Friday, July 5, 2013

This Play Is A Draft!

Your comments are very much appreciated! The more comments I receive, the more illustrations I will draw. Deal?

Thursday, July 4, 2013

The Water Willows


Synopsis

Based on well-documented historical facts, The Water Willows breathes life into the brightest lights of London's Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a reactionary art movement against stuffy Victorian ideals drawing its inspiration from the more earthy medieval lore and aesthetics. Wealthy decorator William Morris, cruelly betrayed and deeply hurt by his painter friend and mentor Gabriel Rossetti, finds meaning in the selfless cause of socialism and the betterment of the working class. Meanwhile Rossetti, once a leader of the movement, slips into paranoia, addiction and death over a single unflattering critique of his poetry, and in doing so losing the love of the woman he worshipped and painted over and over: William Morris' wife, Jane Morris.

The Cast

William Morris – Stocky, burly man with messy clothing stained with paints and dyes. Prone to comical, short bursts of petulant anger, he was quick to settle and laugh at himself. He is often jingling his watch.
Jane Morris – Very tall woman, passive in conversations, and quite silent. Although she speaks very little, she listens and is good-humoured and has a beautiful laughter. She wears plain dark dresses with a lot of fabric, and bead necklaces.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti – A serious fellow, very passionate and intense, smiles rather than laughs. Can be sarcastic at times.
Lizzie Siddal – A depressed drug addict whose mood shifts from manic to drowsy. She dresses in a striped dress. She has long red hair.
Georgie Burne-Jones – Tiny and headstrong, very smart and speaking very sharply and decisively.
Edward Burne-Jones – A simple guy really, extraordinarily talented artist just a good friend to everyone.
Algernon Swinburne – Very theatrical, kinetic and excited. Being very entertaining and witty, he is everyone's darling. A short red-head with a mustache.

Act 1 - Year 1881

JANEY – W. MORRIS – ROSSETTI – GEORGIE B-J – NED B-J
We are at Kelmscott Manor.
Janey, Georgie and Ned are seated in a living room. Georgie and Jane are bored playing cards in the background, Georgie is winning. Ned is drawing a sketch. Parlour maid busies herself in and out.
GEORGIE
Janey, where is that talented daughter of yours these days?
JANEY
Having reached 18 years of age now, she's attending the the South Kensington Art School.
GEORGIE
She has always been artistic. Has she chosen a special subject?
JANEY
Yes, embroidery.
GEORGIE
That is hardly surprising, as she has seen you threading many needles, bringing Webb's designs to life. Surely she will be first in her class. May I enquire about Jenny?
JANEY
Ah, poor Jenny is causing anxiety again, you know how our hopes rise and fall...
GEORGIE
She is fortunate to have two parents that love her, with the means to find her the best doctors. Love and medicine; there is your hope for a cure. How is your health today? We always wonder about your health.
JANEY
Rather poor, I'm afraid, my back doesn't permit ordinary activity and my head aches, though not as acutely as it did yesterday.
GEORGIE, putting a card down
Let us hope that it improves tomorrow. Ah! I believe that's another win for me... dear, you must be distracted! You need some rest.
Morris walks in with some plans
MORRIS
Ned! It's time to rouse you from rest! It will be well worth your while. Here I have your preliminary drawings for the
stained glass windows in colour, I am certain you'll want to have a second look before we make them into blueprints.
NED (putting his sketch pad down)
Let's see! What are these?
MORRIS
I brought some new wallpaper designs for your perusal as well, but for later. The stained glass is right here.
NED
This must be one of your best wallpaper, very impressive You've expressed so much with just two colors, this will be splendid on a large scale.

Did you notice the rabbit?
MORRIS
Did you notice the rabbit?
NED
Rabbit? Where? Oh! Here! Oh my, the creature is so well integrated in the pattern you can't tell it is there! So clever! Ah, yes! The stained glass is here.
MORRIS
That is one more step to improve on the ugliness and unfairness of our civilization... but to what end... sometimes we just keep working.
NED
Great first impression!
MORRIS
I have told you before, your drawings are sublime, I will see to it that we do it justice. I don't know what I would do without your assistance with the figures.
NED
... oh yes, the vines are striking! You, my friend, are the master of greenery. I like them, I like them very much.
MORRIS
Thank you. As you see, for the main window, I envision a scheme of traditional,medieval, primary colours, with much red and white, and cobalt instead of copper to match the bold trim in the church. What do you think?
NED
As you have it here, the result would be very striking. This is a lot of red, the client agreed to the additional expense?
MORRIS, laughing
The expense is included! The moment I was appraised of the church's extensive roof of red gables, and red interior wall tiles, I knew I would have to include miles upon miles of the very best red glass in that quote. Besides, I'm not including much silver stain on account of the distance the viewers will have form the windows. More of this, less of that.
NED
Could we unify the smaller windows with that nice olive green glass from Germany, and juxtapose them with the daring colours?
MORRIS
Yes, let us do that. Do the figures as usual, and I'll mind some foliage in the background.
MORRIS, looking at Ned's drawing
What are you drawing now? Ned, I didn't know you fancied yourself in such ostentatious haberdashery! I see you've drawn me all frumpy and having annexed considerable dirt!
NED
The sign of a hard-working man! No time to tidy up – no use for tidying up. As for me, this is a most accurate depiction of my noble self in its finest costume, ready for the Queen to call. Why, you must know I would never deny our beloved Monarch the honour of knighting me! Does not “Edward Burne-Jones” beg for a “Sir” ahead of it?
GEORGIE
Upon my word, if I were to hear anyone utter “Lady Burne-Jones” with reference to me, I would blush to a rich shade of crimson, and pretend to be deaf. I abhor those conventions that choke society into immutable layers, the uppermost of which is assumed to possess hereditary superiority over the toiling masses.
NED
Don't worry Georgie, you know I would stubbornly refuse. No amount of persuasion could lead to Queen Vic prevailing on me!. Why I... I should bash her fat bottom with her sceptre... and probably bend it beyond recognition!
MORRIS, laughing
I should hope that such a glorified title would not keep you from condescending to mingle with us medieval Barbarians, Ned!
NED
My dear Topsy, I shall never think of you a Barbarian, as I do believe you were once seen in some board meeting with a top hat.
MORRIS
I quite vividly recall putting that hat on a chair and squarely sitting on it when I resigned the appointment.
GEORGIE
I would pay admission to see our Topsy in a top hat.
MORRIS
I would wager that you'll sooner see your own husband in a top hat, than me.
GEORGIE
(Leaving Janey to sit with next to Morris.)
A top hat performance from him would be worth little more than a twopence; but from you, a pound!
JANEY
(Janey picks up a blue book – The Tragedies of Aeschylus. Literally Translated, by Theodore Alois Buckley - , and lies lazily on a sofa propping herself up with pillows)
NED
There will be no occasion to wear too hats. We all know that if Fat Vicky does call any one of us, it will be to administer a royal whipping!
MORRIS
I have as little use for her whip as I have for her knighthoods. I have spent, I know, a vast amount of time designing furniture and wallpapers, carpets and curtains; but after all I am inclined to think that sort of thing is mostly rubbish, and I would prefer for my part to live with the plainest whitewashed wall and wooden chairs and tables – as long as I have plentiful tackle and fishing line.
NED
I remember a time when you held quite a contrary opinion - on the matter of decoration of course, not of fishing, your devotion to fishing is one of the most reliable constant in your temperament.
MORRIS
The opinions vary, the facts are unchanging. Once, everybody that made anything derived pleasure from crafting a useful piece of goods, and to enhance it with art. Art, art is the one certain solace of labour. Nowadays, the dull squalor of civilization is settling down on the world, like a dense fog on the pleasures of the eyes. Factory production has stripped the production of utilitarian objects from its prideful origins and is quite devoid of humanity.
NED
A sobering thought indeed – but we know there is hope for improvement.
MORRIS
Yes! The seeds of a great change have been sown among the ruins of this filthy civilization, a genuine Social-Revolution. Ned, I see all around me, the seeds are beginning to germinate. Frail at first, but I have faith the seedlings will grow strong.
GEORGIE
We have to be relentless in our efforts.
MORRIS
It was my good luck to have been born respectable and rich, and my good luck that put me in this house along the Thames, among delightful books, cherished works of art and very dear friends, rather than in London's cheapside with its shrieks, drink-steeped liquor shops, and foul and degraded lodgings.
NED
Sometimes, when the cause experiences a setback, I feel that there is too much beauty here at Kelmscott Manor to be vexed by such trifles.
MORRIS
Trifles? Nothing can argue me out of this feeling ... the contrasts of rich and poor are unendurable and ought not to be endured by either rich or poor.
GEORGIE
Well said.
MORRIS
Indeed, I hope for a good turn toward the abasement of the rich and the raising up of the poor, till people can at last rub out from their dictionaries altogether those dreadful words, “rich” and “poor.” No one man can change the world, but we are now many, spread out in many countries.
NED
One mind at a time, Topsy, one mind at a time!
The doorbell rings, the parlour maid answers the door.
MORRIS
Who could that be? We are not expecting anyone beyond our current company.
NED
Perhaps a neighbour is running out of ale and comes to borrow!
PARLOR MAID
Mr Rossetti, Sir.
Only Ned and Janey stand to greet Rossetti, Ned walks to him. Janey sits back down.
jane burden morris, william morris, dante gabriel rossetti, georgiana burne-jones, ned burne-jones
Shall I remind him that I revoked his co-tenancy on Kelmscott Manor years ago?

