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Read Ebook: Three Comedies by Bj Rnson Bj Rnstjerne Sharp R Farquharson Robert Farquharson Translator
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Ebook has 2507 lines and 48066 words, and 51 pages
THE NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLE LEONARDA A GAUNTLET
THE NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLE
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
The FATHER. The MOTHER. LAURA, their daughter. AXEL, her husband. MATHILDE, her friend.
ACT I
Laura. Good morning, mother!
Mother. Good morning, dear. Have you slept well?
Laura. Very well, thanks. Good morning, dad!
Father. Good morning, little one, good morning. Happy and in good spirits?
Laura. Very. Good morning, Axel!
Axel. Good morning.
Mother. I am very sorry to say, my child, that I must give up going to the ball with you to-night. It is such a long way to go, in this cold spring weather.
Father . Your mother is not well. She was coughing in the night.
Laura. Coughing again?
Father. Twice. There, do you hear that? Your mother must not go out, on any account.
Laura. Then I won't go, either.
Father. That will be just as well; it is such raw weather. But you have no shawl on, my love; where is your shawl?
Laura. Axel, fetch mother's shawl; it is hanging in the lobby.
Mother. We are not really into spring yet. I am surprised the stove is not lit in here.
Laura . Axel, ring the bell and let us have a fire.
Mother. If none of us are going to the ball, we ought to send them a note. Perhaps you would see to that, Axel?
Axel. Certainly--but will it do for us to stay away from this ball?
Laura. Surely you heard father say that mother has been coughing in the night.
Axel. Yes, I heard; but the ball is being given by the only friend I have in these parts, in your honour and mine. We are the reason of the whole entertainment--surely we cannot stay away from it?
Laura. But it wouldn't be any pleasure to us to go without mother.
Axel. One often has to do what is not any pleasure.
Laura. When it is a matter of duty, certainly. But our first duty is to mother, and we cannot possibly leave her alone at home when she is ill.
Axel. I had no idea she was ill.
Father . She coughed twice in the night. She coughed only a moment ago.
Mother. Axel means that a cough or two isn't illness, and he is quite right.
Father . A cough may be a sign of something very serious. The chest--or the lungs. I don't think I feel quite the thing myself, either.
Laura. Daddy dear, you are too lightly clothed.
Mother. You dress as if it were summer--and it certainly isn't that.
Father. The fire will burn up directly. No, not quite the thing at all.
Laura. Axel! You might read the paper to us till breakfast is ready.
Axel. Certainly. But first of all I want to know if we really are not to go to the ball?
Laura. You can go, if you like, and take our excuses.
Mother. That wouldn't do. Remember you are married now.
Axel. That is exactly why it seems to me that Laura cannot stay at home. The fact that she is my wife ought to have most weight with her now; and this ball is being given for us two, who have nothing the matter with us, besides being mainly a dance for young people--
Mother. And not for old folk.
Laura. Thank you; mother has taken to dancing again since I have grown up. I have never been to a ball without mother's leading off the dances.
Mother. Axel apparently thinks it would have been much better if I had not done so.
Father . Mother dances most elegantly.
Axel. Surely I should know that, seeing how often I have had the honour of leading off with mother. But on this occasion forty or fifty people have been invited, a lot of trouble and expense incurred and a lot of pleasure arranged, solely for our sakes. It would be simply wicked to disappoint them.
Father . We can give a ball for them, in return.
Mother. All the more as we owe heaps of people an invitation.
Laura. Yes, that will be better; we have more room here, too.
Axel . Think of your new ball dress--my first present to you. Won't that tempt you? Blue muslin, with silver stars all over it? Shall they not shine for the first time to-night?
Laura . No, there would be no shine in the stars if mother were not at the dance.
Axel. Very well--I will send our excuses.
Father . Perhaps it will be better for me to write.
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