to eat?
GIRL OF TEN
He brings us food every day.
HARRY
(to the Mute)
But this could spread the infection.
You might catch it yourself.
The Mute smiles and shrugs.
HARRY (cont.)
This is strictly against the lav.
Harry looks around again at the half-circle of little
faces.
HARRY
Well, don't let the constables
see you. Because if they do, well,
if they do, bring them to me.
Understand? And come to my shop
later. I'll have some money for
you,
Harry smiles at the Children and leaves.

57

IN HARROW ALLEY
as Harry comes out of the passageway, the Watcher from
the1 house of the first plague victim in the parish calls
to him from Barnabas Gate vhere he has been speaking to
the Constable,
WATCHER
Mr, Poyntz, sir. May I have a
vord with you, please, sir?
CONTINUED

102,
57

CONTINUED
HARRY
(going to him)
I vas going to send for you. I've
decided not to have you whipped
through the streets. I'll take
your word for it you weren't bribed.
WATCHER
No, sir, it vas not I what was
bribed and that's fact,
HARRY
But by letting Mr. Stoner escape
from an infected house you were
remiss and I'm fining you a week's
wages,
WATCHER
Oh, yes, I knowed I'd be the one
to suffer. Always the poor man.
It ain't Justice. Especially
since Mr. Stoner won't infect
nobody in the parish, having left
the City.

jfW&?\

HARRY
Left the City?
CONSTABLE
I passed him through the Gate
myself yesterday afternoon.
HARRY
Hov dared you?
CONSTABLE
Well, you know, sir.
HARRY
No, I do not know.
CONSTABLE
Well, he had a health certificate,
hadn't he? One of them new printed
ones? Signed by you?
BARRY
How did he get it?
^

CONSTABLE
Well, it ain't for me to say, sir.
CONTINUED

103.
57

CONTINUED
HARRY
I haven*t even spoken to Mr. Stoner
since we locked him in.
WATCHER
But I suppose he didn't send me
with a Bealed message to your
house day before yesterday. And I
suppose I didn't fetch a sealed
message back. Depends who gets
the bribe, that*s the heart of it,
HARRY
Are you saying you brought me a
sealed message from Mr. Stoner?
WATCHER
No, I brought it to Mr. Prothero,
Same thing, ain*t it?

58

IN HARRY'S GARDEN
Prothero comes out of the stable with his trunk on his
shoulder and a pillow and a blanket under his arm.

59

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Harry is sitting cross-legged, tailor fashion, on the worktable. Prothero comes in from the garden and puts the
pillow and blanket on a stool.
PROTHERO
Mr. Poyntz, I'll return the favor
one day, believe me*
HARRY
Are you deliberately trying to be
insulting? Do you actually believe
I refrain from having you arrested
as a favor to you? The people of
this parish are shaken enough without the scandal* They're my concern,
not you*
PROTHERO
I wasn't the only one did it, you
know. Many in this City now take
bribes. Why shouldn't I?
HARRY
Many in this City now die. Why
shouldn't you? Get out of my sight.
CONTINUED

101*.
59

CONTINUED

jflWUBr^

Prothero leaves as boldly as he dares. When the door

shuts:
JEM'S VOICE
I'd comfort you if I could, Harry.
HARRY
Oh, it's nothing.
JEM
Ah, share it vith me.

Share it.

HARRY
What sort of City will it be for
our child? Without right and
wrong and caring for the difference
between them? Doctor Hodges said
people will turn into beasts. But
I will not have them turn into
beasts.
JEM
They won't. Not all.
remains human.
That'6 true.
mind*'

He himself

HARRY
I must keep that in

JEM
And there's an even better example*
Look in the mirror*
Harry looks up at her and smiles, pleased but embarrassed.
60

IN THE PYE TAVERN

there ie a morning-after air. Mrs* Feeny yawns as she
half-heartedly wipes up the slops* Toby 1B at a table in
a corner, already suffering from what he must face today;
Ratsey, by himself at another, is still stunned by the
implications of Hayward'8 fate* Both wear smocks.
Prothero enters and sets down his trunk.
,,

PROTHERO
(going to the bar)
My morning draught, if you please, .
Mrs. Feeny.
(indicates Ratsey)
What a long face.
CONTINUED

105.
60

CONTINUED
MRS. FEENY
(cackles)
Because of Mad Jack's death.
PROTHERO
Ah, yes.
Prothero takes his ale to Ratsey's table and sits.
PROTHERO (cont.)
Well, how does it feel to be
mortal, like the rest of us?
Ratsey gives no sign of having heard.
PROTHERO (cont.)
But why should you take it like
this? You must have faced death
many times vben you vere - what is
it? - a gentleman of the road.

f0^

RATSEY
(groping)
It ain*t the same. It ain't the
same. When a man goes on the
road, it's like when a man joins
the army or navy. He faceB death,
yes, but of his own free will.
It's part of the contract. But
when you've got nothing to say
about meeting death, when it can
come in spite of you no matter
what you do, when it might come
any time, unexpected, before you
knows it, when it's always around,
waiting, not just when you invites
it as you might say but even vben
you don't, then it's not the same.
Not the same. No,

A man named ROPER enters briskly.

<.

ROPER
Morning, one and all. Roper's the
name. Is Mr, Prothero - ?
(seeing Prothero)
Ah, there you are, sir. Well, vhat
does I do?
PROTHERO
It's no longer my concern, actually,
but you go now with Ratsey, here,
(cont,)
CONTINUED

106.
60

CONTINUED
PROTHERO (cont.)
and Toby and you collect the
night's dead and fetch them to
the churchyard,
ROPER
(rubbing his hands)
Let's go, mates,
RATSEY
What the bell are you so cheery
about?
ROPER
First work I've had in two months,
that's what I'm BO cheery about,
RATSEY
We starts the day by picking up
the man whose place you've taken.
Let*8 hear you laugh about that.
ROPER
I ain*t worried. It'll never get
me.
RATSEY
That's what he thought, too,
ROPER
I don't think it, I knows it.
(touching hia breast)
I got a powerful charm, see?
Ratsey puts his tongue between his lips and blows a
gardaloo. Then he gets to his feet,
RATSEY
Where is it, Mrs, Feeny?
MRS, FEENY
Out in back,
Ratsey, Toby and Roper go out the back door,
t

MRS. FEENY (cont.)

Did I bear you say it ain't no
longer your concern, Mr. Prothero?
PROTHERO
You did. I'm setting myself up
in trade. A man vants to get
ahead, you knov.

107.
61

IN BACK OF THE PYE

Hayvard's body lies on the top of a large heap of refuse.
A cautious ten feet away, Ratsey, Roper and Toby stand
shoulder to shoulder looking at it. Roper sniffs.
ROPER
Ripe enough, for someone as only
died last night.*.Well, here ve
goes.
But no one moves.

After awhile:

ROPER (cont.)
You take him by the legs and you
take him by the arms*
RATSEY
You take him by the legs and arms,
you're the one vith the goddamned
charm.
ROPER
(touching charm)
All right* Here I goes*

'i

But no one moves. After awhile, Roper looks about and,

seeing a plank, gets it and sets it down at the foot of
the heap,
ROPER (cont.)
Roll him onto that. Go on.
RATSEY
You go on.
ROPER
I'm the one got the plank, ain't
I?
(to Toby)
Go on, you heard what I said.
Roper grabs Toby to above him at the body,
No, please.
more*

TOBY
Please*

I can't no

ROPER
(to Ratsey)
Think of that* He's afraid.

He -

The words are cut off by Ratsey's grip on Roper's throat.

CONTINUED

108.
61

CONTINUED
So am I.

RATSEY
So am I* So am I,

Ratsey shoves Roper aside, gets up on the heap and starts

Hayward's body rolling toward the plank vith his foot.
One last push and it's in place. Roper and Toby lift
the plank and carry it off. Ratsey wipes the sweat from
his face and stares at his shaking band.
62

IN ST. BARNABAS CHURCH-YARD

the curate, Morrell, is kneeling at a fresh grave with a
Weeping Woman, his arm about her, comforting her* CREED,
the old sexton, shuffles over*
CREED
A word, if I may, Mr* Morrell?
Morrell gets up and goes to Creed's side.
CREED (cont*)
The bearers have brought John Hayward
here for burial.
MORRELL
He 1-lived in this p-parish.
CREED
Yes, sir* But we're getting
pinched for space*
Creed gestures, a wide sweep of his arm* The mounds of
the new graves are multitudinous and lie very close
together*
MORRELL
B-Bury him in the Websters' plot*
CREED
John Hayward in with the Websters?
MORRELL
There are none left in that family
to object* W-Why should we?
ifc

/****,

CREED
Yes, sir* If it goes on at this
rate, Mr* Morrell, we'll have no
more room before the month is out*
And then what will we do?

109.
63

IN AN OPEN FIELD ON THE CITY'S OUTSKIRTS

one afternoon, some weeks later, great pits are being dug.
When finished, each will be a hundred feet long, thirty
feet wide and nine feet deep*
Workmen coming out of them up ladders with sacks of earth
on their backs direct black looks at Lawrence, the Lord
Mayor* He is leaning out the window of his coach, nearby,
speaking to Harry, who sits astride his horse reading a
Mortality Bill*
HARRY
Seventy-three parishes infected*
Five thousand seven hundred and
thirty-nine dead* Of which four
thousand three hundred and twelve
of the plague* In one week.
LAWRENCE
But we still have the City. And
it goes on as a City* The Council
of Aldermen meets, Justice 1B done,
even the price of bread remains the
same* And no one as yet can say
ve have not been able to bury our
dead* There's cause for despair
but not for loss of heart.

HARRY
Save the pap for someone who needs
it, John* My heart is sound enough.
I'm only wondering if we're doing as
much as we might,
LAWRENCE
Why, what a lion you've become.
Is this the man who was ready to
run?

t<*

/^^*V

HARRY
Stop the bells, for one thing,
John, They din death into our
ears even when ve sleep* And order
the dead-carts and the burials for
the nights only, not for the days,
so they may not be seen* In my
parish, spirits are low enough
without the sight.
LAWRENCE
That's sound advice. And I'll take
it. What's caused the change in
you, Harry?
CONTINUED

110,
63

CONTINUED
HARRY
Is it B O marked?
LAWRENCE
My God, yes.
HARRY
I have fallen in love with my
wife.
Lawrence and Harry smile at each other.
LAWRENCE
And she with you?
HARRY
I haven't dared speculate* My ovn
feelings are almost more than I
can bear, I should be ashamed,
.I suppose, for knowing happiness
with part of me in the middle of
all this.

/**>* v
\

A gob of mud strikes the coach-door and Harry and Lawrence

turn toward the WORKMAN who has thrown it* He stands at
the edge of one of the pits,a Foreman restraining him.
WORKMAN
(shouting)
Is this what you have in store for
us? Are-you preparing to bury the
entire City?
The Foreman urges the Workman down the ladder,
HARRY
If I may say B O , John, I would pay
that no mind*

iw

LAWRENCE
I won't* They must let it out at
someone*
(to his Coachman)
Home, David*
(to Harry)
What you feel, Harry, is nothing to
be ashamed of* To the contrary, it
is a cause for general rejoicing.
For If a man falls in love with bis
own wife, surely the millenium is
at hand.
CONTINUED

111.
63

CONTINUED
Lawrence's coach lurches off toward the City* Harry turns
his horse and follows at a lope* Until he Bees, running
toward him from the City, a CONSTABLE of his parish.
CONSTABLE
(shouting)
Mr* Poyntz* Mr* Poyntz, It's
your wife* Her time has come.
Harry digs his spurs into his horse and passes the Constable and then Lawrence's coach at a gallop.