MORRIS, to Georgie
Shall I remind him that I revoked his co-tenancy on Kelmscott Manor years ago?
GEORGIE
(nods negatively)
NED
Gabriel! To what do we owe the pleasure? Is Hall Caine accompanying you?
ROSSETTI
Good afternoon Ned, Janey...
JANEY
Good afternoon.
ROSSETTI
...everyone; I apologize for arriving unannounced, you must understand that only grievous concern would compel me to make my way here at once, risking to find the house closed.
NED
Has someone died?
ROSSETTI
As of yet... no. I reckon I became cunning in my desperation to escape Hall Caine's constant spying and machinations. I left London this morning, when he thought I was still sleeping, with nothing but the clothes I was wearing so as not to arouse suspicion with luggage. He has agents everywhere; they couldn't be identified by their dress, or their age, or their gender, but their behaviour gave them away. They had those sly, sly looks! They were relaying each other, silently and stealthy as snakes...
NED
Gabriel, Gabriel, please, sit here. Hear me: there is no man more worthy of trust than Hall Caine. Is he not taking care of your affairs and your health?
ROSSETTI
He is taking care of my affairs, to satisfy some dark and impenetrable motives. Did you know he brings me doctors constantly, and they whisper, or speak in the other room. You must help me! I am sure he is lying to everyone.
NED
Settle down, old friend, you are trembling like a leaf.
The parlour maid is preparing tea and and sets cucumber sandwiches on the table.
MORRIS, somewhat angry
Why don't know we give him some whiskey? Annie please bring our “guest” some whiskey.
ROSSETTI
Thank you, that would be most calming. (The maid brings the drink, Rossetti drinks half the glass). Have you heard the latest on Swinburne, our dear little Northumbrian friend?
NED
I do miss Swinburne's prodigious prodigality with words! Is Watts still keeping him under lock and key over at the Pines?
ROSSETTI (taking a sandwich)
For nearly two years now. Watts still has control of Swinburne's purse, one can suppose that Watts is protecting his investment after paying off Swinburne's creditors like a stern headmaster. I am pleased to report that Watts' sequestration appears to have succeeded in curing him from his frightful propensity to drink to oblivion, but no amount of punishment seems to have cured him of his love of the birch rod.
MORRIS, shouting out to Ned
Swinburne should have been entertained by our earlier conversation about royal whippings!
ROSSETTI
I quite believe that Watts is keeping us all away from him! Hall Caine won't let me call on him, saying that Swinburne won't have me! But I don't believe a word. He is conniving with Watts to keep us apart. Watts thinks my company, and the company of all of you here, may endanger Swinburne's strict abstinence regimen – we may influence him into some scandalous excesses.
MORRIS, shouting out
Have you considered that Watts might be protecting Swinburne from you?.
GEORGIE, to Morris
Shhhhh....
NED
Watts fears that
we may influence Swinburne? To be fair, I have heard of this as well. Oh dear, of all my friends, Swinburne is the most liable to boast of such excesses whether they have occurred or not, just of the pleasure of astounding his audience! I can conceive of very little that he would not do or say to produce effect!
ROSSETTI
I warned Swinburne about these parody letters he's been sending his circle of friends... they will give rise to endless generations of biographers and scribblers looking for weeds on his grave. I shudder to think his memory be so degraded by philistines.
NED
I treasure these letters from Swinburne, I shall never be of a mind to burn them. Never.
ROSSETTI
Plucky little man... he replied to my request with a promise that, if public opinion was scandalous to his satisfaction in life, he would not fret about public opinions in the afterlife... and that he would be a smidgen too dead to care.
NED
It is no surprise that you failed to prevail upon him; he once wrote to me that “if we are to be shackled in our correspondence with our closest friends by the fear of future vermin, we may as well resign all thought of fun an confidence, at once.”
ROSSETTI
He refuses to be reasoned with. Sadly, the disagreement led to a falling out. To think we were once room mates and the affection we lavished on each other for fifteen years, at least... now old Swinburne thinks me an unmanly deserter.
Rossetti finishes the whiskey along with a vial of chloral from his pocket.
NED
Gabriel, ingesting this much chloral can't be good for your health.
ROSSETTI, accusingly
Such false concern. As we are both aware, this conspiracy is orchestrated by Buchanan, the supreme mastermind, and using Hall Caine as his tool, to crush my fair name as a man, and as an artist. I am being aggressively hounded out of honest society. I didn't know you were a member of Buchanan's cabal, Ned. I swear, until this moment, I did not know. Morris must have corrupted you.
MORRIS
I did corrupt him! I confess.
GEORGIE
Hush...
NED
No, William...
ROSSETTI, overturning his empty glass accidentally
I lost all sensations in my arm, it is completely numb... what did you put in this whiskey? You poisoned it!
MORRIS
We'll gladly bring you a second help...
GEORGIE
Shhhh...
ROSSETTI
The sandwiches, the sandwiches, too!
MORRIS (stands up, very angrily takes the sandwiches and empties the plate out the window)
You may thank Georgie's pleas for this show of mercy on you! See? No more poison!
ROSSETTI
I made a tremendous mistake showing up here tonight – you... Hall Caine.. you are all agents of Buchanan... who knows everything, everything, therefore, you must know everything too...
GEORGIE
Oh Gabriel, no, you are among old friends and we wish to protect you from any harm.
ROSSETTI (to Georgie only)
He will not give me any rest until he sees me laying in a coffin.
GEORGIE
You are tormenting yourself unnecessarily. No one here or anywhere cares about Buchanan's despicable critic of your poems, or anyone's poems.
ROSSETTI (to Georgie only)
Georgie, his critic of my poems are the outward manifestation of a far more sinister plan. It is like an ant hill... you see an entrance, and a few ants, but below the surface is a complex subterranean network of tunnels and chambers...
GEORGIE
But that Buchanan critic was years ago, nothing has happened since.. why would he persecute you?
ROSSETTI (to Georgie only)
He is of a mind to punish me.
GEORGIE
Buchanan has not stalked you for years for writing poems he does not fancy much. If he had such a habit, there would be no poet left in all of England, except a few very dull ones.
ROSSETTI (to Georgie only)
Georgie, this goes beyond the poems. Buchanan knows, his agents know, and I know that his intent is to castigate me into exile for having... it pains me to utter the words... for having exhumed dear Lizzie's ... coffin... to retrieve the poems I had buried with her.
GEORGIE
There cannot be more than 5 or 6 people that know of this and Buchanan is not among them. Please, breathe slowly, like this. He doesn't even know... we have kept your secret. No one knows.
ROSSETTI, looking towards an indifferent Janey, speaking more softly
He does know. He is also punishing me for loving a woman more than any other creature in the world... for this he wants to destroy me! He is a terrifying enemy, hunting me to death, every day! His spies have perforated every wall, everything I do, everything I say is known to his co-conspirators!
MORRIS, to the parlour maid
Annie, please send for Hall Caine in London, at once. Appraise him that Rossetti, is here and safe for the night, and to come and fetch him at once.
MAID
Right away, Sir.
NED, to Morris
Topsy, shall I take our guest to one of the bedrooms upstairs?
MORRIS
Can you manage?
NED, nodding
Come up, Gabriel, you need to rest. Do you still trust Janey is not an agent of Buchanan?
