Title: The Scarecrow; or The Glass of Truth: A Tragedy of the Ludicrous
Author: Percy MacKaye
Release date: May 13, 2018 [eBook #57156]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Paul Marshall, Mary Glenn Krause, MFR and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive)
THE SCARECROW
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
SAN FRANCISCO
Macmillan & CO., Limited
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.
TORONTO
OR
THE GLASS OF TRUTH
A Tragedy of the Ludicrous
BY
PERCY MACKAYE
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1911
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1908, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1908. Reprinted February, 1911.
This play has been copyrighted and published simultaneously in the United States and Great Britain. All acting rights, both professional and amateur, are reserved in the United States, Great Britain, and countries of the Copyright Union, by Percy MacKaye. Performances forbidden and right of representation reserved. Application for the right of performing this piece must be made to The McMillan Company. Any piracy or infringement will be prosecuted in accordance with the penalties provided by the United States Statutes:—
“Sec. 4966.—Any person publicly performing or representing any dramatic or musical composition, for which copyright has been obtained, without the consent of the proprietor of the said dramatic or musical composition, or his heirs or assigns, shall be liable for damages therefor, such damages in all cases to be assessed at such sum, not less than one hundred dollars for the first and fifty dollars for every subsequent performance, as to the Court shall appear to be just. If the unlawful performance and representation be wilful and for profit, such person or persons shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction be imprisoned for a period not exceeding one year.” U. S. Revised Statutes, Title 60, Chap. 3.
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick &
Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
To
MY MOTHER
IN MEMORY OF AUSPICIOUS
“COUNTINGS OF THE CROWS”
BY OLD NEW ENGLAND CORN-FIELDS
But for a fantasy of Nathaniel Hawthorne, this play, of course, would never have been written. In “Mosses from an Old Manse,” the Moralized Legend “Feathertop” relates, in some twenty pages of its author’s inimitable style, how Mother Rigby, a reputed witch of old New England days, converted a corn-patch scarecrow into the semblance of a fine gentleman of the period; how she despatched this semblance to “play its part in the great world, where not one man in a hundred, she affirmed, was gifted with more real substance than itself”; how there the scarecrow, while paying court to pretty Polly Gookin, the rosy, simpering daughter of Justice Gookin, discovered its own image in a looking-glass, returned to Mother Rigby’s cottage, and dissolved into its original elements.
My indebtedness, therefore, to this source, in undertaking the present play, goes without saying. Yet it would not be true, either to Hawthorne’s work or my own, to classify “The Scarecrow” as a dramatization of “Feathertop.” Were it intended to be such, the many radical departures from the conception and the treatment of Hawthorne which are evident in the present work would have to be regarded as so [Pg x] many unwarrantable liberties taken with its original material; the function of the play itself would, in such case, become purely formal,—translative of a narrative to its appropriate dramatic form,—and as such, however interesting and commendable an effort, would have lost all raison d’être for the writer.
But such, I may say, has not been my intention. My aim has been quite otherwise. Starting with the same basic theme, I have sought to elaborate it, by my own treatment, to a different and more inclusive issue.
Without particularizing here the full substance of Hawthorne’s consummate sketch, which is available to every reader, the divergence I refer to may be summed up briefly.
The scarecrow Feathertop of Hawthorne is the imaginative epitome or symbol of human charlatanism, with special emphasis upon the coxcombry of fashionable society. In his essential superficiality he is characterized as a fop, “strangely self-satisfied,” with “nobby little nose thrust into the air.” “And many a fine gentleman,” says Mother Rigby, “has a pumpkin-head as well as my scarecrow.” His hollow semblance is the shallowness of a “well-digested conventionalism, which had incorporated itself thoroughly with his substance and transformed him into a work of art.” “But the clothes in this case were to be the making of the man,” and so Mother Rigby, after fitting him out in a suit of embroidered finery, endows him as a finishing touch “with a [Pg xi] great deal of brass, which she applied to his forehead, thus making it yellower than before. ‘With that brass alone,’ quoth she, ‘thou canst pay thy way all over the earth.’”