61*

IN THE BUCKWORTH'S BAKE-SHOP

that evening, Betty Buckvorth looks up as Hodges comes
down the stairs carrying his medical kit,
HODGES
I mince no words, Betty, you know
that* Your man is very ill. He
has the Consumption.

>ffl^\

*\

. O h , thank God.

BETTY
I mean -

HODGES
I know what you mean. No, it's
not the plague. But it is serious,
for all that. You'll have to nurse
him night and day. And, especially,
you'll have your hands full keeping
him in bed. "The people needs their
bread and who's to bake it?"
Tears come to Betty's eyes,
BETTY
He's such a good man.
HODGES
A useful man, at any rate. I wish
I could say the same of myself.
They turn to the door as Harry bursts in.
HARRY
(to Hodges)
Where the bell have you been?
I've been hunting you through the
City for hour8* Jem's in labour.
Come on, come on, hurry.
CONTINUED

112.
61*

CONTINUED
Harry gasps Hodges' sleeve and tries to pull him out of
the shop. Hodges pulls back.
HODGES
You don't vant me.
HARRY
(looking at him)
My God, you're drunk,
HODGES
Of course I'm drunk. But drunk
or 8ober, you don't vant me,
BARRY
Stop talking gibberish.
must deliver the baby,

<%
V

You

HODGES
(holds up his hands)
Look. I've seen more than forty
patients dying of plague today.
With these hands I've wiped the
death-sweat from their faces,
lanced the buboes and held their
heads while they vomited* Do
you suppose a baby's prepared to
withstand that?
HARRY
What am r to do?
HODGES
Get a midwife,
HARRY
I can't* I tried when I couldn't
find you* Think of something else*
HODGES
Have I preached bringing babies
into this world or have I preached
the opposite? I cannot think of
anything else,
HARRY
Betty, can you - ? Would you - ?

wfnr^

HODGES
Jasper needs her* She But Harry is already on his way out of the shop*

113.
65
jfllJPlSy

IN HARROW ALLEY
Harry runs from the Buckworth shop to Sam Killigrev'6
front door and beats against it vith his fists and feet.
HARRY
Sam. Sam, Sam, Jem is having
the baby. Let Sal be the midvife.
I beg you. Please, Sam* Let Sal
come be midwife* Sam* Sam. Do
you hear?
Inside the Kllligrew house, the spinnet strikes up.
Harry realizes that is Sam's ansver and runs to his shop,

66

IN HARRY'S SHOP
the door is flung open and Harry rune in,
HARRY
(calls)
Gosnell, Gosnell, Gosnell,
Gosnell looks down from the upper floor,
HARRY (cont.)
How is she?

y*ffl?3F>\

GOSNELL
In pain. Where's doctor?
HARRY
There'll be no doctor.

**

GOSNELL
Then who'll help Missus?
HARRY
You.
GOSNELL
(losing her head)
Me? Oh, Mr. Poyntz, I couldn't.
I'm afraid* I don't know how.
I never did such a thing* Mr*
Poyntz, please*
t

f0^

HARRY
(murderously)
Stop that or I swear to God I'll
tear you limb from limb* Now
listen to me* You're going to
help her and that's final.
(cont.)
CONTINUED

111*.

66

CONTINUED
HARRY (cont.)
You're not to weep, you're not
to whimper, you're not to make a
sound. Have you ever Been a baby
born?
Only a calf.

GOSNELL
At home*

HARRY
Better and better* The baby will
come much the same way, without
your bidding or mine* You must be
ready to take it. Clean your
hands before you do. And the
cord must be cut* Use a sharp,
clean knife, Bave it ready. And
after it's cut, it must be tied*
Use thread* And there must be
clean cloths and warm water for
swabbing. Use towels and sheets.
And above all, I vill have you
cheerful* Smile, Smile*
Gosnell manages a smile* Which is replaced by a look of
terror as Jem screams in the bedroom.
HARRY
(cont.)
HARRY i,cont.;
Damn you, keep that smile on.
Now go to her.
*

Gosnell, smiling horribly, goes to the bedroom. Jem

screams again* Harry sits cross-legged on the worktable
and holds his head in his hands*
67

IN HARROW ALLEY
Ratsey comes out of the Pye, goes to Merlin's house and,
after some hesitation, knocks at the door* Jem's scream*
ing can be heard* The door is opened by Azazel*
Come in*
i*

/^

AZAZEL
You are expected*

RATSEY
What do you mean, expected?
AZAZEL
The stare foretold it. Merlin
is ready to receive you*

Ratsey enters and Azazel shuts the door.

115.
68

IN MERLIN'S STUDY
furnished vith quackery vith zodiac signs, black velvet
hangings, a skull on the table and an alligator hanging
from a beam, Merlin is seated in an armchair in meditation. He looks up, his one eye piercing, as Azazel ushers
Ratsey in,
AZAZEL
(bowing)
The man is here. Master, as you
predicted,
Of course*

MERLIN
Leave us.
AZAZEL

Yes, Master,
Azazel bows again and withdraws, closing the door,
RATSEY
Look here, I wants MERLIN
To avoid the plague,
RATSEY
I've heard tell -

MERLIN
That I can help you. Yes, I know.
Sit down. Some people who yet
survive attribute their lives to
my Arabian Abracadabra Amulet
which sells for one shilling.
RATSEY
Aach.

ti

MERLIN
But you, I was about to say,
would not be one of them. Others,
who are good enough to credit me
for their continuing health, daily
drink a bottle of the Iridescent
Constantinopolitan Cordial, on
which I make no profit even at
the price of five shillings*
RATSEY
Muck.
MERLIN
But you, as I was going to observe,
would not be among them. Still
others CONTINUED

116.
.**,

68

CONTINUED

Ratsey is on his feet, his hands on Merlin's throat,

holding him halfway out of his chair,
RATSEY
Don't play games with me, do
you hear, trying to see how high
I'll go. Don't think you can
gull me as you do the others,
I'm a member of the Brotherhood
myself and I can't be taken in by
any quack ever born.
Even in this predicament, Merlin's face remains impassive
and he himself unperturbed, even amused.
MERLIN
Then why have you come?
It's a good question and Ratsey is unsure of the answer.
He releases Merlin, who drops back into the chair*
I don't
amulets
There's
there's

*'

RATSEY
believe in charms and
and plague-waters.
no good in them. I say,
no good in them. Is there?

Merlin sits motionless and silent.

RATSEY (cont.)
I knows they're a comfort to many
but they're fools who find it so.
You knows they're fools, don't you?
Merlin remains motionless and silent.

v'

/""v

RATSEY
I scorns such*.But what if there
really was a magical way to escape
death? What if there really was?
You sits there calm enough, like a
black spider, and the plague don't
seem to worry you. Are you helpless as I am? Or do you have something you yourself uses? Do you?
Answer me?

In a passion, Ratsey picks up the skull and threatens to

bring it down on Merlin's head. Merlin makes no response.
Ratsey drops the skull to the table.

CONTINUED

117.
68

/fflS^tSy

CONTINUED
RATSEY (cont.)
I wants the real thing, if there
is one. The real thing,
MERLIN
It's very expensive. Crushed
pearls are just one of the
ingredients*
RATSEY
I'll pay any price you say*
is it the real thing?

But

Merlin smiles and slowly nods*

69

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Jem18 last scream, the loudest of all, brings Harry to his
feet and over to the stairwell, looking up. Silence.
Then a baby*8 cry*
Gosnell*

HARRY
Gosnell.

No answer* Harry beats his hands together, paces the

floor and tries again*
Gosnell*

HARRY (cont.)
Gosnell.

Still no answer.
HARRY (cont.)
Oh, please, God. Please. Please.
Please. Please* Please* Please*
(calls)
Gosnell*
GOSNELLS VOICE
Yea, Mr* Poyntz?
How is -she?

HARRY
How is she?

Resting easy.

GOSNELL
It*8 a little boy.
HARRY

And he?
GOSNELL
Seems all right.

118.
70

IN HARRY'S BEDROOM
Jem lies in bed with her child*
landing,

Gosnell enters from the

GOSNELL
He wanted to know how you was,
JEM
How I was?
GOSNELL
How's she, he said, and how's he?
JEM
He asked after me first?
GOSNELL
Yes, missus,
71

J*0&*\

72

IN HARROW ALLEY
one day, some time later, Dan, the hangman's assistant,
walks toward the Pye* Trade is almost at a standstill.
Almost all the shops are closed now, and there are no
'Prentices, no Food-Vendors and few Customers, The
exodus has ended, A score of houses now have Watchers
before them, different houses: the ones previously
guarded are now boarded up. The bells of the City's
parish-churches have stopped and the only sounds heard
are the moans and groans and screams of those quarantined.
Dan enters the Pye,
IN THE PYE TAVERN
which is a quarter full, conversation at the tables is
subdued. The Mute is at the bar, where Mrs. Feeny is
filling his basket of left-overs* Ratsey is alone at a
table carefully measuring drops from a email bottle into
a spoon* Looking around from the doorway, Dan sees him
and joins him at the table*
DAN
Got any -

Sshh.

Four*

RATSEY
Five* Six -

Ratsey swallows the spoonful, carefully corks the bottle

and returns it to his pocket*
/^^\

What's that?

DAN
Medicine?
CONTINUED

119.
72

jrfiEffiSy

CONTINUED
RATSEY
Oh, the hangman. Still alive are
you?
DAN
Just hardly. My family's all dead*
I was quarantined with them but
the plague never touched me* Why,
I don't know* I wish it had* Got
any idea where a man could find a
bit of work?
RATSEY
They need men to help unload deadcarts at the pits. Make it easy
all around if you works there and
then gets your wish* You drops down
and there you are*

'

DAN
I might be forced to (breaks off)
Who's that?

i
I

\
*i

Dan is pointing to the Mute who is heading toward the front

door*
DAN (cont.)
I've seen him before* Somewhere,
But where?

Ratsey shrugs* The Mute goes out into the Alley* Dan,
with a puzzled frown, gets up and goes to the door*

73

OUTSIDE THE PYE

Dan stands in the doorway and watches the Mute walk away.
A coach rumbles past him and slows as it approaches
Harry*s shop*

OUTSIDE HARRY'S SHOP

Some Children are at play* The coach stops and Prothero
gets out, carrying a small chest* Prothero, who has
prospered since leaving the parish, is handsomely dressed
and fitted out* He enters Harry*s shop.

75

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Harry is at the door, beaming up the stairwell at his
infant son* Jem, holding the child at the upper floor
landing, is wearing a night-robe*

V4-X
'

CONTINUED

120.
75

CONTINUED
HARRY
I think he recognizes me.
JEM
Oh, Harry, he won't be able to
see for another week or so*
HARRY
No, I think he recognizes me.
He's such a Harry breaks off and turns to the front door as Prothero
enters, his face hardening*
PROTHERO
Good day, Mr* Poyntz*
HARRY
Get out of here.
Oh, willingly,
think, though,
aside personal
could save the

V.

PROTHERO
willingly. X did
that you'd put
differences if you
parish money*

HARRY
What does that mean?
PROTHERO
It means.precisely that* I have
recommendations from Alderman
Lovelace of St* Martin's parish,
Alderman Carey of St. Giles and
many others if you care to see
them*
HARRY
And what do they recommend?

