The Big Drum

A COMEDY

In Four Acts

By

ARTHUR PINERO

"The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private."

Addison

LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
MCMXV

Copyright 1915, by Arthur Pinero

This play was Produced in London, at the
St. James's Theatre, on Wednesday,
September 1, 1915

PREFACE

The Big Drum is published exactly as it was written, and as it was originally performed. At its first representation, however, the audience was reported to have been saddened by its "unhappy ending." Pressure was forthwith put upon me to reconcile Philip and Ottoline at the finish, and at the third performance of the play the curtain fell upon the picture, violently and crudely brought about, of Ottoline in Philip's arms.

I made the alteration against my principles and against my conscience, and yet not altogether unwillingly. For we live in depressing times; and perhaps in such times it is the first duty of a writer for the stage to make concessions to his audiences and, above everything, to try to afford them a complete, if brief, distraction from the gloom which awaits them outside the theatre.

My excuse for having at the start provided an "unhappy" ending is that I was blind enough not to regard the ultimate break between Philip and Ottoline as really unhappy for either party. On the contrary, I looked upon the separation of these two people as a fortunate occurrence for both; and I conceived it as a piece of ironic comedy which might not prove unentertaining that the falling away of Philip from his high resolves was checked by the woman he had once despised and who had at last grown to know and to despise herself.

But comedy of this order has a knack of cutting rather deeply, of ceasing, in some minds, to be comedy at all; and it may be said that this is what has happened in the present instance. Luckily it is equally true that certain matters are less painful, because less actual, in print than upon the stage. The "wicked publisher," therefore, even when bombs are dropping round him, can afford to be more independent than the theatrical manager; and for this reason I have not hesitated to ask my friend Mr. Heinemann to publish The Big Drum in its original form.

Arthur Pinero

London,
September 1915

THE PERSONS OF THE PLAY

• Philip Mackworth
• Sir Randle Filson, Knt.
• Bertram Filson (his son)
• Sir Timothy Barradell, Bart.
• Robert Roope
• Collingham Green
• Leonard Westrip (Sir Randle's secretary)
• Alfred Dunning (of Sillitoe and Dunning's Private Detective Agency)
• Noyes (Mr. Roope's servant)
• Underwood (servant at Sir Randle's)
• John (Mr. Mackworth's servant)
• A Waiter

• Ottoline de Chaumié, Comtesse de Chaumié, née Filson
• Lady Filson
• Hon. Mrs. Godfrey Anslow
• Mrs. Walter Quebec
• Miss Tracer (Lady Filson's secretary)

Period—1913

ACT I.

Robert Roope's Flat in South Audley Street. June.

ACT II.

Morning-room at Sir Randle Filson's, Ennismore Gardens. The next day.

ACT III.

Mackworth's Chambers, Gray's Inn. November.

ACT IV.

The same place. The following morning.

The curtain falls for a moment in the course of the First and Third Acts.

THE BIG DRUM

THE FIRST ACT

The scene is a room, elegantly decorated, in a flat in South Audley Street. On the right, two windows give a view, through muslin curtains, of the opposite houses. In the wall facing the spectator are two doors, one on the right, the other on the left. The left-hand door opens into the room from a dimly-lighted corridor, the door on the right from the dining-room. Between the doors there is a handsome fireplace. No fire is burning and the grate is banked with flowers. When the dining-room door is opened, a sideboard and a side-table are seen in the further room, upon which are dishes of fruit, an array of ice-plates and finger-bowls, liqueurs in decanters, glasses, silver, etc.

The pictures, the ornaments upon the mantelpiece, and the articles of furniture are few but choice. A high-backed settee stands on the right of the fireplace; near the settee is a fauteuil-stool; facing the settee is a Charles II arm-chair. On the left of the room there is a small table with a chair beside it; on the right, not far from the nearer window, are a writing-table and writing-chair. Pieces of bric-à-brac lie upon the tables, where there are also some graceful statuettes in ivory and bronze. Another high-backed settee fills the space between the windows, and in each window there is an arm-chair of the same period as the one at the fireplace.

The street is full of sunlight.

(Note: Throughout, "right" and "left" are the spectators' right and left, not the actor's.)

[Robert Roope, seated at the writing-table, is sealing a letter. Noyes enters at the door on the left, followed by Philip Mackworth.

Noyes.

[Announcing Philip.] Mr. Mackworth.

Roope.

[A simple-looking gentleman of fifty, scrupulously attired—jumping up and shaking hands warmly with Philip as the servant withdraws.] My dear Phil!

Philip.

[A negligently—almost shabbily—dressed man in his late thirties, with a handsome but worn face.] My dear Robbie!

Roope.

A triumph, to have dragged you out! [Looking at his watch.] Luncheon isn't till a quarter-to-two. I asked you for half-past-one because I want to have a quiet little jaw with you beforehand.