Similarly, the other characters are sketched by Hawthorne in accord with this general conception. Pretty Polly Gookin, “tossing her head and managing her fan” before the mirror, views therein “an unsubstantial little maid that reflected every gesture and did all the foolish things that Polly did, but without making her ashamed of them. In short, it was the fault of pretty Polly’s ability, rather than her will, if she failed to be as complete an artifice as the illustrious Feathertop himself.”
Thus the Moralized Legend reveals itself as a satire upon a restricted artificial phase of society. As such, it runs its brief course, with all the poetic charm and fanciful suggestiveness of our great New Englander’s prose style, to its appropriate dénouement,—the disintegration of its hero.
“‘My poor, dear, pretty Feathertop,’ quoth Mother Rigby, with a rueful glance at the relics of her ill-fated contrivance, ‘there are thousands upon thousands of coxcombs and charlatans in the world made up of just such a jumble of worn-out, forgotten, and good-for-nothing trash as he was, yet they live in fair repute and never see themselves for what they are. And why should my poor puppet be the only one to know himself and perish for it?’”
Coxcombry and charlatanism, then, are the butt of Hawthorne’s satire in his Legend. The nature of his theme, however, is susceptible of an [Pg xii] application far less restricted, a development far more universal, than such satire. This wider issue once or twice in his sketch he seems to have touched upon, only immediately to ignore again. Thus, in the very last paragraph, Mother Rigby exclaims: “Poor Feathertop! I could easily give him another chance and send him forth again to-morrow. But no! His feelings are too tender—his sensibilities too deep.”
In these words, spoken in irony, Hawthorne ends his narrative with an undeveloped aspect of his theme, which constitutes the starting-point of the conception of my play: the aspect, namely, of the essential tragedy of the ludicrous; an aspect which, in its development, inevitably predicates for my play a divergent treatment and a different conclusion. The element of human sympathy is here substituted for that of irony, as criterion of the common absurdity of mankind.
The scarecrow Feathertop is ridiculous, as the emblem of a superficial fop; the scarecrow Ravensbane is pitiful, as the emblem of human bathos.
Compared with our own ideas of human perfection, what human rubbish we are! Of what incongruous elements are we constructed by time and inheritance wherewith to realize the reasonableness, the power, the altruism, of our dreams! What absurdity is our highest consummation! Yet the sense of our common deficiency is, after all, our salvation. There is one reality which is a basic hope for the realization of those dreams. This sense is human sympathy, which is, it would seem, a [Pg xiii] more searching critic of human frailty than satire. It is the growth of this sense which dowers with dignity and reality the hollowest and most ludicrous of mankind, and becomes in such a fundamental grace of character. In a recent critical interpretation of Cervantes’ great work, Professor G. E. Woodberry writes: “A madman has no character; but it is the character of Don Quixote that at last draws the knight out of all his degradations and makes him triumph in the heart of the reader.” And he continues: “Modern dismay begins in the thought that here is not the abnormality of an individual, but the madness of the soul in its own nature.”
If for “madness” in this quotation I may be permitted to substitute ludicrousness (or incongruity), a more felicitous expression of my meaning, as applied to Ravensbane in this play, would be difficult to devise.
From what has been said, it will, I trust, be the more clearly apparent why “The Scarecrow” cannot with any appropriateness be deemed a dramatization of “Feathertop,” and why its manifold divergencies from the latter in treatment and motive cannot with any just significance be considered as liberties taken with an original source. Dickon, for example, whose name in the Legend is but a momentary invocation in the mouth of Mother Rigby, becomes in my play not merely the characterized visible associate of Goody Rickby (“Blacksmith Bess”), but the necessary foil of sceptical irony to the human growth of the [Pg xiv] scarecrow. So, too, for reasons of the play’s different intent, Goody Rickby herself is differentiated from Mother Rigby; and Rachel Merton has no motive, of character or artistic design, in common with pretty, affected Polly Gookin.
My indebtedness to the New England master in literature is, needless to say, gratefully acknowledged; but it is fitting, I think, to distinguish clearly between the aim and the scope of “Feathertop” and that of the play in hand, as much in deference to the work of Hawthorne as in comprehension of the spirit of my own.
Cornish, New Hampshire,
December, 1907.