PROTHERO
Why, the goods and services I
stand ready to provide at prices
no competitor can meet*
(opens his chest)
This, for example*

Prothero takes out a stiff-paper sign with Lord Have Mercy

Upon Us printed upon it and hands it to Harry*
CONTINUED

121.
75

CONTINUED
PROTHERO (cont.)
Notice how clearly the words
stand out against the white background* Much more visible than
against a dark door* Only three
shillings the gross* No?
(brings out a padlock)
Have a look at this padlock* You
won't find a better anywhere for
securing the doors of quarantined
houses* Six pence each. Alderman
Stayner of St* Olave'a parish
bought a hundred*
HARRY
I can use a hundred at six pence
each*
PROTHERO
They'll be delivered to you first
thing in the morning* Now, how
are you fixed for pails for
carrying water to the shut-ins?
Brimstone for clearing the air?
Ah, here'8 something I'm intro- .
duclng for the first time*
(takes out a shroud
and models it)
This shroud, believe it or not,
is priced at only two pence. Made
of very good linen and washable, can
be used more than once* Something
to keep in mind now that the plague
is killing eight thousand a week.

\
%

HARRY
Shrouds are a luxury we've long
since given up in this parish*

\%

PROTHERO
Hard hit as that, are you? Too
bad* You wouldn't be interested
in coffins, then, either, I take
it* Need any horses for the dead- '
carts? Horses are at a premium
these days, you know* Scarce, very
scarce* Best buy them when you
can* I've only a few left*

r"
No horses.

HARRY
Can't afford it.
CONTINUED

122.
75

CONTINUED

yW^^y

PROTHERO
Then you might be interested in
my rental-service. It's an innovation of mine. Cart, horse and
hand-bell for only four shillings
a day* Why lay out large sums to
buy when for a pittance you can
have the same thing? No?
(closing his chest)
Then 1*11 bid you good morning*
The padlocks will be delivered
as stated and my terms are cash
only, no credit. Care for a sveetmeat?
Harry shakes his head* Prothero pops a sweet into his
mouth, picks up bis chest and bustles out* Harry finds
himself chuckling at the absurdity of it*
76

OUTSIDE HARRYS SHOP

Prothero pauses to toss a handful of sweets to the Children
at play. Then he gets into his coach and is driven off,

77

AT SAM KILLIGREW'S HOUSE

Little Dickie, at one of the middle floor windows, sees
the Children scrambling for the goodies. Looking over
his shoulder to make certain he is unobserved, he leaves
the window* A few moments later, there is a sound of
sliding bolts at the front door* It opens and, with a
cry of joy, Dickie runs to join the Children* He' sees a
sweet on the cobbles, snatches it before anyone else can
and puts it .in his mouth* He is enjoying it tremendously
when:
SAM*S VOICE
(roaring)
Dickie*
Sam stands at the open door in a state of shock*
him, Sal and Nan appear*

Behind

SAM
tt

Dickie,
The Children scatter* Frightened, Dickie runs to the front
door* As he reaches it, Sam slams it in bis face*
C^

No*

No*

SAL'S VOICE
Dickie* Let me*
CONTINUED

123.
77

CONTINUED

Papa.

NAN'S VOICE
You can't* Papa*

The door opens a bit and the hands of Sal and Nan appear
at the edge as they strive to pull it open* Then the
hands are slowly pulled back and the door shuts* The
sliding bolt is heard. Sal and Nan scream endlessly,
Dickie slaps at the door,
DICKIE
(weeping)
Let me in, Da-da, Let me in, I
won't do it again, I promise*
Da-da, let me in*
78

S&ft*\

\.

IN THE OPEN FIELD ON THE CITY'S OUTSKIRTS

it is black of night and from theCity gates the full deadcarts are rolling toward the pits, their progress marked
by the torches carried by the men preceding them afoot.
Many have already arrived and stand, in the torch-light,
vith their backs to the pits as bearers and buriers remove
the corpses for deposit below. Some carry the corpses
down the ladders; others, less finicky, roll them down
or fling them. The night is filled with the creaking of
the cart-wheels and with Bnatches of drunken song and
idiot laughter*
The St. Barnabas dead-cart is one of those already being
unloaded* Toby and a BURIER are removing the corpses
and shoving them oyer the lip of the pit. Ratsey has
paused for the moment to take out the small bottle of the
real thing, uncork it and put it to his lips*
BURIER
Oh, I knew this one* Wealthiest
man in our parish* Know how much
he left?
Toby, hardly listening, shakes his head*
BURIER
All he had.
TheiBurier pushes the body over, laughing Immoderately,
and drags another from the cart*
BURIER (cont.)
Oh, she'8 a pretty thing, she is.
Oh, nov this was something to
cuddle with on a frosty night.
(cont.)
CONTINUED

121*.
78

CONTINUED
BURIER (cont.)
What a waste.
(to someone in the pit)
Hey* Oswald* Have a look at
this little darling.
The Burier tumbles the body over and, turning for another,
addresses Ratsey*
BURIER (cont.)
What about a hand, mate? Are
we to shift all this meat ourselves?
Ratsey has drained the bottle. He licks the bottle's mouth
before tossing it aside and joins the Burier and Toby at
the cart.
BURIER (Cont.)
No, ve already has this one*
Get your own* God knows there's
plenty for all*

\
*<
79

Ratsey reaches into the cart, grabs the first foot and
heaves. The corpse elides out and Ratsey finds himself
looking at Merlin, black eye-patch and all*
IN HARRY'S SHOP
Harry sits alone at the work-table, a lantern before him,
hunched over something he holds in his hand. Brooding
deeply, he scarcely looks over his shoulder as Ratsey
comes running in*
BATSEY
No more* I can*t bear it no more*
I don't care if I gets no pardon.
Send me back to Newgate, I'd
rather hang then go on like this.
Send me back to Newgate, At least
I'll be safe from the plague,

'#^

HARRY
Safe? At Newgate? Newgate*8
the worst hit in the City* One
enormous pest-house, that*a Newgate
now*

Ratsey sways under this* Then turns and slowly goes out
of the shop, Harry stares once more at what he has in
his hand,
CONTINUED

/
V

125.
79

CONTINUED
JEM*S VOICE
Harry, what is it? What is it
you have there?
Harry takes the lantern, gets up and goes closer to the
stairs* Opening his hand he shows her*
HARRY
Grass* Blades of grass* Growing
between the cobbles outside the
door* The City's disappearing.

80

IN TBE PYE TAVERN

the night's carouse is reaching its zenith* Toby is
alone at his corner table, rocking back and forth in dull
misery* Be looks up briefly as Ratsey sits down heavily
on the bench next to him, then resumes his rocking, a
faraway look in his eye and a trace of a smile on his lips.
RATSEY
What are you thinking?
TOBY
Of home.
RATSEY
Where is it?
TOBY
Across the sea. An island called
Jamaica, I don't want to talk about
it with you.
RATSEY
What's it like?
TOBY
Clean blue sky* Clean blue water.
White sand* Palm trees in the
breeze going sh, sh, sh, like my
mother did when I was little and
had bad dreams* Sh, 8h, sh* Oh,
God, I miss it 80*
i*

RATSEY
(starting to rock
with him)
So do I*
TOBY
You've never seen it, man*
CONTINUED

126.
80

CONTINUED
RATSEY
Even so* I can miss a place like
that. Same as you.
TOBY
You ain't in no way same as me.
And don't you forget it. That
island's not for you, man. All
of us there has black skins.
And black stinks.
RATSEY
Our skins is_ different. And so
is our stinks. But we suffers,
both, and in the end we dies.
That we has in common, Brother
Toby. That we has in common.

61

^
(

*
\.

A LONDON. STREET
baking in the sunlight. Most of the houses are boarded
up. A few Watchers sit as though in stupor before the
doors of others. Two or three bodies lie here and there,
one uncovered, Lawrence*s horse has stopped, Lawrence
sits slumped in the saddle. Nothing moves until Harry
rides slowly up to the Lord Mayor. Lawrence raises his
head, stares dully at Harry and indicates the bodies.
LAWRENCE
Do you see? The nights are not
long enough to bury our dead,
We*re done for, Harry, Done for.
A PLAGUE VICTIM comes crawling out of a house and crabs
his way across the cobbles in a desperate effort to reach
Lawrence and Harry*
PLAGUE VICTIM
I*ve got the plague* I've got
the plague*
(managing to stand)
And if I've got it, why shouldn't
you? Why shouldn't you?
The plague Victim spreads his arms, groping to reach and
touch Lawrence and Harry, comes close and then collapses.

j0&>\

HARRY
(to a nearby Watcher)
Here* You, Fetch a blanket and
cover him.
CONTINUED

127.
81

CONTINUED
The Watcher stares at Harry for a moment, then drops his
eyes.
LAWRENCE
Everyone'8 given up* It's the end*
HARRY
Damn you, John, it's not the end,
LAWRENCE
We've done all ve can and it's not
enough,
HARRY
No, No* Light fires. Large ones*
Up and down every street* Brimstone, Pitch, Tar* Keep them
burning.
LAWRENCE
What's the good?

{ *

x
\

HARRY
Perhaps it vill cleanse the air,
as the doctors said* But even
if it doesn't, fires anyway. We
can't let people believe there*s
no hope*

LAWRENCE
Even if there isn't?
HARRY
Especially if there isn't* John.
John Lawrence. Your Worship.
Damn you, lift your head and consider what I've said*
A COURIER comes galloping down the street and checks his
horse near them, the beast rearing* The Courier is young,
ardent and terribly excited*
x%

COURIER
Which is the road to Oxford?
Oxford, which way?

To

HARRY
/fl**"*.

Oxford?
COURIER
(patting hi8 saddle-bag)
Dispatches for the Crown,
(cont.)
CONTINUED

128.
81
'

CONTINUED
COURIER (cont.)
I*ve just landed vith glorious
news* We*ve met the Dutch fleet
and smashed it* We captured
seventeen ships, sank five and
killed nine thousand of their men*
Harry gestures toward the correct road. The Courier is
puzzled at Harry*8 response to the news,
COURIER (cont.)
Didn't you hear what I said?
About the victory?
HARRY
Hoorah.
The Courier gives up trying to solve it, spurs his horse
and gallops off,
LAWRENCE
Very well, Harry. Bonfires it is.
We'll try it. And if it fails -

S0&\

BARRY
And if it fails, we'll think of
something else*

82

IN HARROW ALLEY
that evening, there are large drums or graziers, filled
with wood, coal, and tar, in the center of the way before
every sixth house, from the Gate to the church and beyond.
A Watcher stands in readiness near each, burning torch in
hand* Here and there along the Alley are great piles of
fuel .to keep the fires burning*
Harry comes galloping into the Alley*
HARRY
(to Watchers)
Ready? Ready? All ready here?
Dismounting before his house, Harry ties the horse to one
of % the posts and, taking a lighted lantern from a Watcher,
starts toward the house opposite, an abandoned house, its
open door hanging by a hinge, its windows broken*

/"**>

HARRY
(calling to Watchers)
Wait for my signal* Not until
you see the signal.
CONTINUED

129,
82

CONTINUED

/fiF^X

Harry enters the abandoned house*

Up and down the Alley, inhabitants yet alive are at the
windows, waiting and hoping the fires will prove effective.
Among these are Mr. and Mrs* Wick*
MR. WICK
If this does not scotch the plague,
ve leave the City at once, Mrs. Wick*
My mind's made up*
83

ON THE ROOF OF THE ABANDONED HOUSE

the highest in the Alley, Harry emerges through a trapdoor vith the lighted lantern and takes out his watch.
Jem, at a garret window of their house across the way,
waves to him and he smiles at her*
JEM
Do be- careful up there, Harry.

