"Coriolanus"
It was an old-established custom at the Dower House that at the end of
every term the girls must make a special effort to distinguish
themselves. They would get up a play, or a concert, or a Shakespeare
reading, sometimes a show of paintings, carving, and needlework, or a
well-rehearsed exhibition of physical exercises and drill. It was quite
an informal affair, only intended for themselves and the mistresses,
though occasionally Miss Birks invited a few friends to help to swell
the audience. Now April was here, the Easter holidays seemed fast
approaching, and preparations were accordingly made for the usual
function. As a rule, the girls organized the affair themselves, under
the direction of the Sixth Form, but this term Miss Harding stepped in
and assumed the management. She decreed that all the members of the
Latin classes should give a Latin play, and selected a version of
_Coriolanus_ for their performance. About half the school took Latin,
just enough to make up the cast required, so both senior and junior
students were set to work to learn speeches and get up orations. At
first they were entirely dismayed at the prospect of so arduous an
undertaking.
"I hardly thought Miss Harding was serious when she proposed it," said
Annie Pridwell, who with Deirdre, Dulcie, and Gerda made up the four
representatives of VB.
"Serious enough in all conscience," groaned Dulcie, turning over the
leaves of the small volume with an air of special tragedy.
"Volumnia--Volumnia--yes, here she comes again--Volumnia--oh! why am I
chosen for Volumnia? I'll never get all this stuff into my head!"
"You'll look the character nicely," said Annie consolingly. "You've
really rather a classic sort of nose, and you'll have a big distaff and
spindle, and be spinning as you talk."
"That won't help me to remember my part, unless I can write it on a
scrap of paper and hide it among the flax. I declare, it's not fair!
Volumnia has far more to say than Tullus Attius or Sicinius. You ought
to have something extra tagged on to your parts."
"We've quite enough, thanks!" declared Deirdre and Annie hastily.
"As for Gerda," continued Dulcie, "she's being let off too easily
altogether. Her Senator's speech is only eight lines."
"Well, it's my first term at Latin, remember," said Gerda.
"Jessie Macpherson will have to swot like anything to get up 'Caius
Marcus Coriolanus'. I'm glad I'm not picked for the show part, anyhow."
"Jessie won't mind swotting if she has a chance to shine. There'd have
been trouble if she'd had to play second fiddle."
"No one would be rash enough to suggest that. She's not head of the
school for nothing."
"Look here! Is this play to be part of the Latin lesson or an extra?
Shall we be excused our ordinary prep.?"
"Not a line."
"Oh, what a shame! Then it's giving us double lessons. I wish Miss
Harding had left us to get up a concert by ourselves."
Although the girls might grumble and make rather a fuss over learning
their parts, they soon committed the little play to memory, and thanks
to Miss Harding's efforts rehearsals went briskly. Jessie Macpherson,
whose cleverness certainly justified her assumption of general
superiority, rose to the occasion nobly, and tripped off her long
speeches as if Latin were her mother tongue, to the envy and admiration
of those who still halted and stumbled.
"Jessie had got through her grammar before she came to the Dower House,
though," said Irene Jordan, herself a beginner. "It gives her an
enormous pull to have started early."
"Boys' schools get up ever such grand Latin plays," remarked Rhoda
Wilkins. "At Orton College, where my brothers go, they did the _Phormio_
of Terence. We went to see it, and it was splendid. It took fully two
hours. Ours won't take one."
"Well, one expects boys to be better at Latin."
"Some girls' schools run them hard," said Phyllis Rowland. "I know girls
who can beat their brothers."
"Oh, yes, at the big High Schools, where you choose classics or modern
languages, and stick to one side. At the Dower House we dabble in
everything all round, maths., and science, and accomplishments thrown in
as well. Well, it gives you the chance to see which you like best."
The most serious question in connection with the performance was the
arrangement of the costumes. Miss Harding and the elder girls pored over
illustrated Roman histories and classical dictionaries, trying to get
the exact style of the period.
"It's difficult to reproduce with twentieth-century materials," said the
mistress. "One feels all the linens ought to be homespun, and woven in a
loom like Penelope's; and as for the scenery--well, we shall just have
to do the best we can."
"As long as we avoid anachronisms we shall be all right," said Jessie
Macpherson. "We shall have to leave something to the imagination of the
audience."
The whole school was requisitioned to help, and large working parties
were held in the dining-room. The girls found it an amusement to hem
togas or construct shields out of cardboard and brown paper, and
stitched quite elaborate borders on the robes of Veturia, Volumnia, and
Valeria. One of the difficulties that presented itself was the question
of footgear. Roman matrons did not wear serviceable school shoes with
heels, or elegant French ones either. It would certainly be necessary to
contrive sandals.
"We can't cut our best shoes down for the occasion!" said Marcia
Richards.
"I'd leave the school first!" returned Phyllis Rowland.
Hiring "Roman" sandals was too great an expense, and an ambitious
attempt of Jessie Macpherson's to make them out of paper turned out a
ghastly failure.
In the end Miss Harding cut some from strips of cloth, and this effect
proved classical enough to serve the purpose.
