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قراءة كتاب In Honour Bound An Original Play, in One Act. (Suggested by Scribe's Five Act Comedy, "Une Chaine.")
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
In Honour Bound An Original Play, in One Act. (Suggested by Scribe's Five Act Comedy, "Une Chaine.")
purpose. (folding the letter up into a spill, but never letting his eyes fall upon it) The woman who wrote this will never trouble you. If she has done wrong, she has borne her punishment. Therefore, in pity, let us hide her shame. (lights spill at lamp, and holds it in his hand—all three stand watching it, until the ashes drop upon the floor, then turn aside, Lady Carlyon, R., Philip, L., Sir George to back of scene)
Re-enter Rose, R., in a dressing-gown.
Rose. You want me, aunt?
Sir G. I want you, Rose. (leads her to Philip) Philip has asked for my consent to your engagement. I give it cordially. He is the son of a good father, and I think he will make you a good husband.
Rose. Uncle George! (embraces him—turns to Philip) You haven’t kept our secret!
Philip. No, I couldn’t wait.
Sir G. (crosses to Lady Carlyon) Won’t you congratulate them? (stands, R., thoughtfully)
Lady C. Yes. (crosses to Rose and Philip)
Rose. (embracing her) Aren’t you surprised, Aunt Bell?
Lady C. I was, when first I heard. I hope you will be very happy. You, too, Philip.
(gives him her hand, then crosses to Sir George)
Rose. Why don’t you kiss her, Philip?
Philip. I’ll kiss you instead.
(they sit aside, L., without noticing the others)
Lady C. (laying her hand upon Sir George’s arm) What are you thinking of?
Sir G. I was just wondering if that poor woman’s love, which had so gone astray, will ever go back to her husband.
Lady C. Yes, if he is as generous as you.
Sir G. How was I generous?
Lady C. In sparing her.
Sir G. I was not generous. (each looking in the other’s eyes with meaning) I simply paid a debt of honour I have owed too long. If I was generous, was it not you who taught me generosity?
Lady C. George, you have guessed her name!
Sir G. But I shall never mention it. (embrace)
Curtain.
Transcriber’s Note
This transcription is based on scanned images posted by the Internet Archive:
archive.org/details/inhonourboundano00grunuoft
These images, which were scanned from a copy made available by the University of Toronto Libraries, are of an undated edition printed in London by Samuel French. The estimated date of publication is 1885. A secondary source, also posted by the Internet Archive, was consulted:
archive.org/details/inhonorboundorig00grun
These images, which were made available by the University of California, are of an edition printed in Philadelphia by the Penn Publishing Company in 1912.
French’s Acting Editions from the nineteenth century tend to have minor editorial inconsistencies and errors as well as errors introduced in the printing process, depending on the condition and inking of the plates. Thus, for example, it is at times difficult to determine whether a certain letter is an “c,” “e,” or “o” or whether a certain punctuation mark is a period or a comma. Where context made the choice obvious, the obvious reading was given the benefit of the doubt without comment.
The following changes were noted:
- Throughout the text, the use of dashes has been made consistent.
- p. 3: Based on the Penn edition and editorial practice in other contemporaneous French’s Acting Editions, three colons in the opening scene description were changed to semicolons.
- p. 4: The only girl in the wide world for me—Added a period at the end of the sentence.
- p. 8: Sir George (putting chair…—Changed “Sir George” to “Sir G.” for consistency.
- p. 9: Of course. (quickl y)—Deleted space in “quickl y” in two consecutive lines.
- p. 10: Sir. G. Why so?—Deleted period after “Sir”.
- p. 10: Sib G. (putting the brief…—Changed “Sib G.” to “Sir G.”.
- p. 10: Sir. G. Let us hope it will.—Deleted period after “Sir”.
- p. 10: …and hear you plead,—Changed comma to period.
- p. 11: What can they have to talk about—those two? (reflectiv ly)—Inserted “e” in reflectiv ly.
- p. 12: It is a weird thing Sometimes—Inserted period after “thing”.
- p. 14: I know she did, although she never spoke: and…—Changed colon to semicolon, as in Penn edition.
- p. 17: Are youno better?—Inserted space after “you”.
- p. 18: Sir G. What—Added a question mark after “What”.
- p. 19: (reads nervously, the l trembling in his hands)—Changed “l” to “letter”.
The html version of this etext attempts to reproduce the layout of the printed text. However, some concessions have been made. For example, in the printed text stage directions following a line of dialogue were placed a couple spaces after the dialogue, flush right on the same printed line, or flush right on the next line. In the etext, all stage directions printed on the same line were placed right after the dialogue. Stage directions printed on the next line were indented from the left margin, and coded as hanging paragraphs.