\
%

HARRY
Is the door of the baby's room
ehut? And the windows? There's
going to be a terrible stink.
JEM
They're shut.
Harry glances at his watch again and is galvanized into
action. He swings the lantern in great circles about his
head and shouts to the Watchers below.
Now.

Now.

HARRY
Start the fires. Now*

81*

IN HARROW ALLEY
The Watchers toss their torches into the drums and
braziers and the flames leap up* Great clouds of black
smoke rise.

85

ON THE ROOF OF THE ABANDONED HOUSE

Harry surveys the Alley, the parish and the entire City.
The sight is magnificent: fires -burning everywhere in
orderly lines, along every street, along London Bridge,
across the Thames*
Suddenly, feeling something, he looks up and then holds
out bis hand: it's raining* The drops come faster and
CONTINUED

130.
^

85

CONTINUED
faster turn into a deluge* Lightning flickers and thunder
crashes* By ones and twos and tens, the fires in the City
are quenched and there is only blackness.
Harry stands there in the downpour.
sky.

v
\
\

He looks up at the

HARRY
Chaos? 18 that what You're trying
to tell us? That it's chaos up
there and meant to be chaos down
here, too? That there's no order?
No rules? Bo laws? That we*re
wrong when we try to make sense
of it? Are You telling us there's
no purpose, to any of it? There?
Here? Everywhere? No meaning at
all? That justice and mercy and
pity are merely things that we
'.have thought of, we, down here?
That they exist only in our heads?
Nowhere else? What is it You want
from us? Has some sin been committed we must atone? If that's
what it is, tell us, tell us,
because we cannot bear much more*
Harry sinks down and sits on the roof, knees drawn in,
arms around them, head resting on them. The rain slows
and stops,

86

AT THE GARRET WINDOW OF HARRY'S HOUSE

Jem has overheard Barry, Nov she turns avay from the
window and leaves it.

87

ON THE ROOF OF THE ABANDONED HOUSE

Harry lifts his head from his knees at the sound of a
door closing below and, glancing down at the Alley, sees
Jem hurrying along*
HARRY
Jem?

88

Jem*

IN ST. BARNABAS CHURCH

there are a score of people, here and there, some silently
praying, some dozing, others staring into space. As Jem
enters, a PENITENT gets to his feet, beating his breast.
CONTINUED

131.
88

CONTINUED

PENITENT
I confess* I confess* My father
kept his savings behind a brick
in the chimney* I stole the money
and he accused my brother and drove
him from the house and ve never saw
Robbie again. My father died without knowing the truth, blessing me as
the good 8on. And now I confess my
sin and may God forgive me*
The Penitent sits, weeping*
attention.

No one has paid any particular

Jem nerves herself and rises*

JEM
Before I married, there was a boy
and we loved each other* When my
father betrothed me to another, we
were desperate and heartbroken.
We made love, the boy and I, in the
field down the road* And I cor
ceived. And I married Harry Poyntz
and I've let him think the child is
his. And if this is the sin for
which we are being punished, I
freely confess it and ask only for
guidance so that I may know hov to
atone.

y*S5Sfty

Jem sinks back in the pew* As before, no one has paid

much attention* After some moments, Jem gets up *o
leave. Turning, she sees Harry in the doorway of the
church, 8taring at her*
89

OUTSIDE HARRY'S SHOP

an hour or so later, a coach stands waiting* Harry and
Prothero are before the door* In a brazier, nearby, the
ashes of the dead fire still smoke*

i*

PROTHERO
The coach and horse will not remain
in Dover, is that correct? Merely
bring Mrs* Poyntz to her father's
home and return? Then that will be,
let me see, six pounds will cover
the cost*

Harry takes out his purse and, in a daze, counts the money
into Prothero's hand*
CONTINUED

132.
89

CONTINUED
PROTHERO
If I may 8ay so, you're very wise
to send your family out of the
City. You saw last week's Bill?
Eleven thousand dead of plague?
Frightful.
(happily)
And no end in sight* .
(pocketing money)
Thank you. And if there is anything else you require, you knov
where to find me*
Prothero goes up the Alley.

90

Afltites

Harry enters his shop.

IN HARRY'S SHOP
Harry finds a seat on a bench alongside the door* Jem,
carrying the- baby, comes down the stairs. Gosnell follows
vith baggage. Both are dressed for travel* Jem moves
toward the door, pauses to see if there is forgiveness
in Harry'8 face and, finding none, opens the door screening Harry - and goes out with Gosnell* A moment
later, with the crack of a whip and a rumbling, the coach
departs*
Harry sits in the dark behind the open door.
An OLD WOMAN puts her bead in, looks around, then whispers
to someone behind her.
Look*

OLD WOMAN
No one here*

The Old Woman tip-toes in, peers about, then hurries to

a shelf and, snatching a few bolts of cloth, hurries out.
There ie Another Woman behind her who does the same. In
less than a minute, the shop seems filled with Women
looting.
Unseen by them, and possibly not aware of them, either,
Harry gets up and wanders out into the Alley*
91

y^ftV

IE*THE PYE TAVERN

roaring, crazy, joyously drunk, Ratsey is having the time
of his life* The Crowd, scrambling to get out of the vay
and packed against the walls, is being treated to a bravl.
Alone, and getting much the worst of it, Ratsey is
battling Half-A-Dozen Bully-boys* They are too much for
CONTINUED

133.
91

CONTINUED
him. They beat him back into a corner near the door and
batter him to the floor. At Mrs. Feeny'8 prompting, the
Musicians come from behind the table they've used as a
shield and begin to play. The Crowd turns away from
the fight and resumes drinking and dancing. The Bullyboys stay with Ratsey only long enough to give him the
heel a few times and then they, too, join the revels.
Prone on the floor, Ratsey lifts his bloody head, still
chuckling,
RATSEY
Ah, that was a good one, that
vas. That was a tonic.
He manages to get to his feet and, staggering to a nearby
table, collapses to a stool and holds his head. Harry,
who has been standing in the doorway, comes into the room
and sits at the same table* Seeing him, Beck approaches.
BECK
What'11 you have?

/**s

Wine*

HARRY
Bring the pitcher*
RATSEY

Me, too.
When Beck goes to fetch it, Ratsey focusses his eyes on
Harry and recognizes him*
RATSEY (cont.)
Oh, the Alderman* Is it time
for me to go out with the cart?
HARRY
No* You needn't any more* It's
a waste of effort* Pointless.
Completely pointless* Like everything else.
Beck returns with the pitcher and mugs and sets them down.

{**

BECK
That'll be tuppence*

As Harry reaches into his pocket, Ratsey pulls out his

purse.
,
RATSEY
No, I've got it* Let me,
CONTINUED

13U.
^

91

CONTINUED
Ratsey hands Beck a coin.

As she leaves:

HARRY
(calls after her)
Bring pen and paper*
Harry drinks* Ratsey has emptied the purse into his hand
and sits staring at the heap of coins,
RATSEY
It ain't right, you know that?
It ain't right. They brings
you up to think this is worth
something* You're supposed to
spend your life getting it any
way you can. And does it help
vith anything really important?
HARRY
It can't buy off plague, if that's
what you mean,
.
\
**

RATSEY
It can't buy off death no matter
how it comes. And, my God, it
comes in many ways. Not only
plague. You can die as you're
born. You can die of old age.
You can die of fever. Or wounds.
Or apoplexy. The bloody flux.
Burns, S.calds, Cancer* Gangrene*
Fistula. Giving birth. Colds.
Coughs. Consumption* Convulsions*
Dropsy* Drowning* Smallpox. The
French pox* Grief* Suicide*
Jaundice* Accidents* Liver*
Heart* Poison* Starvation*
Scurvy. Spleen* The stone.
(studying coins)
When I thinks of what I've done
in my time to get my hands on some
of this* And what is it? Shit.
Ratsey flings the coins across the room* There is a
brief scramble for them* Ratsey covers his face with
his hands. Beck brings pen, paper and a bottle of ink
to the table. Harry begins to write.

f**-

HARRY
You seemed happy enough a moment
ago, when I came in..
CONTINUED

135.
91

CONTINUED
RATSEY
Oh, fighting eases it some for
me, yes*
HARRY
And drink*
RATSEY
Drink, too*
HARRY
And fornication,
That as well*
somevhat,

RATSEY
They all help

Ratsey pounds the table with both fists.

RATSEY (cont.)
But a man can't keep at them
twenty-four hours a day. And
it's the times between, the time6
between*
HARRY
That can be passed in sleep.
RATSEY
But I dream* And it's always the
same* I'm in prison* Alone.
Terrible alone* And terrible
afraid* And there's something
outside, I don't know what* But
I feels if I could only reach it,
touch it, the hurting would stop.
And I puts my hand through the
bars. And I stretches* And I
stretches* But*.*
Harry has done writing*
Ratsey*
t
*
/*>^>

He slides the paper across to

BARRY
There* You've upheld your end
of the bargain* Take it to the
Lord Mayor and he'll give you your
pardon*

Ratsey takes up the paper*

CONTINUED

136.
91

CONTINUED
HARRY (cont.)
As for your dream, I doubt there's
anything out there worth reaching*
RATSEY
There has to be* There must be
something I can do to find it*
It ain't here* Where is it?
Where is it?
Ratsey gets up from the table, the pardon unnoticed in
his hand.
HARRY
Well, if you want my opinion But Ratsey is staggering away toward the front door.
HARRY (cont.)
(shrugs)
It doesn't matter*
matters*

/$$&\

Nothing really

Harry gets up and, mug in hand, pushes his way through

the dancers to the Musicians and holds up his hand* The
music stops and the Crowd quiets*
HARRY (cont.)
My friends, early to bed and early
to rise makes a man healthy and
wealthy and wise*
He drinks*

The Crowd doesn't understand*

HARRY (cont.)
My friends, every cloud has a silver
lining.
Harry drinks again*

Someone snickers*

HARRY (cont.)
My friends, while there is life
there is hope*
A Few People laugh*
HARRY (cont.)
My friends, ask and ye shall receive,
y^^V

Nov the Crowd is laughing.

CONTINUED

137.
91

CONTINUED
SOMEONE
The darkest hour is just before
the dawn.
The laughter grows,
HARRY
And a will will find a way.
The laughter spreads.
SOMEONE ELSE
When one door shuts, another opens,
HARRY
Exactly, And God tempers the wind
to the shorn lamb. And honesty
*
is the oest policy. And a stitch
in time saves nine.

f^^

FROM THE CROWD

A good beginning makes a good ending...
Good deeds alvays have their reward,
By preserving, we achieve,,.
It'8 never too late to mend...

v
\
V

THE TIPSY TENOR

(sings)
They say that it's never
Too late to mend Lilliburlero~bullen ala But what'8 there to mend
When you've come to the end?
Lilliburlero bullen ala.
TBE CROWD
Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala Lero, lero, lilliburlero,
Lilliburlero bullen ala*
The Musicians have taken up the tune and the dancing
resumes 88 the Crowd continues with the song. As Beck
passes Harry, he takes her tray, hurls it against the
wall, puts his arms around her and, joining the dance,
is soon lost to eight in the whirling, leaping, Jumping
throng,
FADE OUT

138.
FADE IN:
92

OUTSIDE THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SROP

Ratsey eits huddled on the cobbles near the front door,
his back against the wall, his head resting on his dravnup knees. In one hand is the note Harry vrote for the
Lord Mayor, It is sunrise*
A cart loaded vith sacks of flour, driven by a MILLER,
comes down the Alley and stops at the bake-shop door.
The Miller gets down from his seat and starts unloading
two sacks,

>
Hey*
1

MILLER
(calling)
Missus,

Betty Buckworth comes out of the shop, putting up her hair.

