(_Hammelev comes from the right with a little package_.)
HAMMELEV
Louise asked me to give you her regards, and say--
ANTON (_full of anxiety_)
Asked you to--to say--what?
HAMMELEV (_gives him the package_)
And she asked me to give you this.
ANTON (_takes it_)
Thanks--it is the rings. I have bought rings for both of us. Now I must give it to her at once. I hadn’t intended to do it otherwise until to-night. But why doesn’t she come?
HAMMELEV
She is gone to the station.
MRS. HAMMELEV (_screams_)
To the station?
HAMMELEV (_somewhat surprised_)
Yes--she thought it would be better to--she wanted to spare Anton from saying farewell.
MRS. HAMMELEV
Anton, Anton! She must not go! Oh, God! It is I--it is I who have--she’ll never come back--no, never. (_She wants to run out_.)
ANTON (_puts himself intuitively in her way_)
Let me go, mother. I’ll stop her. She wouldn’t heed your voice, I fear. (_Goes to the door, but turns on the threshold_.) For I suppose you want us to come back--don’t you?
MRS. HAMMELEV (_as if in a trance_)
Yes--yes--and never again--never again--
(_Anton goes out, left. Mrs. Hammelev has sunk down on a chair. It is as if something had suddenly broken within her, for she bursts into tears_.)
HAMMELEV (_goes over to her; he pats her head and hair_)
There--there, mother dear. You loved him too much. Mothers are the only ones who can love so much that they can kill with love. (_He goes to the window and looks out_.) He runs so safely there on the road, as if he still had his sight. Now he stops and calls her. She turns.
MRS. HAMMELEV
Are they coming back?
HAMMELEV
Of course they are coming. Now they are speaking to each other. Of course they are coming.
MRS. HAMMELEV
Not to me. I have lost Anton for ever.
HAMMELEV (_doesn’t hear her_)
So that was the trip to the city. (_Goes to open the door_.) Come right in, please. (_Anton and Louise enter_.) Well, Louise--I may call you Louise, may I not? You came to stay, anyhow.
ANTON (_quietly_)
Louise will stay--yes. Mother will ask her--won’t you, mother?
MRS. HAMMELEV
Yes, my boy. Now I beg her to stay. And, what’s more--that she will always remain with you.
ANTON (_feeling his way_)
Where are you, mother? (_He turns intuitively to Louise and takes hold of her._) There--what? No, it’s you, Louise, isn’t it? (_He pulls her close to himself and is entirely taken up with her. Mrs. Hammelev, who had stretched out her arms toward him, lets them sink with an expression of grief on her face_.)
HAMMELEV (_seeing it_)
Yes, mother dear, now you must be content with me. (_Puts his arms around her waist_.)
MRS. HAMMELEV
He finds me no longer. We drift from each other in the darkness. How much evil we can do where we wish to do only good!
HAMMELEV
It is we who have been blind, mother dear. It is we who cannot see....
CURTAIN
_Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies_
Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays
Edited by FRANK SHAY and PIERRE LOVING
This volume contains FIFTY REPRESENTATIVE ONE-ACT PLAYS of the MODERN THEATER, chosen from the dramatic works of contemporary writers all over the world and is the second volume in the _Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies_, the first being European Theories of the Drama, by Barrett H. Clark, which has been so enthusiastically received.
The editors have scrupulously sifted countless plays and have selected the best available in English. One-half the plays have never before been published in book form; thirty-one are no longer available in any other edition.
The work satisfies a long-felt want for a handy collection of the choicest plays produced by the art theaters all over the world. It is a complete repertory for a little theater, a volume for the study of the modern drama, a representative collection of the world’s best short plays.
