Heartbreak House

house as in the city. Ellie Musically. Yes: this silly house, this strangely happy house, this agonizing house, this house without foundations. I shall call it Heartbreak House. Mrs. Hushabye Stop, Ellie; or I shall howl like an animal. Mangan Breaks into a low snivelling. !!! Mrs. Husahbye There! you have set Alfred off. Ellie I like him best when he is howling. Captain Shotover Silence! Mangan subsides into silence. I say, let the heart break in silence. Hector Do you accept that name for your house? Captain Shotover It is not my house: it is only my kennel. Hector We have been too long here. We do not live in this house: we haunt it. Lady Utterword Heart torn. It is dreadful to think how you have been here all these years while I have gone round the world. I escaped young; but it has drawn me back. It wants to break my heart too. But it shan’t. I have left you and it behind. It was silly of me to come back. I felt sentimental about Papa and Hesione and the old place. I felt them calling to me. Mazzini But what a very natural and kindly and charming human feeling, Lady Utterword! Lady Utterword So I thought, Mr. Dunn. But I know now that it was only the last of my influenza. I found that I was not remembered and not wanted. Captain Shotover You left because you did not want us. Was there no heartbreak in that for your father? You tore yourself up by the roots; and the ground healed up and brought forth fresh plants and forgot you. What right had you to come back and probe old wounds? Mrs. Hushabye You were a complete stranger to me at first, Addy; but now I feel as if you had never been away. Lady Utterword Thank you, Hesione; but the influenza is quite cured. The place may be Heartbreak House to you, Miss Dunn, and to this gentleman from the city who seems to have so little self-control; but to me it is only a very ill-regulated and rather untidy villa without any stables. Hector Inhabited by⁠—? Ellie A crazy old sea captain and a young singer who adores him. Mrs. Hushabye A sluttish female, trying to stave off a double chin and an elderly spread, vainly wooing a born soldier of freedom. Mazzini Oh, really, Mrs. Hushabye⁠— Mangan A member of His Majesty’s Government that everybody sets down as a nincompoop: don’t forget him, Lady Utterword. Lady Utterword And a very fascinating gentleman whose chief occupation is to be married to my sister. Hector All heartbroken imbeciles. Mazzini Oh no. Surely, if I may say so, rather a favorable specimen of what is best in our English culture. You are very charming people, most advanced, unprejudiced, frank, humane, unconventional, democratic, freethinking, and everything that is delightful to thoughtful people. Mrs. Hushabye You do us proud, Mazzini. Mazzini I am not flattering, really. Where else could I feel perfectly at ease in my pyjamas? I sometimes dream that I am in very distinguished society, and suddenly I have nothing on but my pyjamas! Sometimes I haven’t even pyjamas. And I always feel overwhelmed with confusion. But here, I don’t mind in the least: it seems quite natural. Lady Utterword An infallible sign that you are now not in really distinguished society, Mr. Dunn. If you were in my house, you would feel embarrassed. Mazzini I shall take particular care to keep out of your house, Lady Utterword. Lady Utterword You will be quite wrong, Mr. Dunn. I should make you very comfortable; and you would not have the trouble and anxiety of wondering whether you should wear your purple and gold or your green and crimson dressing-gown at dinner. You complicate life instead of simplifying it by doing these ridiculous things. Ellie Your house is not Heartbreak House: is it, Lady Utterword? Hector Yet she breaks hearts, easy as her house is. That poor devil upstairs with his flute howls when she twists his heart, just as Mangan howls when my wife twists his. Lady Utterword That is because Randall has nothing to do but have his heart broken. It is a change from having his head shampooed. Catch anyone breaking Hastings’ heart! Captain Shotover The numskull wins, after all. Lady Utterword I shall go back to my numskull with the greatest satisfaction when I am tired of you all, clever as you are. Mangan Huffily. I never set up to be clever. Lady Utterword I forgot you, Mr. Mangan. Mangan Well, I don’t see that quite, either. Lady Utterword You may not be clever, Mr. Mangan; but you are successful. Mangan But I don’t want to be regarded merely as a successful man. I have an imagination like anyone else. I have a presentiment. Mrs. Hushabye Oh, you are impossible, Alfred. Here I am devoting myself to you; and you think of nothing but your ridiculous presentiment. You bore me. Come and talk poetry to me under the stars. She drags him away into the darkness. Mangan Tearfully, as he disappears. Yes: it’s all very well to make fun of me; but if you only knew⁠— Hector Impatiently. How is all this going to end? Mazzini It won’t end, Mr. Hushabye. Life doesn’t end: it goes on. Ellie Oh, it can’t go on forever. I’m always expecting something. I don’t know what it is; but life must come to a point sometime. Lady Utterword The point for a young woman of your age is a baby. Hector Yes, but, damn it, I have the same feeling; and I can’t have a baby. Lady Utterword By deputy, Hector. Hector But I have children. All that is over and done with for me: and yet I too feel that this can’t last. We sit here talking, and leave everything to Mangan and to chance and to the devil. Think of the powers of destruction that Mangan and his mutual admiration gang wield! It’s madness: it’s like giving a torpedo to a badly brought up child to play at earthquakes with. Mazzini I know. I used often to think about that when I was young. Hector Think!