ROSSETTI
Janey...
NED
Janey, won't you come with us? He might be soothed by your presence.
ROSSETTI
Where is my chloral? Did someone take my chloral?
NED
Your provisions of chloral bulge through your jacket, my friend, you have enough chloral.
ROSSETTI, leaving the room with Ned and Janey
I must have it to sleep, Buchanan's agents keep me awake... only the chloral brings me peace, and sleep. Ned you must help support me! My leg is numb now!
NED
Here, put your arm around my shoulders.
ROSSETTI
Thank you, thank you. How is your health, Janey?
JANEY (on their way out)
Quite poorly, but improving in some ways...
Ned, Janey and Rossetti leave the room
MORRIS, to Georgie
Is he really ill, or only acting to keep those around him in suspense?
GEORGIE
We have seen too little of him in the past few years to make an accurate assessment of his health.
MORRIS
I regret my burst of anger. His illness is worse than the reports suggest – he has gone quite mad. Yet, we are all in his debt... he taught us so much about art, painting, poetry... he was the sun, we were mere planets. His heart, his heart...
GEORGIE
Ned always says: “when Rossetti loves a man or woman, they know it.”
MORRIS
How true.
GEORGIE
I'm afraid he is not long for this world. He has already attempted to hasten his own demise with an overabundance of chloral – though his friends saved him, and helped him recover some health, he now merely appears to carry on his march to the pine box with a slower, wavering stride, chloral in hand.
MORRIS
One could not divine, when we were young and vigorous, what would become of some of us.
GEORGIE
Kelmscott Manor is as beautiful and lively a place as ever. I understand your business is doing well.
MORRIS (noise is heard from the bedroom)
Ah, yes. I've got clergymen demanding silk and gold altar clothes when thousands are in want of food...
GEORGIE
This inexcusable extravagance should call for an additional charge!
MORRIS
It does! It does! But a monetary penalty is paltry persuasion on the impenitent pulpit beaters. I will try writing a long and tedious reprimand next time opportunity knocks.
GEORGIE
Aye, the clergy. Here is a category that ought to suffer listening to sermons, rather than administer them.
MORRIS
I may deserve a few homilies myself, it is a truth that I have spent my life ministering to the swinish luxury of the rich! For myself, I'd like to live in one great room; eat here, sleep there, work in that corner, talk to friends in that other corner.
MORRIS, checking that they are alone
How are you, Georgie?
GEORGIE
(shrugs, looks away)
MORRIS
You must trust that I can keep a secret. A true and tested fact.
GEORGIE
You are the very best friend one could ask for. However, I am loathe to hear my own self complaining. It does the soul no good at all. How is Janey's health?
MORRIS
As always. I never know if it is real or not. I have a notion that the complaints are a kind of refuge from...
GEORGIE
From?
MORRIS
I do not know. That is enough about me – I feel there is something you want to say.
GEORGIE (banging is heard upstairs)
I console myself with the thought that there is love enough between Edward and I to last out a long life – one should hope, for I was but a girl of 15 when we were engaged. In my darkest moments, I am despondent with the knowledge that he squanders much of this affection on...
MORRIS
... I know, I know.
GEORGIE
Have no worry, he is always kind to me.
MORRIS
As Janey is to me. The... uhm... played itself out.
GEORGIE, sighing
Alas! The moment one source of sorrow is played out, there is another waiting. Aside from some rather unfortunate, public embarrassment... that got every tongue in London in a frenzy, one must carry on and sort out the accomplishments from the trifles.
MORRIS
Oh Georgie...
GEORGIE
We are both still standing, are we not?
MORRIS
I ought to model myself after you, Georgie, and repel those moods that come upon me. Perhaps these doldrums would come upon me just the same, regardless of that failure of mine.
GEORGIE
It is not
your failure. I do not believe that this failure is yours.
MORRIS
You are very kind.
GEORGIE
Never forget: our petty, inner sentiments die along with our mortal envelope. Meanwhile, there exist foundations of art, history and society that transcend our intimate circumstances. We ought to never lose sight of life's greater goals, such as the levelling of the classes into a community of equals.
MORRIS
When one is deprived of that one thing wanting, and is denied affection, forfeiting one's personal satisfaction for the greater good has reduced merit.
GEORGIE
Whatever the motive... we call it the “greater good” for a reason. I understand Janey is not fond of your new proletarian friends...
MORRIS
She finds something to occupy herself when they assemble at the house, a good thing I suppose. She's not much fond of Kelmscott, upon the whole... but she is invaluable in selling tickets for my lectures on architectural preservation, even the dreadful, tiresome ones on, ah! pattern design!
Ned and Janey are heard coming back, Georgie and Morris force themselves to laugh.
NED
I quite believe Morpheus will be his guardian until sunrise.
JANEY, going back to lie on the couch with her book
I have quite given up on him.
NED
Topsy, Janey and I are much disappointed that we missed out on a great source of merriment!
MORRIS, acting out the story for comical effect
It's an old story that I repeat upon especial request. I was just relating to Georgie how I was dyeing some tapestry wool a few years ago, yes, I was on the brink of getting a very nice yellow out of poplar twigs, which cannot recommend on account of it not being permanent, though very sharp and clear. I had raised my sleeves and my arms were deep in the dye vat when Annie rushed in to warn me that someone had come calling. I got very impatient, stomped my feet, and shouted out: “can't you see I'm dyeing? I'm dyeing!” The poor girl ran off and it wasn't before long that everyone had hurried out to bear witness to my demise... Thomas had come so fast, a scrubbing brush in hand... I though, good grief, is that what it would take for me to get a good cleaning?
NED
I never tire of this story! Ah, Tops, you'll always be my favourite. They should bury us together, along with the wives. Had our paths never crossed, I would take myself much too seriously... and be thought of as an insufferable pedant!
MORRIS
(laughs, and turns a little sad) And I, I would be a very lonely man... you and Georgie... are my pillars.
MORRIS & NED & GEORGIE
(raising pretend glasses) To friendship!
GEORGIE, to Janey
Well, that was an unexpectedly eventful evening. Are you still reading Aeschylus'
JANEY
I am.
GEORGIE
Where are you at?
JANEY
Here. See?
GEORGIE
Splendid! Do read out for Cassandra, I shall read out the chorus. Let's entertain the gentlemen.
MORRIS
A chorus? You shall need another!
JANEY, sighs a little
The prophet Apollo appointed me to the office of foretelling.
GEORGIE & MORRIS
What! Was he, a god, smitten with a passion for you?
JANEY
Yes. Heretofore, I was ashamed to tell this tale.
GEORGIE & MORRIS
Aye, for every one that is very prosperous, grows delicate.
JANEY
But he was an eager suitor, breathing strong love for me.
GEORGIE & MORRIS & NED
Did you even meet in wedlock?
JANEY
Having consented, I deceived him.
GEORGIE & NED
Wast thou already possessed of inspired love?
JANEY
I was, even then, predicting all their sufferings to my countrymen.
GEORGIE & NED
How then wast thou unscathed by the wrath of Loxias?
JANEY
I used to win no one's credence in anything, after I had committed this trespass...
GEORGIE, coughing
...cough, cough! I need water!
NED
Georgie has got a cough, Topsy has quite lost his voice, and Cassandra the failed to prophesy the doom of the chorus!
JANEY, bored, closing the book
We should be glad, this translation is a very tedious read.

