Arcadia Read Free Page B

the culling of the herd. Papa has no need
of the recording angel, his life is written in the game book.
    Septimus: A calendar of slaughter. ‘Even in Arcadia, there
am I!’
    Thomasina: Oh, phooey to Death!
    (She dips a pen and takes it to the reading stand.)
    I will put in a hermit, for what is a hermitage without a hermit?
Are you in love with my mother, Septimus?
    Septimus: You must not be cleverer than your elders. It is
not polite.
    Thomasina: Am I cleverer?
    Septimus: Yes. Much.
    Thomasina: Well, I am sorry, Septimus. (She pauses in her
drawing and produces a small envelope from her pocket.) Mrs Chater came to
the music room with a note for you. She said it was of scant importance, and
that therefore I should carry it to you with the utmost safety, urgency and
discretion. Does carnal embrace addle the brain?
    Septimus: (Taking the letter) Invariably. Thank you.
That is enough education for today.
    Thomasina: There. I have made him like the Baptist in the wilderness.
    Septimus: How picturesque.
    (LADY CROOM is heard calling distantly for THOMASINA who
runs off into the garden, cheerfully, an uncomplicated girl. Septimus opens
Mrs Chater 9 s note. He crumples the envelope and throws it away. He
reads the note, folds it and inserts it into the pages of’The Couch of Eros 9 .)
Scene Two
    The lights come up on the same room, on the same sort of
morning, in the present day, as is instantly clear from the appearance of Hannah
jarvis; and from nothing else.
    Something needs to be said about this. The action of the
play shuttles back and forth between the early nineteenth century and the
present day, always in this same room. Both periods must share the state of the
room, without the additions and subtractions which would normally be expected.
The general appearance of the room should offend neither period. In the
case of props—books, paper, flowers, etc., there is no absolute need to remove
the evidence of one period to make way for another. However, books, etc., used in both periods should exist in both old and new versions. The landscape
outside, we are told, has undergone changes. Again, what we see should neither
change nor contradict.
    On the above principle, the ink and pens etc., of the
first scene can remain. Books and papers associated with Hannah’s research, in
Scene Two, can have been on the table from the beginning of the play. And so
on. During the course of the play the table collects this and that, and where
an object from one scene would be an anachronism in another (say a coffee mug)
it is simply deemed to have become invisible. By the end of the play the table
has collected an inventory of objects.
    Hannah is leafing through the pages ofMrNoakes’s sketch
book. Also to hand, opened and closed, are a number of small volumes like
diaries (these turn out to be Lady Groom’s ‘garden books’). After a few
moments, Hannah takes the sketch book to the windows, comparing the view
with what has been drawn, and then she replaces the sketch book on the reading
stand.
    She wears nothing frivolous. Her shoes are suitable for
the garden, which is where she goes now after picking up the theodolite from
the table. The room is empty for a few moments.
    One of the other doors opens to admit CHLOfi and Bernard. She is the daughter of the house and is dressed casually. Bernard, the
visitor, wears a suit and a tie. His tendency is to dress flamboyantly, but he
has damped it down for the occasion, slightly. A peacock-coloured display
handkerchief boils over in his breastpocket. He carries a capacious leather bag
which serves as a briefcase. chloE: Oh! Well, she was here ... Bernard:
Ah ... the french window ... chloE: Yes. Hang on.
    (CHLOE steps out through the garden door and disappears
from view. Bernard hangs on. The second door opens and VALENTINE looksin.)
    Valentine: Sod.
    (Valentine goes out again, closing the door. chloE returns,
carrying a pair of rubber boots. She comes in and sits down and starts
exchanging her