Esther was preparing for the Cambridge Local Examination at Christmas, and making a special study of The Merchant of Venice, as the play chosen for the year.
Fr?ulein explained the notes, and expatiated on the Venice of the past and the manners and customs of its inhabitants; but it was Mr Asplin who had the brilliant idea of holding a Shakespeare reading which should make the play live in the imagination of the young people, as no amount of study could do. The suggestion was made one day at dinner, and was received with acclamation by everyone present.
“Oh, how lovely, father! It will help me ever so much!” said Esther. “And Peggy must be Portia.”
“I’d like to be that funny little man Launcelot—what do you call it?—only I know I couldn’t do it,” said Mellicent humbly. “I’ll be the servants and people who come in and give messages. But, of course, Peggy must be Portia.”
“Peggy shall be Portia, and I’ll be the Jew, and snarl at her across the court,” said Rob, with an assurance which was not at all appreciated by his companions.
“I’ve rather a fancy to try Shylock myself,” Max declared. “Oswald would make a capital Bassanio, and you could manage Antonio all right if you tried, for he has not so much to do. Let me see: Peggy—Portia; Esther—Nerissa; Mellicent—Jessica (she’s so like a Jewess, you see!); you and Oswald—Bassanio and Antonio; Shylock—my noble self. Father and mother to help out with the smaller characters. There you are! A capital cast, and everyone satisfied. I’m game to be Shylock, but I can’t do the sentimental business. You two fellows will have to take them, and we’ll divide the smaller fry among us.”
“Indeed we will do nothing of the kind. I’m not going to take Bassanio; I couldn’t do it, and I won’t try. I’ll have a shot at Shylock if you like, but I can’t do anything else. The cast is all wrong, except so far as Peggy is concerned. Of course she is Portia.”
“Proposed, seconded, and carried unanimously that Peggy is Portia!” said Mr Asplin, smiling across the table at that young lady, who tried to look modest and unconcerned, but was plainly aglow with satisfaction. “For Shylock, as the character seems so much in demand, we had better draw lots. I will write the names on slips of paper, and you must all agree to take what comes, and make the best of it. I will fill in the gaps, and I am sure mother will help all she can—”
“Lemonade in the intervals, and coffee for those who prefer it, with some of my very best company cake,” said Mrs Asplin briskly. “It will be quite an excitement. I should rather like to be Shylock myself, and defy Peggy and her decree; but I’ll give it up to the boys, and make myself generally useful. Why couldn’t we begin to-night?”
“Oh, Mrs Asplin, no! It will take me days to get up my part! And the costumes—consider the costumes!” cried Peggy anxiously. And her hostess raised her hands in surprise.
“The costumes! Are you going to dress up? I never thought of that!”
“Surely that is unnecessary, Peggy! You can read the play without changing your clothes!” echoed the vicar; but, from the chorus of disclaimer which greeted his words, it appeared that the young people could do nothing of the sort.
Max wanted to know how a fellow could possibly “talk Shylock” in a white tie and an evening jacket. Oswald thought it equally ridiculous to pose as an Italian lover in English clothing; and Peggy turned up her eyes and said she could not really abandon herself to her part if her costume were inappropriate. Even Esther, the sober-minded, sided with the rest, so the vicar laughed and gave way, only too pleased to sanction anything which helped the object which he had at heart.
“Dress up by all means, if it pleases you. It will be interesting to see the result. But, of course, I must be absolved from any experiments of the kind.”
“Oh, of course! And mother, too, if she likes, though I should love to see her made-up as Shylock! You must not see or ask about our dresses until the night arrives. They must be a secret. You will lend us all your fineries, mother—won’t you?”
“Bless your heart, yes! But I haven’t got any!” said Mrs Asplin, in her funny Irish way. “They were all worn out long, long ago.” She gave a little sigh for the memory of the days when she had a wardrobe full of pretty things and a dozen shimmery silk dresses hanging on the pegs, and then flashed a loving smile at her husband, in case he might think that she regretted their loss. “If there is anything about the rooms that would do, you are welcome to use it,” she added, glancing vaguely at the sideboard and dumb waiter, while the boys laughed loudly at the idea of finding any “properties” in the shabby old dining-room.