"That will be the best we can manage," she said.
"I'm thankful I haven't to do a dance in mine. It would be a queer sort
of shuffle!" confided Dulcie to her chum.
In honour of the very special effort which was being made, Miss Birks
decided to send a number of invitations and ask quite a considerable
gathering to an afternoon performance.
"It's going to be really a swell thing for once," said Deirdre. "I hear
Miss Birks is getting new curtains--those old ones are quite worn
out--and the joiner is to come and fix a rod. And there's to be tea
after the entertainment. Such heaps of people are coming!"
"Who?" asked Gerda.
"Oh, Major and Mrs. Hargreaves and their little boys, and Canon Hall and
Miss Hall, and Dr. and Mrs. Dawes, and all the four Miss Hirsts, and the
Rector of Kergoff, and Mr. Lawson, and of course Mrs. Trevellyan."
"And Ronnie?"
"Rather! We wouldn't leave Ronnie out of it! Miss Herbert is to come
too, if she hasn't gone home for the holidays."
"You've never seen Mrs. Trevellyan yet, Gerda?" put in Dulcie.
"Only in church."
"Well, but I mean to speak to. You didn't go to Ronnie's birthday party,
and the day she came here you were as shy as a baby, and scooted out of
the way."
"I can't help being shy," returned Gerda, blushing up to the very tips
of her ears.
"Why, there you are, turning as red as a boiled lobster! Miss Birks says
shyness is mostly morbid self-consciousness, and isn't anything to be
proud of. Why don't you try to get out of it? It looks right-down silly
to colour up like that over simply nothing at all. I'd be ashamed of
it!" said Dulcie, who could be severe on other people's faults, though
she demanded charity for her own.
"Gerda's copying eighteenth-century heroines!" mocked Deirdre. "They
always tried to outvie the rose. Didn't Herrick write a sonnet to his
Julia's blushes? And I'm sure I remember reading somewhere:
'O, sweet and fair,
Beyond compare,
Are Daphne's cheeks.
And Daphne's blushing cheeks, I swear!'
Go it, Gerda! Can you possibly get a little redder if you try? If you
outvie the rose, there's still the peony left!"
Gerda took her room-mates' teasing, as she took everything else at the
Dower House, with little or no remonstrance. It would have pleased the
girls much better if they could have raised a spark out of her. Her
queer, self-contained reserve was not at all to their taste, and they
awarded the palm of popularity to Betty Scott, whose high spirits,
perpetual jokes, and amusing tongue made her the public entertainer of
the Form.
"I wish Betty were acting," sighed Dulcie. "She's always the life and
soul of a play. It was very stupid of her mother not to want her to
learn Latin."
"I'm afraid Gerda'll be a perfect stick as Ancus Vinitius," whispered
Deirdre.
"An absolute dummy," agreed her chum.
But they underestimated Gerda's talents. Her part was a small one, yet
she rendered it excellently. She walked, acted, and spoke with a calm
dignity well in keeping with the character she represented. Everybody
agreed that she made a most reverend and stately senator.
"I ought to look old, though," she maintained. "It's absurd for us all
to look so youthful."
"Powder your hair," suggested Irene.
"Not enough. I think I can do better than that."
Rather to the girls' amusement, Gerda seemed more than ordinarily
anxious about her costume.
"She couldn't make more fuss if she was taking Coriolanus himself!"
laughed Dulcie. "The Senator might be the chief part."
Gerda had notions of her own, which she proceeded to carry out. She went
to Jessie Macpherson and borrowed the white wig, and with the help of
some more sheep's wool contrived a beard to match. On the afternoon of
the performance she not only donned these, but blackened her eyebrows
and painted her face with a series of wrinkles and crows'-feet.
"Why, it's splendid!" exclaimed the girls. "You look seventy at the very
least. Just the sort of venerable old city father you're meant for."
"You'd hardly know me, would you?" enquired Gerda casually.
"Nobody would know you. I don't believe even Miss Birks will recognize
you. It's the best make-up of anybody's. Jessie'll be proud to see her
wig used after all. She'll almost wish she'd worn it herself."
The performers found the dressing nearly the greatest part of the fun.
They arranged Volumnia's classical garments and ornaments, adjusted her
gold fillet; draped the folds of Veturia's flowing robe, and persuaded
Brutus to abandon spectacles for the occasion.
"You forget we're supposed to be in _circum_ 490 B.C.," remarked Jessie
Macpherson.
"I shall be blind without them!" objected Brutus.
"Never mind! You must catch hold of Sicinius's toga if you get into
difficulties."
"The Chinese used spectacles ages ago. Couldn't a pair of them have got
imported into Rome?"
"Certainly not. Those goggles of yours would spoil the whole classical
spirit of the play, and I shan't allow them."
"Well, I suppose I'll worry through somehow; but if I upset the rostrum
don't blame me!"
"You've just got to go through your part without upsetting anything,
spectacles or no spectacles, or you'll have to settle with me
afterwards!" observed Jessie grimly.
