Heartbreak House

What’s the good of thinking about it? Why didn’t you do something? Mazzini But I did. I joined societies and made speeches and wrote pamphlets. That was all I could do. But, you know, though the people in the societies thought they knew more than Mangan, most of them wouldn’t have joined if they had known as much. You see they had never had any money to handle or any men to manage. Every year I expected a revolution, or some frightful smash-up: it seemed impossible that we could blunder and muddle on any longer. But nothing happened, except, of course, the usual poverty and crime and drink that we are used to. Nothing ever does happen. It’s amazing how well we get along, all things considered. Lady Utterword Perhaps somebody cleverer than you and Mr. Mangan was at work all the time. Mazzini Perhaps so. Though I was brought up not to believe in anything, I often feel that there is a great deal to be said for the theory of an overruling Providence, after all. Lady Utterword Providence! I meant Hastings. Mazzini Oh, I beg your pardon, Lady Utterword. Captain Shotover Every drunken skipper trusts to Providence. But one of the ways of Providence with drunken skippers is to run them on the rocks. Mazzini Very true, no doubt, at sea. But in politics, I assure you, they only run into jellyfish. Nothing happens. Captain Shotover At sea nothing happens to the sea. Nothing happens to the sky. The sun comes up from the east and goes down to the west. The moon grows from a sickle to an arc lamp, and comes later and later until she is lost in the light as other things are lost in the darkness. After the typhoon, the flying-fish glitter in the sunshine like birds. It’s amazing how they get along, all things considered. Nothing happens, except something not worth mentioning. Ellie What is that, O Captain, O my captain? Captain Shotover Savagely. Nothing but the smash of the drunken skipper’s ship on the rocks, the splintering of her rotten timbers, the tearing of her rusty plates, the drowning of the crew like rats in a trap. Ellie Moral: don’t take rum. Captain Shotover Vehemently. That is a lie, child. Let a man drink ten barrels of rum a day, he is not a drunken skipper until he is a drifting skipper. Whilst he can lay his course and stand on his bridge and steer it, he is no drunkard. It is the man who lies drinking in his bunk and trusts to Providence that I call the drunken skipper, though he drank nothing but the waters of the River Jordan. Ellie Splendid! And you haven’t had a drop for an hour. You see you don’t need it: your own spirit is not dead. Captain Shotover Echoes: nothing but echoes. The last shot was fired years ago. Hector And this ship that we are all in? This soul’s prison we call England? Captain Shotover The captain is in his bunk, drinking bottled ditch-water; and the crew is gambling in the forecastle. She will strike and sink and split. Do you think the laws of God will be suspended in favor of England because you were born in it? Hector Well, I don’t mean to be drowned like a rat in a trap. I still have the will to live. What am I to do? Captain Shotover Do? Nothing simpler. Learn your business as an Englishman. Hector And what may my business as an Englishman be, pray? Captain Shotover Navigation. Learn it and live; or leave it and be damned. Ellie Quiet, quiet: you’ll tire yourself. Mazzini I thought all that once, Captain; but I assure you nothing will happen. A dull distant explosion is heard. Hector Starting up. What was that? Captain Shotover Something happening. He blows his whistle. Breakers ahead! The light goes out. Hector Furiously. Who put that light out? Who dared put that light out? Nurse Guinness Running in from the house to the middle of the esplanade. I did, sir. The police have telephoned to say we’ll be summoned if we don’t put that light out: it can be seen for miles. Hector It shall be seen for a hundred miles. He dashes into the house. Nurse Guinness The Rectory is nothing but a heap of bricks, they say. Unless we can give the Rector a bed he has nowhere to lay his head this night. Captain Shotover The Church is on the rocks, breaking up. I told him it would unless it headed for God’s open sea. Nurse Guinness And you are all to go down to the cellars. Captain Shotover Go there yourself, you and all the crew. Batten down the hatches. Nurse Guinness And hide beside the coward I married! I’ll go on the roof first. The lamp lights up again. There! Mr. Hushabye’s turned it on again. The Burglar Hurrying in and appealing to Nurse Guinness. Here: where’s the way to that gravel pit? The boot-boy says there’s a cave in the gravel pit. Them cellars is no use. Where’s the gravel pit, Captain? Nurse Guinness Go straight on past the flagstaff until you fall into it and break your dirty neck. She pushes him contemptuously towards the flagstaff, and herself goes to the foot of the hammock and waits there, as it were by Ariadne’s cradle. Another and louder explosion is heard. The Burglar stops and stands trembling. Ellie Rising. That was nearer. Captain Shotover The next one will get us. He rises. Stand by, all hands, for judgment. The Burglar Oh my Lordy God! He rushes away frantically past the flagstaff into the gloom. Mrs. Hushabye Emerging panting from the darkness. Who was that running away? She comes to Ellie. Did you hear the explosions? And the sound in the sky: it’s splendid: it’s like an orchestra: it’s like Beethoven. Ellie By thunder, Hesione: it is Beethoven. She and Hesione throw themselves into one another’s arms in wild excitement. The light increases. Mazzini Anxiously. The light is getting brighter. Nurse