BETTY
Good morning to you*
MILLER
The wife says I'm to tell you and
my other customers I'll come no
more to your door*

BETTY
But why?
MILLER
The vife says the devil has looked
after his* own till now but I must
not chance it further* The Bickness
is very hot in the City, missus*
BETTY
But I must have flour*
MILLER
The wife says I'm to sell it outside the wall and the buyers can
trundle it into the City themselves*
BETTY
That's an added bit of work for me*
*'

MILLER
Don't tell me, missus, tell the wife*
The Miller takes a vinegar-Jar from the cart and holds it
out to Betty vho takes some coins from a skirt-pocket and
CONTINUED

139.
(

92

CONTINUED
drops them in. The Miller shakes them up, then fishes
them out and pockets them before getting up on the cart
and driving avay.
BATSEY
(sniffing hungrily)
The bread smells good, missus.
BETTY
Fresh baked and still cooling.
Want to buy a loaf?
Ratsey takes out his purse and finds it empty,
RATSEY
Another time*
He sniffs the aroma again, settling back against the wall.
Betty can see he's hungry*

/^

BETTY
If you carry these Backs in, I'll
give you a loaf for your trouble.

>

Ratsey starts to get up,

BETTY (cont.)
But you*11 have to bathe first.
That puts a new li,ght on the matter and Ratsey settles
back again to consider it*
BETTY (cont.)
Well, I can't have a man who has
been bearing corpses handling my
flour unless he washes. Come,
I'll add a lump of butter to it
as well*
Reluctantly, Ratsey gets up and heads for the door,

kk

BETTY (cont,)
No, not this way, around the back*
In the garden*

Ratsey discovers the paper in his hand,

f0^

RATSEY
(holds it up)
Can you read, missus?

What is this?
CONTINUED

1U0.

92

CONTINUED
BETTY
It says you're to be pardoned
and it's signed by the Alderman.
RATSEY
(remembering)
Ah, yes.
Stuffing the paper into his pocket, Ratsey enters the
passageway leading to the garden in the rear, Betty goes
into the shop*

93

IN THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

Betty goes to the fireplace where a large caldron of hot
water is steaming* Through the open rear door, she sees
Ratsey coming into the garden and pausing to look about
uncertainly*
BETTY
Do you see that tub?. Empty it,
I've Just had my own bathe.
Lugging the caldron of hot water, she goes into the garden.

9U

IN BETTY'S GARDEN
Ratsey empties the wooden tub and watches Betty dubiously
as she fills it from the caldron*
BETTY
What'8 the matter?
RATSEY
I*m wondering what this will do
to my health*
BETTY
Have you never washed all over
before?

t
i

RATSEY
No, of course not* Not since I
was a boy, that is, and went
swimming. But I washed my feet
Christmas Day last and caught a
cold,
BETTY
Well, this won*t kill you.
(cont.)
CONTINUED

11*1,

9U

CONTINUED
BETTY (cont.)
My man had a bathe every single
day of his life from the moment
he became a baker's 'prentice.
RATSEY
Whatever for?
BETTY
Bakers must be cleanly in their
person* It's a rule of the Guild
going back ever so far. My man
vas a sweet-smelling man* Like
honey*
RATSEY
Suppose I tries it a limb at a time
to see what happens.
BETTY
Oh, get undressed and step into it.
I can't spend the day waiting for
that flour* I must knead it for
tonight's baking*

*
\

RATSEY
Where does I get undressed?
Here.

BETTY
No one will notice.
*

RATSEY
And where will you be, missus?
BETTY
For Heaven'8 sake, a man's body
is no great mystery to me, even
if I cared to ogle' you, which I
don't* I'll be here, there, around
and about* Now, get undressed and
have your bathe* I'll fetch you
clean clothing* That's the soap*
You know what to do with it, I
suppose*

Bet'ty goes back to the shop* Ratsey begins to undress,

eyeing the tub with distaste*
/^N

95

IN THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

as Betty enters from the garden and starts up the stairs,
the Mute comes in from the Alley with his basket.
CONTINUED

1U2.
^

95

CONTINUED
Betty indicates some loaves on a table.
BETTY
Good morning to you. There they
are, all ready and vaiting.
The Mute nods, smiling his thanks, and fills his basket.
Then he turns and leaves the shop*

96

OUTSIDE THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

the Mute comes through the front door and valks dovn the
Alley. A moment or two later, studying the receding Mute
intently, Dan and a SAILOR pause at the front door.
DAN
Well?

/^

Well?

SAILOR
It's hard to say* Be could be
a sailor from his walk* Be does
have a roll to it* But I've seen
landsmen vith that walk, too, who
never smelled the sea.

v
Y

DAN
Well, he looks like a Dutchman,
don't he?
SAILOR
I can't say that neither.
DAN
Why not? You're a sailor. You've
been to Holland many a time, you
said,
SAILOR
And so I has. But a Dutchman
looks about the same as anyone
else*

t
/^"N

BAN
What about the color of his hair?
And his eyes?
SAILOR
That proves nothing* Some Dutchmen has fair hair and some don't,
DAN
Damn,,.Let's have them Dutch vords
again.
CONTINUED

1U3.
/JSPr\

96

CONTINUED
Dag, meneer.

SAILOR
Is u Nederlander?

DAN
(repeating it)
Dag, meneer. Is u Nederlander,
And it means good day, are you
a Dutchman?
SAILOR
That's right.
Dan leaves the Sailor and hurries after the Mute*
97

IN HARROW ALLEY
as the Mute walks along, Dan comes up unnoticed behind
him. And suddenly:
DAN
(loudly)
Dag, meneer. Is u Nederlander?
Startled, the Mute turns and looks at Dan, his brows knit
in puzzlement.
Dag, meneer.

DAN (cont.)
Is u Nederlander?

The Mute smiles, shrugging to show he does not understand,

Dan waits, but nothing more is forthcoming. Dan leaves
him and goes back 'toward the sailor,
98

OUTSIDE THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

Dan is excited as he joins the Sailor.
DAN
Did you see? Did you see?
understood what I said,

Be

SAILOR
What makes you think that?
*%

DAN
He turned around, didn't he?
SAILOR
If someone was to sneak up behind
you and shout in your ear, you'd
turn around, too. No matter what
(cont.)
CONTINUED

11* 1*.
93

COwTINUEr
SAILOR (cont.)
language he spoke. It don't
prove nothing.
DAN
But he has a ring in his ear.
SAILOR
I'm a sailor and -I has no ring
in my ear. Some people wears
them, some don't, sailors or no
sailors.
Damn, Damn*
be certain*

DAN
If I could only

SAILOR
Coming back with me?
DAN
No.
The Sailor leaves.
99

Dan crosses the Alley toward the Pye.

OUTSIDE THE PYE

as Dan enters, a BUTCHER is unloading meat from his cart
at the door* The Butcher looks off as:
HODGES' VOICE
(singing lustily)
Oh, my name is Samuel Hall,
Samuel Hall, Samuel Hell*
Hodges, carrying his medical kit, is entering the Alley,
passing a corpse here and thereon the way.

i
t

HODGES (cont.)
Oh, my name ie Samuel Hall
And I hate you one and all.
You're a lot of bastards all.
Damn your eyes*
Oh, they've locked me here in quod,
Here in quod,, here in quod.
Oh, they've locked me here in quod
And the parson prates of God.
Yes, the parson prates of God,
Damn his eyes,
BUTCHER
Morning to your, Doctor.

Morning.
CONTINUED

11*5.
(***

99

CONTINUED
Hodges stops before the Butcher and bows elaborately,
HODGES
Ah, my fellow-butcher.
BUTCHER
I'm glad to see someone cheerful.
What do you celebrate, if I may
ask?
HODGES
I'm celebrating - something.
But what? Don't remember.
BUTCHER
Success with one of your patients,
it may be?
HODGES
That would call for celebration
if it happened. But it's so unlikely. Saul hath slain his
thousands and Nathaniel Bodges
his ten thousands.

v
\

*;

BUTCHER
Aach, you're too harsh vith yourself, Doctor.
The Butcher lifts a small tub from the cart, preparing to
bring it into the tavern,
HODGES
Why, that's true, considering the
marvel I performed with my art not
an hour ago. Imagine, a young man
in the prime of life dying of
plague. All hope abandoned by
one of my colleagues. Parents
weeping in the next room. And
then, enter Nathaniel Hodges.

fc
t

f^

BUTCHER
You saved the man's life?
HODGES
No, no, I shared my brandy with
him and saw to it he died happy.
Uproariously happy. What have
you there?
CONTINUED

11*6.
99

CONTINUED
BUTCHER
Tripe, Why not go in and have
them cook you some? It would
sober you.
HODGES
Is that what you call an inducement? I'd call it...
BUTCHER
What is it, Doctor?
HODGES
That tripe* Do you realize no
one has ever anatomized a plague
victim?
BUTCHER
You mean, open one up and have
a look at the guts? That would
be death for certain, wouldn't
it? And what use would it be?

/$FN,

Y
\

HODGES
Who can say what use it would be?
One day.
A coach followed by a cart piled high with furniture rolls
past into the Alley* Deep in thought, Hodges turns avay
from the Butcher and staggers after it*
t

100

OUTSIDE HODGES' HOUSE

the coach and cart slow and come to a stop at the neighboring residence* Prothero descends from the coach and,
taking a key from his pocket, unlocks the neighboring
residence's door as the Carter and his Helper start unloading the furniture*
PROTHERO
(to the Carter)
Not so slap-dash with that table.
That'8 mahogany, that is* Worth
more than the horse and cart together*
Hodges comes to his front door as the Carter and the
Helper carry the table past Prothero into the house.
HODGES
It's Prothero, isn't it?
CONTINUED

11*7,
100

CONTINUED
Yes, it is*

PROTHERO
Good morning, Doctor*

HODGES
I wasn't certain, you've grown
so grand* Put on weight, too,
haven't you?
PROTHERO
(patting his belly)
I daresay* Well, we're to be
neighbors, Doctor* I've bought
the Rutland house from the heirs*
BODGES
That's coming up in the world*
PROTHERO
Only the beginning, Doctor, only
the beginning* I've already got
my eye on an estate in Westminister*
Not a large one, of course, but
still Westminster* And if a few
business ventures prove successful,
as they're bound to (breaks off as)

The Carter and his Helper come out of the house,

PROTHERO
The bed goes to the large room on
the right overlooking the garden.
HODGES
You were saying?
PROTHERO
Emm? Oh, if you've any money to
invest let me know and I can put
you in the way of tripling it in
six months,
t*
y^msv

HODGES
Gold mine in Brazil? Indigo in
the Carolinas?
PROTHERO
No, no, nothing so speculative as
that* Coffins and wood for coffins
here in the City* And horses*
(cont*)
CONTINUED

11*8.
(^

100

CONTINUED
PROTHERO (cont.)
And linen for shrouds. I've
invested every penny I own and
all I could borrow beside. Let
me know if you're interested*
Very kind*

HODGES
Thank you.

