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BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
_Plays_:
EAST OF SUEZ
THE CIRCLE
THE EXPLORER
MRS. DOT
A MAN OF HONOUR
PENELOPE
JACK STRAW
LADY FREDERICK
THE TENTH MAN
LANDED GENTRY
THE UNKNOWN
SMITH
_Novels_:
OF HUMAN BONDAGE
THE MOON AND SIXPENCE
THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF
LIZA OF LAMBETH
MRS. CRADDOCK
THE EXPLORER
THE MAGICIAN
THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
ON A CHINESE SCREEN
THE LAND OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
(_Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia_)
EAST OF SUEZ
A PLAY IN SEVEN SCENES
BY
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
NEW [Illustration] YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922.
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
[Illustration]
EAST OF SUEZ.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
DAISY
GEORGE CONWAY
HENRY ANDERSON
HAROLD KNOX
LEE TAI CHENG
SYLVIA KNOX
AMAH
WU
_The action of the play takes place in Peking_
SCENES
SCENE PAGE
I A STREET IN PEKING 11
II A SMALL VERANDAH ON AN UPPER STOREY OF THE BRITISH
AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY'S PREMISES 17
III THE TEMPLE OF FIDELITY AND VIRTUOUS INCLINATION 37
IV THE SITTING-ROOM IN THE ANDERSONS' APARTMENTS 59
V THE COURTYARD IN THE ANDERSONS' PART OF THE TEMPLE 81
VI A SMALL ROOM IN A CHINESE HOUSE IN PEKING 101
VII THE SITTING-ROOM IN THE ANDERSONS' APARTMENTS 121
SCENE I
EAST OF SUEZ
SCENE I
SCENE: _A street in Peking_
_Several shops are shown. Their fronts are richly decorated with
carved wood painted red and profusely gilt. The counters are
elaborately carved. Outside are huge sign-boards. The shops are
open to the street and you can see the various wares they sell. One
is a coffin shop, where the coolies are at work on a coffin: other
coffins, ready for sale, are displayed; some of them are of plain
deal, others are rich, with black and gold. The next shop is a
money changer's. Then there is a lantern shop in which all manner
of coloured lanterns are hanging. After this comes a druggist where
there are queer things in bottles and dried herbs. A small stuffed
crocodile is a prominent object. Next to this is a shop where
crockery is sold, large coloured jars, plates, and all manner of
strange animals. In all the shops two or three Chinamen are seated.
Some read newspapers through great horn spectacles; some smoke
water pipes._
_The street is crowded. Here is an itinerant cook with his two
chests, in one of which is burning charcoal: he serves out bowls of
rice and condiments to the passers-by who want food. There is a
barber with the utensils of his trade. A coolie, seated on a stool,
is having his head shaved. Chinese walk to and fro.
Some are coolies and wear blue cotton in various stages of
raggedness; some in black gowns and caps and black shoes are
merchants and clerks. There is a beggar, gaunt and thin, with an
untidy mop of bristly hair, in tatters of indescribable filthiness.
He stops at one of the shops and begins a long wail. For a time no
one takes any notice of him, but presently on a word from the fat
shopkeeper an assistant gives him a few cash and he wanders on.
Coolies, half naked, hurry by, bearing great bales on their yokes.
They utter little sharp cries for people to get out of their way.
Peking carts with their blue hoods rumble noisily along. Rickshaws
pass rapidly in both directions, and the rickshaw boys shout for
the crowd to make way. In the rickshaws are grave Chinese. Some are
dressed in white ducks after the European fashion; in other
rickshaws are Chinese women in long smocks and wide trousers or
Manchu ladies, with their faces painted like masks, in embroidered
silks. Women of various sorts stroll about the street or enter the
shops. You see them chaffering for various articles._
_A water-carrier passes along with a creaking barrow, slopping the
water as he goes; an old blind woman, a masseuse, advances slowly,
striking wooden clappers to proclaim her calling. A musician stands
on the curb and plays a tuneless melody on a one-stringed fiddle.
From the distance comes the muffled sound of gongs. There is a
babel of sound caused by the talking of all these people, by the
cries of coolies, the gong, the clappers, and the fiddle. From
burning joss-sticks in the shops in front of the household god
comes a savour of incense._
_A couple of Mongols ride across on shaggy ponies; they wear high
boots and Astrakhan caps. Then a string of camels sways slowly down
the street. They carry great burdens of skins from the deserts of
Mongolia. They are accompanied by wild looking fellows. Two stout
Chinese gentlemen are giving their pet birds an airing; the birds
are attached by the leg with a string and sit on little wooden
perches. The two Chinese gentlemen discuss their merits. Round
about them small boys play. They run hither and thither pursuing
one another amid the crowd._
END OF SCENE I