By half-past three all the invited guests had arrived and taken their
places in the dining-hall, where a temporary platform had been put up.
From behind the curtains the performers could take surreptitious peeps
and watch the arrival of the audience. Dulcie, with her eye at a tiny
opening, reported progress to the others.
"There's the Vicar! There's Mrs. Hargreaves with all the boys! There's
Canon Hall! Oh, here's Mrs. Trevellyan, and Miss Herbert and Ronnie
behind her!"
"Where are they sitting?" asked Gerda.
"Right in the middle of the front row. Do you want to peep?"
"Thanks--just for a second. Tell me, is my beard all right? Miss Birks,
or--anyone else--wouldn't know me?"
"Not from Adam! What a fuss you make about your costume!" said Dulcie
impatiently. "Nobody'll notice it all that much. There are ten others
acting as well as yourself."
"I'm glad you snubbed her," said Deirdre, as Gerda having taken her peep
between the curtains, retired to the back of the stage.
"She really needs it sometimes. It isn't good for people to let them get
swollen head."
"Are you all ready?" asked Miss Harding anxiously. "Then ring the bell,
Marcia. Now, Rhoda, don't forget your cue, 'Satis verborum,' and
remember to speak up. And, Doris, do put the right accent on 'Dulce et
decorum est pro patria mori'. I shall be so ashamed if you get it
wrong."
The audience clapped vigorously as the curtains parted and disclosed an
atrium with Veturia and Volumnia seated spinning and chatting as Roman
matrons may very possibly have chatted in the year 490 B.C. The scene
was really pretty, and became impressive when Caius Marcius arrived with
his proud news. Jessie Macpherson had an excellent idea of acting, and,
as her features were classical, she made an ideal personation of the
future Coriolanus, putting just the right amount of aristocratic
haughtiness into her demeanour and calm command into her tone of voice.
Miss Harding had been nervous about many points, but as the play went
on, and scene succeeded scene, she breathed more freely. Every girl was
on her mettle to do her best, and things that had dragged even at the
dress rehearsal now went briskly. Nobody needed prompting, and nobody
forgot her cue; all spoke up audibly, and even the lictor, who had been
the most difficult to train, did not turn his back on the audience.
Though many of the guests certainly could not understand the dialogue,
the plot of the play was so palpable that all could easily follow the
story from its interesting opening to the end. Coriolanus died nobly,
and fell to the ground with a really heroic disregard of possible
bruises; and Veturia commanded the sympathy of the entire room as she
shared his fate. The performers received quite an ovation as they stood
in a line making their bows.
"Really, Miss Birks, your girls are too clever for anything," remarked
Canon Hall. "Their Latin was most excellent."
"The soft pronunciation makes it sound just like Italian," said Mrs.
Trevellyan. "They deserve many congratulations."
"Yes, they caught the classical spirit of the thing so well," agreed Mr.
Poynter, the vicar.
"Considering that many of them are beginners, I think it is fairly well
to their credit, and certainly to Miss Harding's," said Miss Birks.
"This is the first Latin play they have attempted. Another time they
will do better."
The next part of the function was tea in the drawing-room, to which
guests and pupils were alike invited.
"Be quick and change your costumes!" commanded Coriolanus behind the
scenes. "Here! somebody please unfasten me at the back! Where are my
shoes gone to?"
"Why need we change?" interposed Gerda quickly. "It will take so long,
tea'll be over before we're ready. Why can't we go in as we are?"
"Oh, yes, let us keep on our costumes!" agreed Dulcie, who liked being a
Roman lady. "Miss Harding, mayn't we have tea in character?"
"Why, I dare say it will amuse the visitors. Yes, run in as you are if
you wish. Gerda, wouldn't you like to take off that beard and wash your
face? Come here and I'll help you."
"No, thanks! I'd rather keep it on, really."
"I don't know how you'll negotiate any tea!"
"I don't mind."
The eleven performers made quite a sensation as they filed into the
drawing-room. All the children among the guests wanted to examine their
garments and handle their mock daggers. Ronnie in particular persisted
in calling his aunt's attention to every detail.
"I like Jessie and Rhoda and Hilda the best," he declared frankly. "I
didn't know Marcia at first. And who do you think that old man is? It's
Gerda--Gerda Thorwaldson! Gerda, do let Auntie look at you! Yes, you
must come! I'll drag you! Here she is, Auntie!"
"How do you do, my dear? Your make-up seems excellent," said Mrs.
Trevellyan kindly, smiling as the senator blushed furiously under his
painted wrinkles. "Ronnie, you mustn't be naughty! Don't hold her if she
wants to go. What a little tyrant you are!"
"Gerda is such a very shy girl," said Miss Birks, as Ronnie loosed his
hold and Ancus Vinitius made his escape. "I always have the greatest
difficulty in persuading her to speak to strangers. It amounts to a
fault."
"A pardonable failing at her age," returned Mrs. Trevellyan. "She'll
outgrow it presently, no doubt. At any rate, it's pleasanter than too
great self-assurance, which is generally the reproach cast at young
people of the period. It's quite refreshing nowadays to meet a girl who
is shy."