Six Short Plays by John Galsworthy
by John GalsworthyGenre: Drama
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Play
Recommended Adaptation Length:
Candidate for Adaptation? Promising
EXCERPT:
Collection includes:
The First and The Last
The Little Man
Hall-marked
Defeat
The Sun
Punch and Go
an excerpt:
THE GIRL. He couldn’t come before. I’m frightened. ‘E was fond o’ me.
THE MAN. And aren’t I fond of you?
THE GIRL. I ought to ‘a waited, Jim; with ‘im in the fightin’.
THE MAN. [Passionately] And what about me? Aren’t I been in the fightin’–earned all I could get?
THE GIRL. [Touching him] Ah!
THE MAN. Did you–? [He cannot speak the words.]
THE GIRL. Not like you, Jim–not like you.
THE MAN. Have a spirit, then.
THE GIRL. I promised him.
THE MAN. One man’s luck’s another’s poison.
THE GIRL. I ought to ‘a waited. I never thought he’d come back from the fightin’.
THE MAN. [Grimly] Maybe ‘e’d better not ‘ave.
THE GIRL. [Looking back along the tow-path] What’ll he be like, I wonder?
THE MAN. [Gripping her shoulder] Daisy, don’t you never go back on me, or I should kill you, and ‘im too.
[THE GIRL looks at him, shivers, and puts her lips to his.]
THE GIRL. I never could.
THE MAN. Will you run for it? ‘E’d never find us!
[THE GIRL shakes her head.]
THE MAN [Dully] What’s the good o’ stayin’? The world’s wide.
COMMENTS:
Galsworth wrote “The Forsyte Saga”, so there might be some real potential here.
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