Act 2 - Year 1861

JANEY – W. MORRIS – ROSSETTI – LIZZIE SIDDAL (very pregnant) - GEORGIE B-J (pregnant) – NED B-J – SWINBURNE – JENNY MORRIS (newborn).
Everyone is in the living room, drinks and food are being served buffet style. Morris is holding a baby. Rossetti's Dantis Amor can be seen one of three cupboard doors that formed the upper part of a large settle.
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/N/N03/N03532_10.jpg
http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artwork.php?mkey=4233

The sweetest flowers in all the world! A baby's hands.
SWINBURNE
The sweetest flowers in all the world! A baby's hands. Wee Jenny Morris, born January, 1861, an auspicious year, to be sure. Aye! I am overcome with the necessity of uttering a speech. It cannot be helped, I shall not entertain pleas of mercy, I am very cruel.
EVERYONE
(laughter)
SWINBURNE
Should you find my time on the stump to be an abomination upon your ears, I shall deem it a triumph, at once!
ROSSETTI
I hate to be a contrarian: but you can only delight us!
SWINBURNE
With all of present company having recently fallen into matrimony, with the exception of one excitable, charismatic red-headed bard, I am thrice reminded that you have inflicted upon me the same sorrow as if I had heard of you lapsing into theism, or worse!
EVERYONE
(laughter)
MORRIS, handing the baby over to Janey, who is laying down on a sofa.
Or worse? What could be worse?
SWINBURNE
Yours truly, Pope Algernon Swinburne the First!
ROSSETTI, looking at Morris
Pope Swinburne! Would that not be an irresistible incentive to become a man of cloth?
MORRIS, to Rossetti
By Jove, I know of no one that would not haste to convert to Catholicism under such flamboyant leadership!
GEORGIE, laughing, to Lizzie
If that came to pass, the underworld would be a merry place indeed...
LIZZIE
...and I would not wait for an invitation to jump into the pit!
SWINBURNE
You incorrigible pagans.
JANE hands a sleeping baby Jenny over to a maid, who takes her away, and she lies down on a loveseat. She picks up some embroidery.
SWINBURNE
Our good friend Webb, to whom we owe much of the delightfully medieval architecture of this beautiful “Red House,” and decoration within, has sent his regrets, but only for our little soirée tonight – do not concern yourselves, he is in the best of health, and still expected to join us at the extravagant reception we are planning for the Purgatory.
EVERYONE
(laughter)
SWINBURNE
Shall we raise a toast?
EVERYONE
Yes!
ROSSETTI
The honour is yours, Swinburne, you have no equal for toasts.
SWINBURNE
Very well then! I am eager to be at your service. To darling baby Jenny, we wish... the resplendent beauty of her mother, and her father's temper...
EVERYONE
(laughter)
SWINBURNE
Ahem! I meant distemper!
ROSSETTI
Poor child, oh no! Topsy's distemper murals are worse than his temper! May he find the much sought-after improvement with the paintbrush, and prove us all wrong!
MORRIS, laughing
I have wholly given up on this futile endeavour! I do have friends enough to retouch my contorted lepers into fair princesses... but I shall try not to tax their patience again!
ROSSETTI
If we become short on patience, we'll give you green and yellow enough to cover every wall in London in sunflowers, like you did at the Oxford Union Library!
EVERYONE
(laughter)
MORRIS, to everyone, shrugging
Rossetti said I ought to paint... he stated that “if I had any poetry in me at all, I should paint it.” Now as he is a very great man, and speaks with authority and not as the scribes, I had to try... he must bear his share of responsibility for the ensuing fiasco... now I know to hire Ned for all depictions of the human figure!
NED
Forever at your service, good friend!
SWINBURNE
Let's settle the disagreement like the gentlemen that we ought to be. To Topsy's poetic acumen and determination to succeed in all his decorative endeavours we shall raise our glasses!
EVERYONE
(cheers)
SWINBURNE
To dear Lizzie, may she give birth to a red-headed child...
GEORGIE
That dear Swinburne will surely spoil as much as he spoils Lizzie!
EVERYONE
(cheers)
NED
Lucky child!
SWINBURNE
There is a special bond between us carrots that cannot be topped. I make no secret of my deep fondness for Gabriel's new bride, but long-devoted lover Lizzie, so fair, and so accomplished in drawing and painting, why, she must have taught our Gabriel at least half of what he boasts of! And now - to Georgie and Ned, whose inspiring love, like a sacred bower rose, blooms through the stinging winds of winter with the same vigour as through summer's delicate breath, cheers!
EVERYONE
(ah's & cheers)
SWINBURNE
May Gabriel's magnetic and influence continue to empassion us all, and steer us into improving this world with beauty, grace, friendship and love. May the ideals of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's live forever in the hearts of men.
NED & ROSSETTI
To the Brotherhood!
SWINBURNE, realizing he forgot Janey
Last, but not least, our Janey – a creature of such perfect grace that to kiss her feet is the utmost men should dream of doing. Is it not insane for Topsy to have that wonderful and most perfect stunner of to look at or speak to?
ROSSETTI
Swinburne, I must finish this one!
SWINBURNE
The floor is yours!
ROSSETTI
Ahem! To what will surely become the most celebrated stunner in all of England, for the perfection of her profile, the classicism of her lips, her soft eyes of grey, and the dark torrent of hair bouncing down her graceful neck, Mrs Jane Morris!
EVERYONE (except Lizzie)
(cheers)
JANEY
(nods)
GEORGIE
And to Swinburne of course! Our most lively and cherished companion...
LIZZIE
I would not trade our friendship for a crate full of gold!
NED
Or a ship full of wine!
ROSSETTI
...To one that never stops biting into life!
MORRIS
And who won't stop life from biting into him! Which reminds me, the spread looks complete, whether it is or not I am feeling rather peckish and I heartily recommend that we attack it with forks.
ROSSETTI
Not yet, Top, read us one of your grinds
MORRIS
No, Gabriel, you've heard them all.
ROSSETTI
Maybe Swinburne hasn't heard them yet – and they are devilish good!
SWINBURNE
(nods in the positive)
MORRIS
I will fetch a few since some of you are eager to pretend they have not heard them at least 5 times each! (Leaves to fetch some notes)
EVERYONE
(laughs)
NED
At last! What have you got?
ROSSETTI (takes out a stuffed mouse out of his pocket)
A stuffed mouse – a bookseller of my acquaintance has taken up taxidermy.
NED, taking the mouse
By Jove! Does this thing really have a peg leg?
ROSSETTI, taking it back
It is a prosthetic following a fatal mouse trap accident!
NED
I don't know what that is supposed to help. Do you have a plan for it?
ROSSETTI
I will leave it right here... peering out two slices of bread.
NED (laughs)
Hush! Hush! I hear footsteps.
MORRIS
Are you ready? I am certain you've heard it all before, but I must stop you begging. This is from “The Defence of Guinevere”
The shadow likes like wine within a cup
Of marvellously colour'd gold; yea now...
ROSSETTI
Forgive the intrusion... I must beg you to read like old Swinburne!
MORRIS, exaggerating Swinburne's excited mannerisms, while everyone laughs
The shadow likes like wine within a cup
Of marvellously colour'd gold; yea now
This little wind is rising, look you up,
And wonder how the light is falling so
Within my moving tresses: will you dare,
When you have looked a little on my brow,
To say "this thing is vile?" or will you care
For any plausible lies of cunning woof,