Hodges fishes in his pocket for his key and comes up with
a folded paper. Opening it, he reads briefly and then
swings around to face the Pye.
HODGES (cont.)
This is what I was celebrating.
Hey, Butcher.
But the Butcher is gone.
HODGES (cont.)
Ah, well.
PROTHERO
('

Speaking to me?
\

HODGES
No, but you're welcome to it.
Today'8 Mortality Bill* Only
ten thousand dead last week.
The plague's on the wane.
Prothero's mouth falls slack as he takes the Bill from
Hodges. And, having found his key, Hodges enters his
house.
101

_^
I

IN BARROW ALLEY
one day, a week or so later, a breeze blows fallen leaves
across the cobbles. October has come and some of those
who fled are returning through Barnabas Gate, the ones
who, because of poverty, were the last to leave and,
having left, were least able to hold out. In a steadily
freshening trickle, they move through Harrow Alley afoot,
pushing barrows with their possessions and carrying the
very young and the very old* They seem much the worse
for wear*
John Lawrence, preceded by his Mace-Bearer, rides into
the Alley from the opposite direction and checks his horse
at Sam Killigrew's house* The Mace-Bearer pounds at the
front door.
CONTINUED

11*9.
101

CONTINUED
LAWRENCE
(calls)
Hello, in the house, Killigrev.
Sam Killigrev*
A curtain at a middle floor window is drawn aside and Sam
looks out. His face is drawn and he has developed a tic.
LAWRENCE (cont.)
I vant to speak to you. Open up.
Open up, I say, the distemper's
not as strong as it was.
Sam opens the window a crack.
LAWRENCE (cont*)
This parish is in a muddle for
want of an Alderman* There are
scarcely enough guild members
left to vote for one so I'm taking
it upon myself to make an appointment* And I'm appointing you.

/f$R&!\

Me?

SAM
Did Harry die?

LAWRENCE
Dead or fled, I cannot say.
SAM
I don't vant the responsibility.
LAWRENCE
I don't delegate responsibility.
Only authority* And it's nov
yours*
SAM
No* No. I've already lost my
little boy. Isn't that enough
for one family? No*
*

LAWRENCE
Aach, you may stay' in there as long
as you please, if you are afraid*
But you'll conduct parish affairs
Just the same* Through the window
by dumb-show like an actor in a
pantomime, if that suits you. Nod
your head for yes and shake it for
no and drop written messages into
(cont*)
CONTINUED

150.
101

CONTINUED
LAWRENCE (cont.)
the street. I don't care how you
manage it so long as the parish
is administered. Is that clear?
Sam nods, Lawrence and his Mace-Bearer leave the Alley.
On their way, they pass Ratsey speaking to Dan in front
of the bake-shop, Ratsey's appearance has changed since
his encounter with Betty, He is clean and shaven; his
hair is combed; he wears Jasper's simple, sober clothing;
and he is puffing a pipe,
RATSEY
How should I know? He comes into
the shop and we gives him stale
bread, is all. He's never said a
word and for the life of me I can't
see what makes you think he might
be the Dutch bosun,

^B^

DAN
Well, he looks something like him,
for one thing. And for another,
that's Just it: he never says a
word* Don't you understand why?
If he opens his mouth, you knows
he's Dutch for certain*

>
\
%

RATSEY
Got it all put together, ain't you?
DAN
I don't spend my time thinking of
nothing else*
RATSEY
Well, I has other things to do
with mine*
Ratsey takes a step back toward the shop but Dan, like
many another with a fixed idea, is never done*

k*

DAN
It might be you wonders why he
risks his life fetching them kids
out of Infected houses*
RATSEY
No, I can't say I does,
DAN
Well, I knows the answer to that,
too,
CONTINUED

151,
101

CONTINUED
RATSEY
Yes, I suppose you does,
DAN
It*s because his great sin in
bringing plague to the City weighs
on his soul. He's trying to make
amends. That came to me only last
night*
RATSEY
That*8 Crown evidence, that is*
Better than Crown evidence. You
never has to hunt for it, Just
let it come,
DAN
And I also knows why he RATSEY
Now, listen. Once and for all,
I don*t give a damn. Do what
you likes about him. Strangle him,
stab him, shoot him or club him to
death. What's it to me, eh?
What's it to me?
Ratsey pulls his arm out of Dan's grip and goes into the
shop.

102

IN THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

Betty is mixing dough. She looks up as Ratsey enters.
BETTY
I was about to call you.
ready now*

It's

Betty takes the dough out of the mixing trough and plop6
it down on a table dusted with flour* Ratsey comes to
her side, rolling up his shirt sleeves* He is as eager
Ld.

i
V

BETTY
Nov the first thing to be learned
about kneading dough RATSEY
Never mind that* I've vatched you
often enough. Let me get my hands
on it.
CONTINUED

152.
102

CONTINUED
Not BO fast*

BETTY
Let me see them first.

Ratsey holds out his hands for inspection.

BETTY (cont.)
All right, they're clean enough.
Show me what you can do.
Ratsey starts kneading dough, soon falling into a steady
rhythm.
BETTY (cont.)
What grains do we use to make
bread?
RATSEY
Wheat, rye, barley, millet, oats
and - and maize*
BETTY
And how much barley would you
use to make a raised loaf weighing
one pound?
RATSEY
I'd use - I wouldn't use none.
Barley don't raise* It ain't
right, trying to trick me.
BETTY
Oh, the guild will ask you harder
questions than that before they
accept you as a 'prentice*
(after a moment)
You do that well*
RATSEY
I likes doing it* It eases me.
BETTY
What makes the soft crumb?
RATSEY
i

The fat*
BETTY
A customer buys a loaf of bread and
forget8 his change as he walks out.
What do you do?..,Well?
CONTINUED

153.
102

CONTINUED

RATSEY
Well, I'm thinking.
BETTY
You run out into the street if
necessary to make certain he gets
it. There's nothing to think about,
RATSEY
For me there is*
BETTY
That's enough for now* Take it
into the back and cover it and
let it rise,Name the Roman king
who set up the first baker's
school*
RATSEY
Trojan?
BETTY
Trajan, Trajan,
RATSEY
Damn, I can never remember,
BETTY
You will.
RATSEY
(after a moment)
You're a comfortable woman, Mrs.
Buckworth.
Their eyes meet* Ratsey picks up the dough and carries
it to the back room*
Doctor Hodges hurries into the shop with an air of
suppressed excitement*
HODGES
Betty, my dear, I have a favor to
ask,
1

BETTY
Of course, Doctor, anything.
Come upstairs and we'll talk.

j*0p>\

CONTINUED

15**.
102

CONTINUED

ytfJ.jT"\,

HODGES
Thank you but there's no time.
I've sent a message to Mr.
Feeny and he must be waiting for
me now. Is my memory correct?
That you do read and write?
BETTY
Why, yes, Doctor.
BODGES
Would you mind doing a bit of
writing at my dictation if I
should ask?

Of course.

BETTY
Whenever you like,

HODGES
Thank you, Betty, thank you.
Hodge6 hurries out.
103

IN THE PYE TAVERN

Dan sits brooding at one of the tables. Except for him,
the room is empty this time of day. It is also in a
state of neglect: table-tops with puddles of spilled
liquid; over-turned stools; a long-un6wept floor. Eodges
enters from the Alley and, after a glance about, hurries
to the stair-case in the rear and calls up.

Jack Feeny.

BODGES
Jack Feeny.

A fev moments pass and then Jack Feeny slowly descends,

unshaven and unkempt, his cheeks hollow and his eyes
filled with woe, a self-pitying ascetic.
JACK FEENY
What is it you want, Doctor?

CONTINUED

155,
103

CONTINUED
HODGES
I wish to speak to you concerning
your wife.
JACK FEENY
My wife. She has run off and left
me, did you know that?

I'd heard.

HODGES
I -

JACK FEENY
Run off with the blackamoor.

I know.

HODGES
What I have in mind -

JACK FEENY
"Toby does not beat me, Toby does
not leave me to do all the work,
Toby is gentle and kind and five
times the man you ever vas in bed."
Imagine that, Doctor.

Yes, very sad.

HODGES
I

JACK FEENY
And after ve'd been married, let
me see, Beck is eighteen, after
we'd been married eleven years.
HODGES
The times are very unsettled.

/ffi&H^N,

She -

JACK FEENY
A man is of the spirit and a woman
ain't, that's what it isk Doctor.
Run off with Toby. Just because I
thirsted after higher things and
spent my days and nights listening
to the prophet, him vith the ear.thly
(cont.)
CONTINUED

156,
103

CONTINUED
JACK FEENY (cont.)
name of Solomon Eagle. Just because
I vas no longer concerned with the
things of this world, off she goes
with every penny I had and God alone
knovs hov she managed to find it
vhere I hid it.
HODGES
I have just come from her bedside.
She's very ill, Mr. Feeny.
JACK FEENY
The plague?
Hodges nods.
JACK
It is retribution.
peace. God knovs I
ill-will. How near

FEENY (cont.)
May she find
bear her no
is the end?

HODGES
That's never easy to say. It may
be three hours, it may be three
weeks. What I'd like from you, as
next of kin, is your permission to
perform an autopsy upon her body.
JACK FEENY
Oh, that's a horrible thought to
a sensitive man, Doctor* And
Jack Feeny knew Mag, as they says
in the Good Book. A horrible
thought. Is she alone?
HODGES
v*

No.
JACK FEENY
Toby?

CONTINUED

157,
^

103

CONTINUED
Hodges nods.
JACK FEENY (cont.)
Then you may cut her to ribbons
for all I cares. I must go back
upstairs. Doctor. The prophet
has promised to name the source
of all our troubles and the
revelation may come at any time.
HODGES
I vant to thank you, Mr. Feeny.
Feeny dismisses this vith a vave of hie hand and
starts up the stairs.
DAN
Hold on, there.
Dan gets up from the table and comes to Feeny as Hodges
leaves the tavern.
DAN (cont.)
What do you mean, name the source
of all our troubles?
JACK FEENY
And I stood upon the sand of the
sea, and saw a beast rise up out
of the sea, having seven heads and
ten horns, and upon his horns ten
crowns, and upon his heads the name
of - blasphemy. That's what
I means.
i

DAN

W e l l , what's t h e b e a s t supposed
t o be? -

CONTINUED

158.
103

CONTINUED
JACK FEENY
Not what. Who. As the prophet
says: here is wisdom. Let him
that hath understanding count the
number of the beast : for it is
the number of a man; and his
number is six hundred threescore and six.
Jack Feeny turns away and climbs the stairs
DAN
The number of a man.
Dan hurries up the stairs after Feeny.

10U

IN HODGES' GABDEN
one night, a couple of weeks later, a coffin has been
set to rest upon two saw-horses not far from the
rear-door of the house. Mag Feeny's corpBe is in the
coffin; under the coffin is a porringer containing
sulphur. On a small table close at hand is a lighted
lamp; neatly arranged about the lamp are Bodges' surgical
instruments.
Another small table has been placed beneath a tree at
the far end of the garden. On it are a lighted lamp,
an inkwell and a mug with several pens and a quantity
of paper beneath a>paper-weight. Alongside this table
is a stool.
The night is cool, autumnal, and from time to time a
dead leaf drifts down from the tree to the writingtable.
Hodges enters the garden from the house with Betty.
Bare-headed, a woolen scarf around his neck, he is
alive with anticipation and excitedly puffing his pipe.
Betty, with a shawl about her, is apprehensive. About
to leave the doorvay, she stops short.
^
*

(***

BETTY
You said there should be
fumigation.

