"A Long Time Ago" was first produced by the Provincetown Players, New
York City, in 1917, with the following cast:
The Old Woman .............. Miriam Kiper
The Fool.................... Duncan MacDougal
The Queen................... Ida Rauh
The Sailor.................. George Cram Cook
The Prince.................. Pendleton King
_The courtyard of a palace. On one side, broad steps, and a door,
leading to the palace. On the other, steps leading downward. At the
back, a rose-arbour, and in front of it a wide seat.
On the steps before the door a fool is sitting, plucking at a musical
instrument. On the lower steps stands an old woman, richly dressed_.
THE OLD WOMAN. Why do you sit there, fool, and twang at that harp?
There's no occasion for making music. Nobody has been winning any
battles. How long has it been since a great fight was heard of?
THE FOOL. If there had been a battle, old woman, they would have had to
get some one besides myself to celebrate the winning of it. I do not
like fighting.
THE OLD WOMAN. What does a scrawny little weakling like you know of
fighting, and why should you have an opinion?
THE FOOL. The days of fighting are over, and a good thing it is, too.
Four kingdoms we have about us, that in the bloody old days we would be
for ever marching against, and they against us, killing and burning and
destroying the crops till a quiet man would be sick to think of it. But
that's all past. Twenty years we have been at peace with them, and
that's ever since the young queen was born, and I hope it may last as
long as she lives.
THE OLD WOMAN. There's no stopping a fool when he starts to talk. But
it is right you are that the good old days are gone. Those were the
days of great heroes, like the father of her that is now Queen. They
were fine men that stood beside him, and one was my own man. I said to
him, "This is the time a brave man is sure to be killed. If you come
back to me, I'll always think you were a coward." He died along with a
thousand of the best men in the kingdom fighting around the King. That
was a great day. Four kingdoms at once we fought, and beat them to
their knees. Glad enough they were to make peace with the child of that
dead king.
THE FOOL. Spare me, woman. I've heard that old story often enough. What
do you suppose all that fighting was for, if it wasn't to put an end to
quarrelling for all time? If the old King was alive now, he'd sit in
his palace and drink his ale and listen to music, and when he saw the
young men giving kisses to the young women under the trees he'd be glad
enough. But you still go cawing for blood, like an old crow.
THE OLD WOMAN. I'll not talk to such a one. You can see with your own
eyes that our enemies are strong and prosperous. We let them into the
kingdom with their silks and their satins and their jewels to sell.
They walk about the city here and laugh to themselves, thinking how
they will spoil and destroy everything soon. It may be this year, it
may be next year. If the old King were alive, he'd never have let them
get half so strong. He would have kept them in fear of us, and trained
up a fine band of heroes, too, making raids on them once in a while.
There's the city that shoves itself right up against our borders--I can
see our men coming home from the spoiling of it, all red with spilt
wine and blood. . . .
THE FOOL. You're a disgusting old woman. If I hear any more of that
talk, I'm likely to slap the face of you, even if you are the Queen's
nurse. Go away before you spoil my afternoon.
THE OLD WOMAN. I could speak to the Queen and have you beaten, do you
know that?
THE FOOL. Woman, go away. I do not want to be bothered by the old and
the garrulous. I am composing a love-song.
THE OLD WOMAN. Has any one ever loved you, I would like to know? Now if
it were that young prince who is staying with us, he would have some
right to make love-songs--if what they say is true, that every woman he
meets on his journey falls in love with him. Even our own Queen, I am
thinking. But only three days does he stay in any place, and then he is
up and gone on his long journey that nobody understands the reason or
the end of, from the east to the west. He is too wise to be held by
such toys as love.
THE FOOL. Then he is more a fool than I.
THE OLD WOMAN. Who should know about love, if not a man who has been
loved by many women and by great queens? But you, what do you know
about it?
THE FOOL. The trouble with the old is that they forget so many things.
I am sorry for you, woman. You think yourself wise, but the fool that
sits at the Queen's doorstep and looks at her as she passes, and she
never seeing him at all, is wiser than you.
THE OLD WOMAN. I have wasted enough words with you. I will go away and
sit in the sun and think of the days when there were heroes.
_She goes_.
THE FOOL. And I will make a song about love. I will make a song about
the love that is too high for pride and too deep for shame.
_The door has opened, and the young Queen stands looking down at him_.
THE QUEEN. What is that, fool? What are the words you are saying?
THE FOOL. (_kneeling_) I was speaking of a love that is too high
for pride and too deep for shame.
THE QUEEN. And whose love is that, fool?
THE FOOL. It is the love of all who really love, and it is the only
love worth making a song about.
THE QUEEN. (_smiling_) And how do you come to be so wise as to know
about such things?
THE FOOL. I know because I am a fool.
THE QUEEN. I am well answered. And you are not the only fool in the
world, I am thinking. But tell me, fool, have you seen any of the
Prince's men here?
THE FOOL. No, but I have heard that the ship is being got ready for
sailing. . . .
THE QUEEN. (_rebukingly_) I did not ask you that. (_She is about to go,
but turns back, and gives him a piece of money_.) This is for you to
buy wine with and get drunken. You are not amusing when you are sober.
(_She starts to go, but turns again_.) Fool, do you believe in magic?
THE FOOL. I have heard that the old wizard who lives in a cave down by
the shore is able to rouse storms and keep vessels from sailing.....
THE QUEEN. (_looking at him, for a moment fixedly_) I have a great
mind to have you poisoned. Here, take this, and remember that I said to
be drunken.
_She gives him another piece of money, and goes off by way of the
rose-trellised passage-way. A sailor comes up the steps_.
THE SAILOR. Fool, where is the Prince?
THE FOOL. I do not know, sailor, but I can tell you what I think.
THE SAILOR. What difference does it make what you think? I have a
message to deliver to him.
THE FOOL. I think that the Queen has sung him to sleep, and that he has
not yet awakened.
THE SAILOR. It is likely enough. But I have been sent by the captain,
and I must see him.
THE FOOL. You look hot.
THE SAILOR. I am so hot and thirsty that I could drink a barrelful of
wine. It is well enough for the Prince to lie about and eat and drink
and be sung to by pretty women, but we sailors have work to do. This
business of staying only three days in each port disgusts me. No sooner
do we get ashore than we have to go back on board again. I saw a girl
yesterday, a beauty, and not afraid of a man. There must be many like
that here, but what good does it do me? I spent all my money on her,
and now I can't even get a drink. It's a shame.
THE FOOL. Would you like a drink?
THE SAILOR. Fool, don't make a mock of my thirst, or I'll twist your
neck.