When you can see my face with no lie there
For ever? am I not a gracious proof—
"But in your chamber Launcelot was found"
EVERYONE
(claps)
ROSSETTI
Tops, your mimics are capital, capital! I cannot determine which I love best between the touching transcendence of your words, or your swinburnian delivery! What a lark.
LIZZIE
My heart vouches for the poem!
SWINBURNE
As does mine – am I truly this restrained? I will have to redouble in flamboyance!
NED, starting to draw on a pad
If you succeed, I fear a repeat of the Great London Fire!
ROSSETTI
Tops, you must illuminate us about the meaning of the verses.
MORRIS, clears throat
Guinevere is betrothed to Arthur and accepts him as a convenience more than for love, and once caught in an adulterous situation with Sir Lancelot, she must defend herself against the accusation. I try to reveal love as the principal purveyor of meaning, impulse, and pleasure. It is the on account of the living blood that courses through her veins that Guinevere seeks this love outside the bounds of matrimony. Her accusers are blinded by morality and convention in mericlessly condemning her. However, it is a natural fact that true love is more noble than contrived affection.
LIZZIE
Assuming true love. I've come to realize... if true love is ever given... it is not on this Earth.
GEORGIE
I can't speak of loves true or untrue, but I do believe that it is a very powerful emotion at the root of marriage and the founding of family, which is the basis of all human society, including that of savages.
MORRIS
Georgie offers a sensible opinion, but upon the whole I agree with Swinburne. Yes, I do! A husband and wife in married life must remain free people, artificial bolstering up of natural human relations is what I object to. Further, any choice one makes in the choosing of a wive should be free of the scrutiny of family members. So many spurious contrivances.
ROSSETTI
Wholeheartedly agreed!
NED
Let's not persecute love... love is not especially contrived... all of England is contrived.
LIZZIE discretely wipes a tear
MORRIS
Were it merely contrived, and not woefully shoddy, I might be more of a mind to accept it. This age, this age is the age of shoddy!
ROSSETTI
Shoddy machine-made goods, yes, but I have heard some argue that machines are freeing mankind from degrading, repetitive work. What are your thoughts on that?
MORRIS
It is the allowing machines to be our masters and not our servants that so injures the beauty of life nowadays. Machines can relieve degradations, indeed, but they can just as well compound them, hear? We do make designs that are produced by industrial means, yes, but we are using industry as a tool to disseminate beauty. We'd all want tapestries, but most have to settle for wallpaper.
ROSSETTI
You don't have an eye on making wallpapers, do you?.
MORRIS
Not at all! I have high hopes that tapestry will enjoy a revival, and embroidery, being emblematic of handmade crafts by the ladies, is well on its way to become the primary means of beautifying a home.
LIZZIE is increasingly fidgety in the background, GEORGIE sits next to her and they have an inaudible whispered conversation..
NED
Never say never!
ROSSETTI
I shall say “never” as Topsy's improvised representative.
MORRIS
The man has spoken for me!
SWINBURNE
This is dreadful serious talk for a jolly celebration! Are we to change the world? Once you free your own mind from the shackles, you're all done!
ROSSETTI, to Morris
Leading on to even more serious matters, if only to vex poor Swinburne, Tops, I urge your to pursue your explorations of poetry, for you possess a prodigious gift; should you run out of ink, it would be a great loss for future generations. I have no doubt that your name will honourably mentioned along with Homer, Dante Alighieri and Beaudelaire!
SWINBURNE
Beaudelaire, you say? Topsy, have you been dipping your pen into the well of sin?
MORRIS
Is the sin in question gluttony? Yes? I will not protest then. As it were, I have gone from peckish to famished and we ought to ravage this spread before it spoils!
GEORGIE
You are our host, we are all waiting for you to be first to pluck that table. You start!
MORRIS, grabs a plate and picks some food
You must try these, our cook's savouries are peerless!
MORRIS, noticing the mouse, and grabbing a cover in a drawer
And oh! Oh! Wait... no one move!
GEORGIE
What is it? What is it?
MORRIS
Quiet... I've got this... hush...
LIZZIE
Oh!
MORRIS, slams the cover over the plate, and angrily tosses the contents of the dish out the window, and shouts to the cook, stomping his feet
Annie! Annie! You must come to the parlour at once! This is un-ac-cept-able! I have guests!
EVERYONE (laughs)
MORRIS, looks around suspiciously
I have heard that laughter before... I have seen those impish grins... You... what have you done this time?
ROSSETTI
Ha! We got you again! But you exploded too quickly to notice the peg leg on the stuffed mouse, we're broken-hearted!
MORRIS
That will teach you a lesson to never underestimate me. Annie! Never mind! If I had any misplaced pride at all, you'd have embarrassed me!
GEORGIE
Ned's pen is scratching furiously. I wonder what he is up to!
ROSSETTI
Ned, what are you drawing in your corner?
NED, showing a caricature
See what we have here: Topsy discovers a stuffed mouse!
ROSSETTI
That was jolly quick, Ned, oh, oh, how it captures the moment perfectly! Look, Janey!
JANEY, laughing
Oh yes, I see.
ROSSETTI, taking it to Georgie and Lizzie, and Morris moving to take a peak.
Look! Look! Is that not capital!
GEORGIE & MORRIS (laughter), Lizzie smiles a bit and is drowsy on Georgie's shoulder.
NED, ROSSETTI & SWINBURNE
(get a bit of food from the spread, Swinburne takes some and brings plates to Georgie & Lizzie, Morris gets a plate and brings it to Janey.)
ROSSETTI
This is a sad consequence of being last at the table, I've run out of ladies to feed! Ned, you are a genius, even for something as small and informal as a caricature. I wish I could draw half as good as you in twice the time. You are, doubtless, the greatest painter in all of England. I fear to call you prolific, for there is in your case no forfeit in quality – in fact, the more you draw, the higher your star rises in the heavens. I worship at the altar of the delicate detail you spread over miles of canvas. You are the god of painters, I should sacrifice virgin brushes at your temple.
SWINBURNE
Oh Gabriel, I should laugh to hear you singing these praises about anyone but Ned!
ROSSETTI
Lizzie too has some outstanding drawings... she learned so much from Ruskin I hardly had to teach her anything at all, she is completely original – a natural luminary. We didn't bring any of your drawings with us, did we?
LIZZIE (nods negatively)
We did not.
ROSSETTI
No? But perhaps... Lizzie, do you have a poem you could recite? This whole room is eager to be dazzled.
LIZZIE, fidgeting
I have nothing enthralling.
ROSSETTI
Oh Lizzie, do not put yourself down, you are phenomenal! Believe it!
LIZZIE, rises slowly
Well then, here comes your disappointment.
GEORGIE
We are all dying to hear you! Aren't we?
SWINBURNE
We beg you!
NED
Indeed! We love everything you do.
LIZZIE, reciting from shaky memory
You are all very kind. I do not have anything on paper; all I have are the last two verses engraved to memory. The title is: Worn Out.
I can but give a failing heart
And weary eyes of pain,
A faded mouth that cannot smile
And may not laugh again.
Yet keep thine arms around me, love,
Until I fall to sleep;
Then leave me, saying no goodbye
Lest I might wake, and weep.