Program of the play as first performed in
New York, Jan. 17, 1911, at the Garrick Theatre
Charles Frohman, Manager
HENRY B. HARRIS Presents
EDMUND BREESE
—AS—
THE DEVIL
—IN—
THE SCARECROW
A FANTASTIC ROMANCE By PERCY MACKAYE
CHARACTERS
(Note—The following characters are named is the order in which they first appear)
| Blacksmith Bess (Goody Rickby) | Alice Fischer |
| Dickon, a Yankee Improvisation of the Prince of Darkness | Edmund Breese |
| Rachel Merton, niece of the Justice | Fola La Follette |
| Richard Talbot | Earle Browne |
| Justice Gilead Merton | Brigham Royce |
| Lord Ravensbane (The Scarecrow) | Frank Reicher |
| Mistress Cynthia Merton, sister of the Justice | Mrs. Felix Morris |
| Micah, a servant | Harold M. Cheshire |
| Captain Bugby, the Governor’s secretary | Regan Hughston |
| Minister Dodge | Clifford Leigh |
| Mistress Dodge, his wife | Eleanor Sheldon |
| Rev. Master Rand, of Harvard College | William Levis |
| Rev. Master Todd, of Harvard College | Harry Lillford |
| Sir Charles Reddington, Lieutenant Governor | H. J. Carvill |
| Mistress Reddington } his | Zenaidee Williams |
| Amelia Reddington } daughters | Georgia Dvorak |
Time—About 1690 Place—A town in Massachusetts
Act I.—The Blacksmith Shop of “Blacksmith Bess.” Dawn.
Acts II., III., and IV.—Justice Merton’s Parlor.
Morning, afternoon, and evening.
Produced under the direction of Edgar Selwyn
Incidental and entre’act music by Robert Hood Bowers
The portrait of Justice Merton, as a young man,
by John W. Alexander
Scenery designed and painted by H. Robert Law
Costumes by Darian, from designs by Byron Nestor
All of the music composed especially for this production,
by ROBERT HOOD BOWERS
Overture—Devil’s Motif; Hymn; Love Motif; Ravensbane’s Minuet, etc.
First Entre’act—Ravensbane goes a-wooing. He is instructed in the art by the Devil. He aspires to Rachel’s hand.
Second Entre’act—The challenge to the duel. The squire sends his second, the town dandy, to wait upon Ravensbane.
Third Entre’act—Ravensbane’s crow song with its tragic ending. His despair.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
[A] Here the living actor, through a trap, concealed by the smoke, will substitute himself for the elegantly clad effigy. His make-up, of course, will approximate to the latter, but the grotesque contours of his expression gradually, throughout the remainder of the act, become refined and sublimated till, at the finale, they are of a lordly and distinguished caste.
“THE MOST NOTABLE ADDITION MADE TO AMERICAN
DRAMATIC LITERATURE IN MANY YEARS.”
Mr. PERCY MACKAYE’S new drama
Sappho and Phaon
“Mr. MacKaye’s work is the most notable addition that has been made for many years to American dramatic literature. It is true poetic tragedy ... charged with happy inspiration; dignified, eloquent, passionate, imaginative, and thoroughly human in its emotions ... and whether considered in the light of literature or drama need not fear comparison with anything that has been written by Stephen Phillips or John Davidson ... masterfully written with deep pathos and unmistakable poetic power.”—New York Evening Post.
The critic of the Boston Transcript says: “Mr. MacKaye has planned his scheme with both the exactitude of the stage director and the imagination of the poet.... We remember no drama by any modern writer that at once seems so readable and so actable, and no play that is so excellent in stage technique, so clear in characterization, and so completely filled with the atmosphere of romance and poetry.”
“... The force and vigor, and beautiful imagery, of Mr. MacKaye’s happy experiment in classic form are evident. It is finer and stronger, better knit, than his ‘Jeanne d’Arc,’ which Sothern and Marlowe have found an acceptable addition to their repertory.... This play is high-water mark in American dramatic verse.”—Boston Advertiser.
“Mr. MacKaye’s verse is varied, virile, and essentially dramatic, with here and there bits which stand out with rare beauty.”—New York Dramatic Mirror.