CONTINUED

159.
10U

CONTINUED
HODGES
Oh. Yes, It's nonsense, my dear,
but if it soothes you...
Hodges stoops at the coffin, knocks the coal from his
pipe against the palm of his hand and lets it fall into
the porringer of sulphur which, after a moment, begins
to send up smoke.
There.

HODGES (cont.)
You have it nov.

Skirting the coffin, Betty goes to the writing-table, sits

down and prepares to take dictation.
HODGES (cont.)
Are we ready?
BETTY
Yes, Doctor.
Hodges removes the coffin-lid and sets it aside, looking
down at the body with a connoisseur's appreciation.
/flF?*\

HODGES
Beautiful, Write this down:
that I've never seen a skin so
beset vith the tokens, both black
and blue. They are more remarkable for multitude and magnitude
than any I have yet observed.
As Betty writes, Bodges selects a surgical knife, runs
his thumb along the edge and then strops it against the
sole of his shoe.
HODGES (cont.)
And write this: I am going to
make entrance now into the lowest
region.
BETTY
Wait*
Betty gets up and shifts the stool so that she may sit
with her back to the sight*
/ ^"

Bi

BETTY (cont.)
v

Now.
Knife poised, Hodges is suddenly fearful. He fishes a
bottle of brandy from his pocket, uncorks it with his
CONTINUED

l6o.
lOU

CONTINUED
teeth and takes a big gulp. Then, pulling himself together, he makes his initial incision,
HODGES
I see a thin liquid, variously
colored, yellow, greenish, brown
and purple,
(fingering it all)
The small guts are much distended
and contain - one moment - and
contain a great quantity of dross,
very foul-smelling. They are not
spotted as I thought they might
be...Now I am going to divide the
Vena Porta - spelled V-e-n-a
p-o-r-t-a - and Arteria Coeliaca,
spelled A-r-t-e-r-i-a C-o-e-l-ia-c-a. I find no rubified juice
at all but a firmly congealed
substance of a very dark color.
How do you bear up, my dear?

Y\

BETTY
(nauseated)
You may proceed, Doctor.
HODGES
Good girl. Now for the P-a-r-en-c-h-y-m-a, Parenchyma of the
Liver. It's very pale and sending out a thin, yellowish excrement. It Hodges pauses to cock an ear. Somewhere out in the Alley
there is a disturbance, a confused shouting of many men
and women. After a moment, Hodges goes on,
HODGES (cont.)
It resembles the matter oozing -

105

IN BARROW ALLEY
the horde of True Believers is issuing forth from the
Pye tavern. They are possessed. Some carry lanterns,
others are armed vith dismantled chairs and tables.
Leading the swarm is Solomon Eagle, frothing at the
mouth. Flanking him are Dan and Jack Feeny.
JACK FEENY
(to Eagle)
Point him out. Show us the man
whose number is Six hundred threescore and six,
CONTINUED

161,
105

CONTINUED

r^

EAGLE
Mish nirza kroten aben lulula
zarandee hup dumen solch yaknee
haf daygen nolpa lulula dobree.
DAN
What'8 he saying? What*s he
saying?
JACK FEENY
The Holy Ghost is upon him and
he's speaking with tongues,
EAGLE
Muzhnee muzhnee hoong hoonga Dan grabs Eagle and brings him to a halt,
Which way?

DAN
Which way?

Answer me,

EAGLE
Plonta mig grunta mig grunta neef
plonta (**

'*;

DAN

(pointing)
It's this way, ain*t it? Ain't
it this way, down here?
Eagle pauses, his eyes rolling, and, literally urged by
Dan, starts down the Alley toward the abandoned house
taken over by the Mute.
EAGLE
Hashlooraloo hashlooraloo kima .I knev it*

DAN
I knew it*

The inspired mob streams down the Alley behind Eagle,

Dan and Feeny.
At the abandoned h o u s e , Dan s t o p s E a g l e a g a i n ,
i fc

DAN
He's i n h e r e , a i n ' t he?
where he i s ?

Let him say.

Ain't

this

JACK FEENY
Let him say.
CONTINUED

162
105

CONTINUED
EAGLE
Fulmen hockteedee bockteedee lip
pollvan And Eagle points to the abandoned house,

Yes.

DAN
(exultant)
Yes.

Dan and all the others, sweeping Eagle along with them,
surge against the front door*

/tfft\

106

IN THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

Ratsey is at the oven, putting in loaves for baking vith
a long-handled shovel. At the yells of triumph dovn the
vay, he sets the shovel aside and goes to the front door
to see vhat is happening.

107

AT THE MUTE'S ABANDONED HOUSE

as the last of the mob enters through the smashed front
door, the Mute comes running into the Alley from the
passageway alongside. Terrified, he turns and pelts
along the cobbles toward the bake-shop,

,
v
;

ONE OF THE MOB

(seeing the Mute)
He's here, He*s here. This way.
108

OUTSIDE THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

the Mute trips and sprawls at Ratsey's feet. Lifting himself slightly, he raises a pleading hand to Ratsey. The
mob, with Dan in the lead, i 8 approaching in full cry. The
Mute clutches at Ratsey who shakes him off and retreats
into the shop. The Mute glances fearfully over his shoulder.
The mob is almost upon him. Then it slides to a stop.
Ratsey has come out of the shop carrying the shovel and
gloving on the shovel is a heap of hot coals,

RATSEY
Go on about your business, you
bloody apes.
DAN
(to the others)
It's only one man. Follow me.

But before they can, Ratsey has flung the coals at them
CONTINUED

163.
108

CONTINUED
and before they can recover from this he is upon then vith
a bellow, svinging the shovel in great circles and arcs.
Dan and Jack Feeny go down like nine-pins. The rest,
after a brief show of resistance, turn and scatter.
RATSEY
Come on. Come on. One at a time
or all at once. Smash your silly
heads. Tear your ears off. Break
you to bits.
The field is his. He stops in the middle of the Alley,
sweating and breathing hard. Betty comes running to him
from Hodges' house*
BETTY
Are you all right? You're not
hurt?
RATSEY
Nah.
(to the remnants)
Come on if you're coming.
vaiting for you.

I'm

>

\.

But no one dares.

BETTY
Into the shop, quick. You're
streaming sweat and it's cold,

RATSEY
(still feisty)
Anybody? Anybody at all?
BETTY
Oh, leave it, leave it, I say.
Betty pulls Ratsey into the shop,
109

IN THE BUCKWORTH BAKE-SHOP

Bett ypushes Ratsey in ahead of her and over to the oven.
^

BETTY
Stand here in the heat. And take
off that shirt* I'll get you a
fresh one*
RATSEY
Don't bother.
CONTINUED

161*.
109

CONTINUED
BETTY
Do you suppose I vant you to
catch your death? Take it off
at once.
RATSEY
(complying)
MRs, Buckvorth, you ere a comfortable woman.

110

IN HARROW ALLEY
Chandler, the aristocratic vicar of St. Barnabas church,
comes riding slowly through the Gate among the wagons and
coaches floving back into the City.
He is gratified to note that a number of shops have been
re-opened and that they do not lack for Customers. A
few of the itinerant Food-Vendors are hawking their wares
and 'Prentices stand bawling before some of the shops.
Here and there, Owners are removing the planks vith vhich
they boarded up their doors and windows before fleeing.
Chandler reins in at the church and dismounts.

\111

IN THE VESTRY
the curate, Morrell, is putting on his surplice as he
speaks to Ratsey and Betty. He is very pleasantly moved,
MORRELL
(clearing his throat)
F-forgive' me if I d-do not seem
myself. But yours v-will be the
first m-marriage in this parish
s-since the coming of the s-sickness.
I eh-shall be very proud to perform
the c-ceremony. Bow 8-8oon would
you 1-like it to be?
RATSEY
Soon as possible, wouldn't you say.
Bet?

f^

MORRELL
Under the c-circumstances, you
c-could dispense with the o-calling
of the banns.
RATSEY
No, sir. We'll have the banns
called. I likes things to be
done proper.
CONTINUED

165.
Ill

CONTINUED
MORRELL
Very well. Shall we say next
Sunday? Next Sunday it is.
God bless you.
BETTY
Thank you, Mr. Morrell,
Ratsey and Betty leave through the door leading into the
church. Morrell gazes after them, sighs happily and resumes dressing. He turns as the side-door opens and
Chandler comes in, an uncertain smile upon his face.
CHANDLER
The prodigal returns, eh?
MORRELL
G-good day, Mr. Chandler.
CHANDLER
Good day to you. Well, you seem
none the worse for wear*
MORRELL
I d-don't consider myself to be.

/5f*"">

CHANDLER
The building seems in good repair.
I noticed you attended to that
broken rain-spout.

MORRELL
Yes.
CHANDLER
The Alley, I'm happy to say, seems
more populous than I expected.
MORRELL
Yes.

^v

CHANDLER
Let'8 have it out, Morrell, shall
we? What are your feelings toward
me?
MORRELL
A p-plague is a formidable enemy.
It is armed with t-terrors not
every man is s-sufficiently fortified to resist. If G-God gave more
(cont.)
CONTINUED

166.
111

CONTINUED
MORRELL ( c o n t . )
s t r e n g t h t o some than t o o t h e r s ,
who am I t - t o c r i t i c i z e ?
CHANDLER
Then y o u ' r e not angry with me?
MORRELL
No*

Chandler, overjoyed, puts out his hand.

MORRELL (cont.)
(ignoring it)
Merely indifferent*
Morrell turns away and enters the church, leaving Chandler
to stare at his hand.
112

IN HARROW ALLEY
Ratsey and Betty, having just left the church,' are at
the bake-shop door and Ratsey, smiling fondly at Betty,
is taking the key out of his pocket to open it.
HODGES' VOICE
(shouting)
Betty. Betty Buckvorth. Where
are you?
Betty turns and her smile is replaced by an expression of
horror,
BETTY
My God, be'8 wearing his shroud,
Hodges stands outside his open front door, barefoot and
naked but for his shroud. Clutched under his arm is a
manuscript. He would appear comical but for the tokens
and blotches that pepper his face and neck, Passersby
and inhabitants of the Alley shrink from him*
HODGES
Where are you, Betty?

BETTY
(calls)
Here, Doctor*

I'm here,

j0ft\

HODGES
I remind you of your promise. The
copies of my report are in my bedroom.
CONTINUED

167,
f^

112

CONTINUED
BETTY
For the love of God, Doctor, go
in and lie dovn and let us take
care of you.
HODGES
No, 1*11 pass the sickness to
no one else* The reports, Betty*
Promise me you*11 send them off,
BETTY'
I promise, Doctor,
HODGES
One to Montpellier, my dear mother.
One to Oxford and one to Cambridge,
One to the medical faculty at the
school in Salerno, I forget where
the others go but I*ve written it
all down. And there's money there,
too, for the posting. Can you hear
me?

/*\

.
\

BETTY
I hear you,
BODGES
That's all, then, and goodbye to you.
(looking blindly about)
Are there any University men vithin
hearing? If there are, sing vith
me, my brothers* Sing with me for
the last time*
And, staggering toward and through Barnabas Gate, Hodges
lifts a surprisingly true voice, in song*

f*^

HODGES
Gaudeamus igitur,
Juvenes dum sumus;
Gaudeamus igitur,
Juvenes dum sumus;
Post Jucundam juventutem,
Post molestam senectutem,
Nos habebit humus,
N O B habebit humus.

Betty covers her face and weeps*

her and comforts her.