Then leave me, saying no goodbye
Lest I might wake, and weep.

EVERYONE
(claps)
NED
Very sad and very lovely, Lizzie. Beautifully done. I am touched.
GEORGIE
From such a pure and holy soul!
LIZZE (sits down next to Georgie and leans on her)
GEORGIE
Dear, do you have a fever?
LIZZIE
Oh no, not a fever, only a little nausea... and pain in my bones. Gabriel, in my bag...
ROSSETTI (urgently fetches her bag)
Here.
LIZZIE
My laudanum...
ROSSETTI digs in the bag.
LIZZIE
...quickly... I cannot endure another moment of waiting...
ROSSETTI puts the vial of laudanum to her lips, Lizzie drinks some. Everyone looks deathly worried. Lizzie looks less fidgety, she calms down, and falls asleep on Georgie's shoulder.


Act 3 - Year 1871

JANEY – W. MORRIS – ROSSETTI – SWINBURNE - BUTLER
Jane is sitting for Rossetti's “Water Willow” at Kelmscott Manor, 1871. There are sandwiches on a table.
ROSSETTI
Mmmm... I'm on the last of that chromium green – I've got about a pea's worth, just enough to lighten a few of the water willow leaves. Perhaps Ned will be willing to lend me some of what he has... poor Ned draws and draws but shuns exhibiting lately. Poor Ned.
JANEY
Yes. Poor Ned.
ROSSETTI
I hope he will yield to my persuasion and present his work to an appreciative public once more.
JANEY
Let us hope.
ROSSETTI
The outcries about decency that led his magnificent Phyllis and Demophoön to be withdrawn from the exhibition, were an absolute travesty. Are these critics writing these ignorant missives from the Asylum for Idiots? If so, I shall be tempted to make a liberal donation to the institution, on behalf of artists, so that the inmates are more closely guarded.
JANEY
I don't believe I have seen this work of his.
ROSSETTI
Allow me to describe it with words... think soft grey-green neutrals, cool skin tones, and we have Demophoön who is not covered at all anywhere, except a thin flowing strip of pine green fabric mid-thigh, standing... like this, or, more like this, I believe (Rossetti mimics painting). On his right, so the left of the composition, we have Phyllis, who is herself quite modestly covered with that same green fabric. Can you stand for a moment?
JANEY
I could...
ROSSETTI
Here, let me help you.
JANEY
Thank you.
ROSSETTI
Now here, think of me as Demopho̦n Рyou can stand behind me, and above me (you are naturally taller, no adjustment necessary)... now place your arms around me this way... turn your head towards mine, your chin on my shoulder, and your forehead against mine.
JANEY
Like this?
ROSSETTI
Jane, Jane... I love to feel the warmth of your breath on my neck... don't move... see this image in your mind, painted with the delicacy we know Ned to be capable of... with a bow of delicate white blooms arching above them... an almond tree according to the myth.
JANEY
Is there a story?
ROSSETTI
If I recall... Phyllis was a Greek queen who had fallen in love with Demophoön, who left her...
JANEY
Not unlike our Ned and his Maria.
ROSSETTI
You are very perceptive as usual. Unlike Maria, Phyllis made good on her threats. Demophoön looks both bewildered and not quite as pleased with the embrace as you might expect him to be.
JANEY
Ah-ha. On the matter of perception, I understand how Ned's composition might be construed as quite forthright advances, coming from the female. From our live reconstruction I believe his maleness itself would be quite within her field of vision. Perhaps the critics alluded to that.
ROSSETTI
Dear Janey, the critics are sending Ned a form of coded message. They cannot outright say: “we condemn and chastise a painter because of his personal indiscretions.” They would never own up to it. Instead, they grossly misinterpret this paintings and make it as if the painting itself was some sinister iconoclast of public decency.
JANEY
Your imagination is too vivid, as usual!
ROSSETTI
Oh, not at all. They recognized that Marie Zambaco sat for the depiction of Phyllis, and that of Demophoön. Both the male and the female have Marie's unmistakable Grecian lines. They know what the painting meant for Ned.

Ned leaving Georgie and the children to spend time with his Greek damsel did cause quite a public scandal.