“It has beauty of spirit, grace and distinction of style, and power enough to commend it to a friendly reading by lovers of dramatic writing.”—Daily Eagle.
“Many are awakening to the somewhat incredulous but curiously persistent feeling that in ‘Sappho and Phaon’ Mr. MacKaye has achieved a tour de force which will be read with admiration for some time to come.”—The World To-Day.
“Interesting for the dramatic beauty of some of its passages, for the originality of its conception, and as a curiosity of playwriting.... The tragic conception, the shipwreck of the ideal in its passionate self-emancipation from reality, is Greek to the core.”—Churchman.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
PUBLISHERS, 64—66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
OTHER POETICAL DRAMAS BY
Mr. PERCY MACKAYE
Jeanne d’Arc
“A series of scenes animated at times by a sure, direct, and simple poetry, again by the militant fire, and finally by the bitter pathos of the most moving, perhaps the most beautiful, and certainly the most inexplicable story in profane history.”—Philadelphia Ledger.
“A singularly fresh, buoyant treatment of an old subject, Mr. Mackaye’s ‘Jeanne d’Arc’ contains less pageantry and more spirituality than any of the plays about the Maid since Schiller.”—Record-Herald, Chicago.
Fenris the Wolf
“A drama that shows triple greatness. There is the supreme beauty of poetry, the perfect sense of dramatic proportion, and nobility of purpose. It is a work to dream over, to make one see glorious pictures,—a work to uplift to soul heights through its marvellously wrought sense appeal.”—Examiner.
The Canterbury Pilgrims
“This is a comedy in four acts,—a comedy in the higher and better meaning of the term. It is an original conception worked out with a rare degree of freshness and buoyancy, and it may honestly be called a play of unusual interest and unusual literary merit.... The drama might well be called a character portrait of Chaucer, for it shows him forth with keen discernment, a captivating figure among men, an intensely human, vigorous, kindly man.... It is a moving, vigorous play in action. Things go rapidly and happily, and, while there are many passages of real poetry, the book is essentially a drama.”—St. Paul Dispatch.
The Scarecrow
A Tragedy of the Ludicrous
Each, cloth, gilt top, decorated cover, $1.25 net.
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PUBLISHERS, 64—66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
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| By WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS | ||
| Lyrical and Dramatic Poems | In two volumes | |
The first volume contains his lyrics up to the present time; the second includes all of his five dramas in verse; The Countess Cathleen; The Land of Heart’s Desire; The King’s Threshold; On Baile’s Strand; and The Shadowy Waters.
“Mr. Yeats is probably the most important as well as the most widely known of the men concerned directly in the so-called Celtic renaissance. More than this, he stands among the few men to be reckoned with in modern poetry.”—New York Herald.
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The Flower of Old Japan
and The Forest of Wild Thyme
“The little ones will love the songs at first for the pure music of their rhythm, later because of the deep embodied truths rather divined than comprehended.... Mr. Noyes is first of all a singer, then something of a seer with great love and high hopes and aims to balance this rare combination. Of course ultramaterialists will pull his latest book to pieces, from the frank preface to the dedication which follows the last chapter. But readers of more gentle fibre will find it not only full of rich imagery and refreshing interest, but also a wonderful passport to the dear child land Stevenson made so real and telling, and which most of us, having left it far behind, would so gladly regain.”—Chicago Record-Herald.
The Golden Hynde
AND OTHER POEMS
The new volume contains a considerable amount of hitherto unpublished work, besides some poems which have been published only in magazines and are practically unknown to American readers. The book bears out the verdict of the Post:—
“It has seemed to us from the first that Noyes has been one of the most hope-inspiring figures in our latter-day poetry. He, almost alone of the younger men, seems to have the true singing voice, the gift of uttering in authentic lyric cry some fresh, unspoiled emotion.”
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Transcriber's Notes:
The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is in the public domain.
Uncertain or antiquated spellings or ancient words were not corrected.
Typographical errors have been silently corrected but other variations in spelling and punctuation remain unaltered.
Each act in the original had a full page identifying the act as well as a heading at the beginning of the act. The full page act numbers have been removed from this edition as being redundant.