CONTENTS
AUSTRIA
Schnitzler (Arthur)--Literature
BELGIUM
Maeterlinck (Maurice)--The Intruder
BOLIVIA
More (Federico)--Interlude
DENMARK
Wied (Gustave)--Autumn Fires
FRANCE
Ancey (George)--M. Lamblin
Porto-Riche (Georges)--Francoise’s Luck
GERMANY
Ettinger (Karl)--Altruism
von Hofmannsthal (Hugo)--Madonna Dianora
Wedekind (Frank)--The Tenor
GREAT BRITAIN
Bennett (Arnold)--A Good Woman
Calderon (George)--The Little Stone House
Cannan (Gilbert)--Mary’s Wedding
Dowson (Ernest)--The Pierrot of the Minute
Ellis (Mrs. Havelock)--The Subjection of Kezia
Hankin (St. John)--The Constant Lover
INDIA
Mukerji (Dhan Gopal)--The Judgment of Indra
IRELAND
Gregory (Lady)--The Workhouse Ward
HOLLAND
Speenhoff (J. H.)--Louise
HUNGARY
Biro (Lajos)--The Grandmother
ITALY
Giacosa (Giuseppe)--The Rights of the Soul
RUSSIA
Andreyev (Leonid)--Love of One’s Neighbor
Tchekoff (Anton)--The Boor
SPAIN
Benavente (Jacinto)--His Widow’s Husband
Quintero (Serafín and Joaquín Álvarez-)--A Sunny Morning
SWEDEN
Strindberg (August)--The Creditor
UNITED STATES
Beach (Lewis)--Brothers
Cowan (Sada)--In the Morgue
Crocker (Bosworth)--The Baby Carriage
Cronyn (George W.)--A Death in Fever Flat
Davies (Mary Carolyn)--The Slave with Two Faces
Day (Frederick L.)--The Slump
Flanner (Hildegard)--Mansions
Glaspell (Susan)--Trifles
Gerstenberg (Alice)--The Pot Boiler
Helburn (Theresa)--Enter the Hero
Hudson (Holland)--The Shepherd in the Distance
Kemp (Harry)--Boccaccio’s Untold Tale
Langner (Lawrence)--Another Way Out
MacMillan (Mary)--The Shadowed Star
Millay (Edna St. Vincent)--Aria da Capo
Moeller (Philip)--Helena’s Husband
O’Neill (Eugene)--Ile
Stevens (Thomas Wood)--The Nursery Maid of Heaven
Stevens (Wallace)--Three Travelers Watch a Sunrise
Tompkins (Frank G.)--Sham
Walker (Stuart)--The Medicine Show
Wellman (Rita)--For All Time
Wilde (Percival)--The Finger of God
YIDDISH
Asch (Sholom)--Night
Pinski (David)--Forgotten Souls
_Large 8vo, 585 pages. Net, $5.00_
_Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue_
STEWART KIDD COMPANY PUBLISHERS, CINCINNATI, U. S. A.
_Stewart Kidd Dramatic Anthologies_
TWENTY CONTEMPORARY ONE-ACT PLAYS
AMERICAN
_Edited by_ FRANK SHAY
This volume represents a careful and intelligent selection of the best One-act Plays written by Americans and produced by the Little Theatres in America during the season of 1921. They are representative of the best work of writers in this field and show the high level to which the art theatre has risen in America.
The editor has brought to his task a love of the theatre and a knowledge of what is best through long association with the leading producing groups.
The volume contains the repertoires of the leading Little Theatres, together with bibliographies of published plays and books on the theatre issued since January, 1920.
Aside from its individual importance, the volume, together with =Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays=, will make up the most important collection of short plays published.
_In the Book are_ _the following Plays_ _by_ _the following Authors_
Mirage George M. P. Baird Napoleon’s Barber Arthur Cæsar Goat Alley Ernest Howard Culbertson Sweet and Twenty Floyd Dell Tickless Time Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook The Hero of Santa Maria Kenneth Sawyer Goodman and Ben Hecht All Gummed Up Harry Wagstaff Gribble Thompson’s Luck Harry Greenwood Grover Fata Deorum Carl W. Guske Pearl of Dawn Holland Hudson Finders-Keepers George Kelly Solomon’s Song Harry Kemp Matinata Lawrence Langner The Conflict Clarice Vallette McCauley Two Slatterns and a King Edna St. Vincent Millay Thursday Evening Christopher Morley The Dreamy Kid Eugene O’Neill Forbidden Fruit George J. Smith Jezebel Dorothy Stockbridge Sir David Wears a Crown Stuart Walker
_12mo. Silk Cloth $3.75_ _3⁄4 Turkey Morocco $10.00_
_Send for Complete Dramatic Catalogue_ STEWART KIDD COMPANY PUBLISHERS, CINCINNATI, U. S. A.
Transcriber’s Note:
- Text that was in bold is enclosed by equals signs (=bold=).
- Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
- Text that was in small caps is in all caps (SMALL CAPS).
- Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
- Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.
- Spelling was retained as in the original except for the following changes:
Page 8: “of Luther and Melanchton” to “of Luther and Melanchthon” Page 45: “MRS. HAMMERLEV (tenderly)” to “MRS. HAMMELEV (tenderly)”