JANEY
Ned leaving Georgie and the children to spend time with his Greek damsel did cause quite a public scandal.
ROSSETTI
I frankly do not see what Ned sees in her; I found her rather rude and disagreeable when she sat for me, the very opposite of you.
JANEY
I have heard she is headstrong.
ROSSETTI
Poor Georgie, she toils so diligently for the children's well-being...
JANEY
Yes, poor Georgie,
ROSSETTI
To think our Ned came so near to being spirited away to some Greek island in in arms of his Greek mistress... I can scarcely think of anything more alluring for Ned than to live in a country whose culture he has idolized since boyhood.
JANEY
What do you think stopped him?
ROSSETTI
Who knows? He might have thought the better when she showed up on Kensington High Street...
JANEY
...directly in front of Browning's house no less!
ROSSETTI
And with enough laudanum to carry out a lover's suicide pact! She did threaten to drown herself into the Thames after Ned declined her poisonous offer. I was a fool to think this sort of thing only happened in penny dreadfuls!
JANEY
This was very real.
ROSSETTI
With all of London was looking on the spectacle, including the metropolitan police – and Ned tackling her and rolling on the parapet to prevent her jumping... Ah! Time does have a gift to turn tragedy into comedy, does it not?
JANEY
Ned was reasonable in the end.
ROSSETTI
And to this day, I am told, is he burdened by regrets. He will take these regrets all to way to his grave – as unpleasant and shrill as his Greek damsel was.
JANEY
My husband was to keep Ned company throughout his escape from London.
ROSSETTI
Good friends, these two.
JANEY
They started for Rome, got no further than Dover... Ned became ill and they returned secretly...
ROSSETTI
Indeed, what a farce! We had the Greek damsel beating up the quarters of all his friends in search of him and bent on cutting, howling like Cassandra, while poor Georgie stoically making as if he were indeed in Rome while he was ill in the upstairs bedroom.
JANEY
Poor thing.
ROSSETTI
She was quite heroic about it all.
JANEY
What happened to Maria since?
ROSSETTI
There are rumours that she plans to return to her husband in Paris, while writing to that Parisian sculptor Rodin for an apprenticeship in his studio so that she can violently throw herself at the man.
Rossetti returns to his painting
ROSSETTI
This canvas will not get painted unless I hold a brush to it! Willows, willows... a colourless and oft-overlooked element of nature – one that is invariably growing on the water's edge. This is what you are to me, Janey. You are the water, the noblest and dearest thing that the world had to show me – I am the but the drab willow with the unquenchable thirst for you.
JANEY
Does the willow not signify sorrow?
ROSSETTI
Yes, the sorrow too, that steady, relentless sorrow that we cannot be together. I hope you will like the painting, if not for the skill, for the meaning of it.
JANEY
Of course I will cherish it.
ROSSETTI
Janey, Janey, you must know, everything I do is to prevent sinking into utter unworthiness of you and deserve your contempt.
JANEY
You need not worry about ever deserving any contempt from me, Gabriel.
ROSSETTI
Janey, I too have regrets. I have forsaken you, my own true love, out of a mistaken sense of loyalty – and for this sacrifice I will pay for the remainder of my living years. For this mistake, I now covet another man's wife; a man who is a very dear friend of mine. One who has every right press his burly lips against yours, or against every nook and cranny of your body that I cherish and idolize. It is a vile torment, a torture that inflicts agony on my mind.
JANEY
You know there is no sense in being jealous.
ROSSETTI
How I wish I were imbued with your sweet nature. But in fact, I have no claim to your company, or even to lay sights on your soulful eyes... I rely upon the whim of another man, I may never spend a moment alone with you – banished, forever in the chilling numbness that surrounds me, in utter want of you.
JANEY
This won't happen.
ROSSETTI
When he calls upon his return from Iceland, he surely will pry you away from me to avoid appearance of impropriety. It cannot be helped; the more Topsy loves you, the more he knows that you are too lovely and noble not to be loved: and, dear Janey, there are too few things that seem worth expressing as life goes on, for one friend to deny another the poor expression of what is most at his heart. But, he is before me in granting this and there is no need for me to say it.
JANEY
He has been most accommodating. Gabriel, do not vex yourself. I trust you will find your way to reason. He did consent to lease Kelmscott Manor with you.
JANEY
We can carry out as we always have.
ROSSETTI
Should I worry and about your health in my letters, take it to mean that I yearn for you, and ache for your company from the deepest recesses of my soul.
JANEY
Should I respond that I am unwell, you will understand that I miss you just the same; if I claim to feel better, I may have an opportunity to see you in the following days.
There is a knock at the door.
ROSSETTI
Sit still, my love.
Algernon Swinburne is at the door, holding some papers. The butler shows up too late to answer the door.
ROSSETTI
Swinburne! How delighted I am to see your handsome face.
SWINBURNE
I apologize for not giving you prior notice of my visit, but I had to come at once.
ROSSETTI
My door is always open for you. Come in! Jane is here – she is sitting for a painting.
SWINBURNE
Will you grant me the privilege of a peak?
ROSSETTI, showing the painting
It's quite subdued isn't it?
SWINBURNE
Not the stunner at the center! Subdued? Dear friend, you have crafted the paint into skin capable of soft heat and the flush of a growing flower – all its nerves desire the divine touch of your brush. Jane, I presume you intensely pleased with the portrait.
JANEY
Mr Rossetti's talent artfully improves on the model.
ROSSETTI
Not a single of my paintings does her justice. Not a one. If only I could paint her once and for all, and show the world how she really is. I continue to disappoint myself, and only see flashes of what I ought to have done. I will have to try again. I am of a mind to paint Mrs. Morris as the goddess Proserpine,
SWINBURNE
This may not be the best time to bring up this review.
ROSSETTI
Review?
SWINBURNE
Review indeed, and quite scandalous, from one Thomas Maitland. He lumped dear old Morris and the both of us into a “fleshly school of poetry, ” penning no fewer than seventeen pages on you! Fleshly? What is this “fleshly?” Why, my dear Rossetti, he is positively obsessed with you, no amount of ink is too dear for the man to lay on paper for you.
ROSSETTI
Oh, what does he say about Topsy?
SWINBURNE
Merely a few cursory comments - He transformed his pen into a poisoned dart and aimed for you, mostly.
ROSSETTI
You have my attention.
SWINBURNE
Are my sonnets not as “fleshly” as yours? I will take great pains to fix this deficiency; the exploit of writing Brittania's most objectionable and offensive prose must be mine. I shall provide critics bleeding flesh, burning flesh, flogging flesh, pulsating flesh, whipped flesh... in such super-abundance that no one but me shall ever be flattered with the “fleshly” epithet!
ROSSETTI
Ah, Swinburne, a wordsmith such as you, confusing “censure” with “praise?”
SWINBURNE
If it weren't for the tone of condemnation, all his censure could be sold for praise. Let me propose the notion that is taking pleasure in provoking us. Perhaps he is merely trying to exact revenge on Ellis, who is publishing our books, and who sued him for non-payment of debts a few years prior. I believe this quite possible. This could also be retribution for your coming to my defence from his petulant onslaughts. Two birds with one stone!
ROSSETTI
Who is this Maitland that I have never heard of?
SWINBURNE
I did not tell you? I have it on good authority that none other than Robert Buchanan is hiding behind this “Maitland” pen name – but I cannot yet be certain.
ROSSETTI
Show me!
SWINBURNE
I have underlined the most succulent parts for you.
ROSSETTI
This is an outrage! What is this stealthy school of criticism? This imaginary character “Maitland” is accusing me of plagiarizing... Buchanan – also known as himself!
SWINBURNE
He is accusing you of copying him... while finding your poetry highly offensive! Is this not some grotesque form of intellectual self-flagellation?
I thought you'd be amused
ROSSETTI
Some of what he says is true. I “draw ill.” I cannot tell a pleasant story like Mr. Morris” nor can I “forge alliterative thunderbolts like Mr. Swinburne.” Now I spy a compliment or two: I'm not “glibly imitative as the one, nor so transcendently superficial as the other.”
SWINBURNE (mocking)
A dagger in my heart.
ROSSETTI
I should always be slighted in such company as dear Topsy, and yourself.
SWINBURNE
I didn't know you held Topsy in such high regard.
ROSSETTI
I was perhaps being facetious – though not with regards to you.
SWINBURNE
Please continue.
ROSSETTI
One might tolerate the language of lust more readily on the lips of a lover addressing a mistress than on the lips of a husband virtually wheeling his nuptial couch out into the public streets.
SWINBURNE, grabbing the papers“...the man who is too sensitive to exhibit his pictures, and so modest that it takes him years to make up his mind to publish his poems, parades his private sensations before a coarse public, and is gratified by their idiotic applause.”
ROSSETTI
Scathing, scathing.
SWINBURNE
You haven't heard the worse from this coward:
“A suspicion is awakened that the writer is laughing at us.” And, further, “Females who bite, scratch, scream, bubble, munch, sweat, writhe, twist, wriggle, foam, and in a general way slaver over their lovers, must surely possess some extraordinary qualities to counteract their otherwise most offensive mode of conducting themselves.” Gabriel, upon my word, I will not allow this travesty to remain unanswered.
ROSSETTI
I have heard enough. I am no longer amused. Let me answer this gutless jelly and set him on fire.
SWINBURNE
Oh, Gabriel, I cannot conceive of anything more amusing than the outlandish vexations of a man discovering a talent greater than his own, and attempting to dissect it while concealed behind a name not his own. A gentleman is bound not to take notice of an anonymous insult. Are we cranes or mice, that we should give battle to the frogs or the pigmies? However in this instance the originator of the insult is but a poorly kept secret. I shall endeavour to reward him with a great deal of ridicule for this corrupt opus and I promise to have great fun in so doing – I shall whip him in the open on the courses. My friend, you will find both relish and satisfaction upon reading my planned rebuttal. All you have to do is rest, while I do all the talking.
ROSSETTI
Ha, dear old Swinburne. I am blessed to count you as a friend. Your zest of the fray is legendary.
SWINBURNE
How do you like his nearly anonymous critic's vomit described as “the drivelling desperation of fangless duncery?”
ROSSETTI
Brilliant!
SWINBURNE
Or himself described as a “dirty and dwarfish creature of simian intellect and facetious idiocy?”
ROSSETTI
Ah! Better still!
SWINBURNE
Shall we use superlatives, then? “The most horny-eyed and beetle-headed of pedants!”
ROSSETTI
A pedantic skunk!
SWINBURNE
Indeed! “At each fresh emanation of his malodorous soul it becomes more clearly impossible for man to approach him even with stopped nostril and glove-guarded hand!”
ROSSETTI
Ah, Swinburne – you have no equal.
ROSSETTI
He has earned every word of rebuke. It is a scientific fact that the virtuous journalist's condemnation of the poets' addiction to “the worship of Priapus” is meant to conceal their own devotion to the garden god... hypocrites!