Ratsey puts an arm about

168.
113
/tf^N,

IN TBE OPEN FIELD ON THE CITY'S OUTSKIRTS

Hodges has left the highway, with its traffic streaming
toward the gate, and cuts across the grass toward the
pite*
HODGES
(singing)
Vivat academia,
Vivant professores;
Vivat academia,
Vivant professores;
Vivat membrum quodlibet,
Vivant membra quaelibet,
Semper sint in flore,
Semper sint in flore.

Ill*

AT THE PITS
there are still dead-carts. Bearers and Buriers, They
glance at him briefly as Hodges nears, then proceed vith
their work*
HODGES
Vivat academia,
Vivant professores;
Vivat academia,
Vivant professores*

'

He strength leaves him and he sinks to his knees at the

edge of one of the pits*
HODGES
Vivat membrum quodlibet,
Vivant membra quaelibet,
Clutching his manuscript to him, he topples forward on his
face and lies still. And a Burier hurrying past, almost
without pausing puts a foot against the body and sends it
rolling down out of sight* Field birds rise from the pit,
screeching protest, then settle back again to resume
eating*

115

IN HARROW ALLEY
Just as the field birds fluttered down, so does the snov.
Most of the shops are open, nov, and the abandoned houses
re-occupied* There are Food-Vendors, Customers and
Prentices and the Alley is much as it was when we first
8aw it.
Streaming back into the City are the elaborate coaches
of the Courtiers, filled with smiling, singing members
of the nobility,
CONTINUED

169.
(~*

115

CONTINUED
Riding slowly in the opposite direction, toward the Gate,
is a highvayman named CAPTAIN BAINES, a middle-aged, lean,
self-composed little ferret vith shrewd, merry eyes. The
eyes, seeing Ratsey clearing snow from in front of the
bake-shop open wide,
BAINES
Captain, Captain* Captain
Montressor,
Ratsey vaguely glances about to see who is being addressed
and then recollects that was once hie name. Recognizing
Baines, he smiles with pleasure*
RATSEY
Captain Baines* What a fine surprise*
How are you, mate?
Baines checks his horse and leans down to shake hands,

(**^

BAINES
What the hell are you doing vith a
broom? Never mind. Come across the
way and let*B have a drink,

i
\

RATSEY
Can't, mate, thank you just the same.
The wife'8 shopping and I has to tend
to customers,
Customers?
IB it?

BAINES
Wife? What sort of dodge
RATSEY

Well, -

t*

BAINES
All right, all right, it don't matter.
Because I has something I knows will
interest you much more*
(lowers his voice)
We're going to work together again,
mate, I've already made arrangements
vith the Brotherhood and the finest
stretch of road you could hope for la
ours, Twombley Bill, no less. I vas
on my way to visit Captain Fortescue
but who needs him for a partner nov
that I've found you?
CONTINUED

170.
115

CONTINUED

RATSEY
Ah, thanks, mate* There's no one
I'd rather go on the pad vith more'n
you but I'm done vith all that.
BAINES
(blinks - then laughs)
For a moment, there, you almost
took me in,
RATSEY
No, no, it's the truth. I'm a
baker, now, and it suits me.
BAINES
Well, I'll be damned. Captain
Montressor. A baker* One of the
best ever to stop a coach with a
stand-and-deliver. I could weep.
What the hell will you get out of
it?
RATSEY
Oh, I don't know. Hard to explain*

s&&>\

BAINES
Try it anyway*
RATSEY
We 11,,,Well, this morning a woman
comes into the shop with her little
girl. She couldn't have been more
than two years old. And I says to
the little girl, "That's a pretty
dress you're wearing, darling,"
So she puts both hands on the hem
and shows off the dress by lifting
it above her head so'a I could see
her belly-button*
BAINES
(after a moment)
Go on, man, go on*
.

RATSEY
That*8 all there is*
BAINES
Well, what about it?
CONTINUED

171.
115

CONTINUED
RATSEY
Well, it made me laugh to myself*
Because little girls that age
always shows off their dress in
Just that way when you admires it*
It*s something I'd forgot*
BAINES
Why the hell should you care to
remember?
RATSEY
Well, I told you. It made me laugh
to myself. In a way I hadn't done
since I was a boy*
BAINES
I still don't understand,
Ratsey shrugs with a half-smile and spreads his bands:
he*s done his best and now he gives up. Baines shakes
his head in wonder and pity,

(/I3"N

BAINES (cont.)
What a bairy-legged man you once was.
And what a dull one you now is,

\
%

I knovs.
to mind,

RATSEY
But somehow I don't seem

A BOY comes running to Ratsey,

BOY
Mr, Ratsey, sir, the Alderman
want8 you and will you come
immediate?
Ratsey nods and the Boy darts back* Ratsey takes a key
from his pocket and locks the front door* Meanwhile:
BAINES
Trafficking with aldermen now, too,
eh?
%
V

RATSEY
The parish needs constables so I
serves as such when they needs me,
BAINES
Nov, that's the last straw.
a constable.

You
CONTINUED

172.
115

CONTINUED
RATSEY
Well, ve has to have some rules
if ve lives together. And someone
has to see they're followed. Even
the Brotherhood has laws. Different
ones, but still.**
BAINES
(holds out his hand)
Goodby, Captain.
RATSEY
(shaking the hand)
Captain, goodby.
Baines lightly spurs his mount and rides slowly toward the
Gate. Ratsey beads for Killigrew's,
At Killigrew's shop, Sam is in the doorway writing on a
bit of paper he holds against the jamb. As Ratsey Joins
him:

(^

,
\

SAM
I've just had word there's murder
been done in Muttonmonger's Lane.
Two people stabbed to death. The
people in the house have caught
the man and are holding him. You're
to deliver him to Newgate Prison,
RATSEY
1*11 need a warrant,
SAM
I'm writing it now. Happen to
know how I'm supposed to fill in
the name when I don't know it?
PROTHERO'S VOICE
In such case, you use the name John
Doe* John Doe or Richard Roe.
Prothero Joins Sam and Ratsey,
and needs a shave*

Be is shabbily dressed

SAM
John Doe?
_
f

PROTHERO
Here,

Let me,
CONTINUED

173.
115

CONTINUED
Prothero takes the pen and paper from Sam and writes out
the warrant, then hands it to Ratsey,
PROTHERO (cont.)
There you are.
Ratsey leaves at once*
SAM
Thank you* There's a lot to being
Alderman I don't know yet*
PROTHERO
Oh, it takes time. Time or experienced help.
SAM
(making up his mind)
If you're doing nothing at the
moment, let's go have a drink
and a bit of talk*
PROTHERO
I'm not doing a thing,

/SPSS

Sam and Prothero head for the Pye,

116

IN MUTTONMONGER'S LANE
there is a knot of Curiosity-Seekers standing outside the
door of a tenement, Ratsey eases himself through and
enters.

117

IN THE TENEMENT
there are Several People on the ground floor landing and
on the stairs, all looking up toward the second floor,
Ratsey goes up the stairs.
The LANDLORD and Another Man are on guard outside a closed
door on the second floor, Ratsey stops before them.

i%

RATSEY
(showing the warrant)
I*m the constable. Is it in there?
LANDLORD
That's right, constable.

The Landlord unlocks the door and swings it open.

goes in,

Ratsey

CONTINUED

17U.
f

117

CONTINUED
RATSEY
(to the Landlord as he enters)
Have a hackney coach brought round
to the front door,

118

IN THE TENEMENT ROOM

sparsely and meanly furnished, two bodies lie on the floor.
One is a Ruffian who used to patronize the Pye, Ratsey
turns the other face-up and recognizes Beck, Ratsey*s
gaze goes to the man staring out the window*
RATSEY
I arrests you in the name of the
law*
The man turns to Ratsey* He is dirty and unkempt, sloppily
and poorly dressed but recognizable, nevertheless, as Harry
Poyntz* Ratsey cannot believe his eyes* Harry remembers
him not at all*
HARRY

>Sfl35*s,

I'm ready,
You?

BATSEY
You killed them?
HARRY

Mmhmm,

RATSEY
That you should have been jealous
of a slut like her*

h
i

HARRY
Jealous? I don't understand. Oh,
you mean you think I - ? No, no,
it va8n*t that way at all. They
were continually bickering* I
told them many times to be quiet.
They paid no attention* So this
morning, I took a knife and (shrug8)
What's the difference? It's
completely unimportant*

Harry walks out of the room*

119

OUTSIDE THE TENEMENT

a hackney coach is waiting.

Ratsey follows*

Harry and Ratsey come out of

CONTINUED

175.
119

CONTINUED

the building and get into it,

RATSEY
(to the Coachman)
Newgate Prison,
The coach rolls away. The Curiosity-Seekers watch it for
awhile and then disperse*
120

IN THE COACH
Harry sits at his ease, glancing from time to time out the
window, humming a snatch of melody occasionally, aimlessly
cleaning a fingernail* Ratsey sits beside him, as in a
daze*
RATSEY
(after awhile)
You don't remember me, does you?

Hmm?

HABRY
(yawning)
No*

RATSEY
We've met before,
HARRY
Tell me about it, if you must,
but I'm quite certain it doesn't
matter.
There is another stretch of silence.
and stops.
121

Then the coach slovs

OUTSIDE THE PRESS YARD

the coach has stopped before the great, iron door. Ratsey
gets out and then Harry, Ratsey knocks and the door is
opened by a Keeper* Ratsey hands him the warrant and as
the Keeper reads it:

RATSEY
(to Harry)
Life is a bloody wonder* If nothing
else, it gives a man something to
think about*
HARRY
Not particularly,
CONTINUED

176.
/$$&\

121

CONTINUED

The Keeper opens the door wider, Harry enters and the door
clangs shut* Ratsey gets back into the coach*
RATSEY
(to the Coachman)
Harrow Alley*
The Coachman flicks his whip and the coach starts off,
122

IN THE COACH
Ratsey is still lost in thought. Then he takes a deep,
deep breath and, with something like a smile, looks about.
The leather of the seat is pleasant to stroke* The itch
under his arms is good to scratch* His hands are interest*
ing to observe and the cunning construction of the fingers
is fascinating* On an impulse, he reaches out through the
window and brings his hand back with snovflakes adhering
to it. What symmetry, and no tvo alike, and how quickly
they're Just drops of water. He remembers something and
grins, shaking his head.
RATSEY
That's a pretty dress you're wearing,
darling.

<S0&\

He chuckles.
123

IN HARROW ALLEY
Betty is sweeping enow from the bake-shop door. Looking
up, she happens to notice the coach stopping at Pye corner
and Ratsey getting out. She waves to him vith a smile.
Ratsey waves to Betty and hands a coin to the Coachman.
Behind him, Solomon'Eagle is once more in his niche
speaking to unheeding paBsersby, The Coachman gives
Ratsey his change*
Thank you*

COACHMAN
Fine day, ain't it?
RATSEY

Yes.
(
.
1

(vith absolute conviction)

Yes, it is*

Ratsey walks into the Crowd in Harrow Alley and is soon

lost to sight.
CONTINUED

177.
123

CONTINUED

^^
[

In the clock-tover of St, Barnabas church, the vooden

figure of Death raises its dart and strikes the hour upon
the great bell, on vhlch is inscribed:
DEATH .,
bong...
TWEAKS...
bong.,.
US...
bong...
BY...
bong...
THE...
bong...
EAR...
bong...
AND...
bong...
SAYS...
bong...
"LIVE - ...
bong...
I...
bong..
AM. . .

.
yfR\

bong...

*.

COMING"...
bong.....
FADE OUT
THE END

/IjPBS, '