Knocking is heard at the door
ROSSETTI
I am not expecting anyone!
Rossetti opens the door
ROSSETTI
Topsy! What a fantastic coincidence brings you here unexpectedly at the same hour that Swinburne has graced us with a surprise visit! This is a blessed day indeed. Mrs Morris is sitting for a painting presently, you must be burning to see her – she is a little unwell, I must warn.
MORRIS
Janey! I – I am – You are – I have not seen you in so long, it is a delight as always.
JANEY
Thank you.
MORRIS
You look well.
JANEY
(shrugs)
SWINBURNE
Topsy you are as stout and as vigorous as ever!
MORRIS
I apologize my lack of announcement. I had meant to call earlier, but some unknown force paralysed me until now, when I decided that I must do this at once and take the risk that you not be home. I am most delighted that you happened to be here at that very moment, dear friend.
SWINBURNE
We were carrying on a most amusing conversation about “Maitland's” most recent critique of our combined poetic talents.
MORRIS
Oh yes, I have heard. That Buchanan, isn't it?I found myself lacking the patience to read the entire his tiresome quarrel. I will say this, my friends. Who remembers any critic at any time in history – unless they are exceptionally obtuse or laughable? Buchanan might simply be to exerting himself to earning a place of honour in some pantheon of lunacy. No, with the wisdom of time, true art rises and augments, while its critics decay and disappear. Even this monkey Buchanan has the right to moan about our poetry; I will be first to acknowledge that my own writing may not be to every man's liking.
ROSSETTI
I refuse to hear this, Tops, anyone not enchanted with your “Earthly Paradise” must have had their organ of literary appreciation violently ripped out by vicious tigers!
MORRIS
You are too kind. Free as he may be to express his abhorrence of anyone's verses, I am just as free to ignore him and carry on as I bloody well please.
SWINBURNE
Am I free to destroy him with the might of my pen?
MORRIS
You have been a friend for long enough; any attempt to dissuade you from this enterprise would be utterly futile.
SWINBURNE
Topsy, I wish I had your temperance in these matters.
ROSSETTI
Swinburne, not one in this present company is sufficiently deluded to believe this fiction.
SWINBURNE
Then I shall immediately confess to a prodigious thrill from my very want of temperance.
MORRIS
I was convinced well before your confession!
SWINBURNE
Why, I am much aroused by Buchanan's slight. Well, look at the time, and I have yet to hear an offer of whiskey proffered by my negligent host! I must set out to make it home before dark. I shall see myself out.
ROSSETTI (opens a liquor cabinet)
Swinburne, you fiend. No guest of mine sees himself out, let this fine bottle of single malt walk you to the door with me in tow.
SWINBURNE, bowing
Upon my word, I shall use every precious drop to fuel my rebuke of Buchanan. I vow to wipe off the froth of falsehood from the foaming lips of his inebriated virtue - fresh from the sexless orgies of morality.
ROSSETTI
(sighs)
SWINBURNE
Oh dear, I hope that bruised expression of your is a feint! Upon my word, if any poet or other literary creature could really be killed off by one comically pitiable critique, the sooner he was so despatched the better! Well, on this cheerful note - I shall be on my way – I look forward to your visits and your invitations, dear friend. Oh – I leave you with these famous Northumbrian words of wisdom: “a smarting butt makes a boy smart!”
ROSSETTI
I shall not keep that in mind at all!
Rossetti closes the door.
ROSSETTI
Words cannot express how glad we are to see you return safely from your voyage to Iceland.
MORRIS
Nor they can express the relief I feel that the horrors that my exile has, no doubt, saved me from witnessing.
ROSSETTI
You must have fantastical stories that we'd love to hear.
MORRIS
Doubtlessly, nothing as fantastical as your stories, that I wish not to hear. Nothing more than what you'd expect from me. I scrambled, I bumbled, I fumbled. As usual, ingeniously inept. In this pot, throw in my slapdash translation of a great Norse saga, and some poems. I tried to pass some of the time recalling those pretty farewells that might have been customary at the time of my departure from England, and remembered none. In conclusion, Iceland is a place where there is scant solace to be found outside of those sagas that are quite devoid of hopefulness. Did that make you morose? Ah, it is foolish to ask a question that I can answer myself.
ROSSETTI
You did not find pleasure in your travels?
MORRIS
The climate made this rather difficult – but I suppose it is no worse than London... in the summer. A foreigner like myself must enquire for hospitality to the Icelandic people directly, for they have no inns. Doctors judges and ministers were imposed upon, for they often speak the English language. Doctors too busy, judges too self-important, and ministers were all too glad to hope for a donation to the parish.
ROSSETTI
You must have met interesting people.
MORRIS
Ah, I befriended saddlers and presidents, and generally preferred the company of the former. I found the Icelandic people is quite united in poverty and in the fight to survive. One cannot conquer the ice and brimstone alone. In this cooperation, they are richer than we are; the most grinding poverty is a trifling evil compared with the inequality of classes
Morris looks at the unfinished painting
MORRIS
Willows... how interesting. Iceland had much in the way of dwarf willows, fed yet stunted by the clear, ice-cold rivers from the summer melt of the glaciers. Bright streams rushing over dull, grey, round pebbles, lazily reaching the sea on a bed of dark grey sand. Glacial water, poor and cold; supports very little growth indeed. Very unlike the willows here at home.
ROSSETTI
Tops, would you be deprived much of my company, if I made a turn in the garden?
MORRIS
I'd be much obliged.
Rossetti leaves the room.
JANEY
I am glad to see you well and invigorated by your voyage.
MORRIS
(coughs)
JANEY
Have you been in good health?
MORRIS, tasting a sandwich, and not liking it
What is that bitter taste? Oh yes. And you?
JANEY
Somewhat better than I have been.
MORRIS
Are the girls here? I would dearly like to see the girls.
JANEY, while Morris tosses the sandwiches out the window
They are spending the month at the Howard's. We expected you to return earlier, and it could no longer be postponed – I had hoped that they would greet you and cheer you up. Rosalind assures me that they are enjoying themselves.
MORRIS
When are they to return?
JANEY
In no more than a week.
MORRIS
How is our Jenny?
JANEY
A brilliant student, much like her papa.
MORRIS
Oh, no, she takes from you. And May?
JANEY
Undisciplined as always, but she is such a happy thing, I cannot bring myself to ever scold her.
MORRIS
Janey...
JANEY
Yes?
MORRIS
How is your health? Ah, oh, I mean, Janey, how do you... do we intend to continue dealing with this matter of ours? Has it... played itself out?
JANEY
(does not answer)
MORRIS
So beautiful and kind are your eyes, but most times looking out afar, waiting for something, not for me.
JANEY
I recall those verses.
MORRIS
Are they still true?
JANEY
I never intended to inflict pain upon you, for you are a good and honest man.
MORRIS
I take it I must satisfy myself with this answer. I, I wrote something. Will you hear it?
JANEY
Yes.
MORRIS (takes out folded paper from his pocket, and reads)
She wavered, stopped and turned. I thought her eyes,
The deep grey windows of her heart, were wet,
I thought they softened with a new regret
To note in mine unspoken miseries,
And even as a bitter word did rise
Up from my heart struggling with shame's strong net,
Sweet seemed the word she spake, while it might be
As wordless music—But truth fell on me,
And kiss and word I knew – a wall of stone
Before me made me bitterly alone
While at my back there beat a boundless sea
.
That is all, that is all.
Morris wipes off tears, Rossetti returns
ROSSETTI
Nothing out there but decrepit foliage and seed heads. I suppose Mother Nature gives up the good fight when it senses autumn is on its way.
MORRIS
I'll see myself off, no need to accompany me.
Rossetti stays put, Morris reaches the door on his own.
MORRIS
Your expressions of gratitude need not be so eloquent. Goodbye, Janey, I'll see you at home at Queen Square, should you be struck by some unexpected fancy to keep a broken man company.
Morris closes the door himself.
ROSSETTI
Please relieve me of anxiety. Was my strategic absence too short perhaps? What conspired?
JANEY
Your timing was fine. You had nothing to worry about.
Rossetti approaches Janey
JANEY
My back is too sore at the moment, please, just lay your head on my knee.
Rossetti weeps quietly, while Janey places a hand on his head.
JANEY
Oh dear, you are crestfallen. Nothing has changed. He is gone.
ROSSETTI
Never mind Topsy; I will rebut this posturing, craven monkey.
JANEY
Still, that Buchanan? Nothing he has written should cause you pain.
ROSSETTI
How could it not? He is torturing me over Lizzie, over you. Poor Lizzie; she never recovered from the sorrow of our stillborn child. There she was, laying lifeless on our bed, eyes looking upwards, an empty phial of laudanum by her side... we never can speak of these things in society, but she took her own life, Janey.
JANEY
She did. Do not put the blame on yourself.
ROSSETTI
But it is my fault. I wed her, but I wpre a cloak concealing for my you.
JANEY
She was so frail and sickly...
ROSSETTI
Her lights were dimming, even the laudanum gave her no respite, I could not abandon her without killing her... yet I killed her just the same, Janey. I was the cause of her misery.
ROSSETTI, getting up
Janey, Janey, I envision a great canvas, with you as Proserpine, in blues and greens. I see it. Your face, in the softest light. It will be the pinnacle of my achievement, a consecration of your essence, everything I see in you, on canvass. Can it be done? Will you sit for me?
JANEY
I don't know, Gabriel. (Silence) Why Proserpine?
ROSSETTI
Proserpine, abducted by Pluto, the god of the underworld... carried to his domain of death and darkness, and forced to marry the beast. That Proserpine.
JANEY
Remind me about the pomegranate.
ROSSETTI
She pleaded for mercy, he gave her one pomegranate, one, the fruit of the dead, and admonished her to not eat a single seed until she reached the world of light. Poor Proserpine was starved in her long voyage, and ate just four seeds; yet she was condemned to spent 4 months of the year in Hades on account of her transgression. Is that not the story of our love?
JANEY
You are embellishing as usual.
ROSSETTI
Janey – There is no embellishment. I have never entertained deeper feelings towards any other creature my entire life.
JANEY
My dear, time must have faded your memory of earlier passions.
ROSSETTI
You have never believed me.
JANEY
Maybe the time has come that I should believe you. Yes, I will allow myself to believe a liar. When all is said and done, and the lid is closed on my coffin, having believed a liar will have made my life something extraordinary.
ROSSETTI
No, Janey, hand on my heart, I have never lied to you. When the lid is closed on my coffin, you must know, my last thought will have been of you.
JANEY
I believe you, I do.
ROSSETTI
I have never lied to you. Places that are empty of you are bereft of all life. Everything is dark for me when you are away – from the very moment when we part, and I see you walk down the stairs, it is such a lonely thing... You have Top and the girls... I have nothing but the wait for your letters.
JANEY
Gabriel, Gabriel...I have to be kind to him, he's always been kind to me.
ROSSETTI
But, Janey...
JANEY
I have never loved him. You know I have never loved him.
Curtain