Peggy, however, returned thanks in the most gracious manner, and sat wrapt in thought for the rest of the evening, gazing darkly around from time to time, and scribbling notes on sheets of note-paper.
Short of playing Shylock, which in the end fell to Maxwell’s share, it seemed as if all the responsibility of the performance fell on Peggy’s shoulders. She was stage manager, selecting appropriate pieces of furniture from the different rooms and piling them together behind the screen in the study, whence they could be produced at a moment’s notice, to give some idea of the different scenes. She coached Esther and Mellicent in their parts, designed and superintended the making of the costumes, and gave the finishing touches to each actor in turn when the night of the “Dramatic Reading” arrived.
“Taking one consideration with another,” as Max remarked, “the costumes were really masterpieces of art.”
To attire two young gentlemen as Italian cavaliers, and a third as a bearded Jew, with no materials at hand beyond the ordinary furnishings of a house, is a task which calls for no small amount of ingenuity, yet this is exactly what Peggy had done.
Antonio and Bassanio looked really uncommonly fine specimens, with cycling knickerbockers, opera cloaks slung over their shoulders, and flannel shirts pouched loosely over silk sashes, and ornamented with frills of lace at wrists and neck. Darkened eyebrows gave them a handsome and distinguished air, and old straw hats and feathers sat jauntily on their tow wigs.
The vicar sat in the arm-chair by the fire, Shakespeare in hand, waiting to fill in the odd parts with his wife’s help, and simultaneous cries of astonishment and admiration greeted the appearance of the two actors at the beginning of the first scene.
“It’s wonderful! Did I ever see such children? What in the world have they got on their heads? Milly’s old leghorn, I declare, and my pink feathers. My old pink feathers! Deary me! I’d forgotten all about them. I’ve never worn them since the year that—”
“‘In sooth, I know not why I am so sad,’” quoth the wearer of the feathers, scowling darkly at the frivolous prattler, who straightway hid her head behind her book, and read Salanio’s first speech in a tone of meek apology.
There was a great deal of confusion about the first scene, for four people had to read the parts of six, and one of the number was so much occupied with gazing at the costumes of the actors that she invariably lost her place, and had to be called to order by significant coughs and glances. By this time it generally happened that the vicar had made up his mind to come to the rescue, and both husband and wife would begin to read at the same moment, to their own amusement, and to the disgust of the two lads, who felt uncomfortable in their borrowed plumes, and keenly sensitive about their precious dignity. Antonio mumbled his last speech in undignified haste, and followed Bassanio out of the room, prepared to echo his statement that this sort of thing was “tomfoolery,” and that he wasn’t going to make an idiot of himself any longer to please Peggy Saville, or any other girl in the world. But the words died on his lips, for outside, in the hall, stood Peggy herself, or rather Portia, and such a Portia as made him fairly blink with amazement! Amidst the bustle of the last few days Portia’s own costume had been kept a secret, so that the details came as a surprise to the other members of the party. Nerissa stood by her side, clad in a flowing costume, the component parts of which included a dressing-gown, an antimacassar, and a flowered chintz curtain; but, despite the nature of the materials, the colouring was charming, and frizzled hair, flushed cheeks, and sparkling eyes, transformed the sober Esther into a very personable attendant on the lady of Belmont. There was nothing of the dressing-gown character about Portia’s own attire, however. Its magnificence took away the breath of the beholders. The little witch had combed her hair to the top of her head, and arranged it in a coil, which gave height and dignity to her figure. A string of pearls was twisted in and out among the dark tresses; her white silk frock was mysteriously lengthened and ornamented by two large diamond-shaped pieces of satin encrusted with gold, one placed at the bottom of the skirt, and the other hanging loosely from the square-cut neck of the bodice. Long yellow silk sleeves fell over the bare arms and reached the ground; and from the shoulders hung a train of golden-hued plush, lined with a paler shade of yellow. Bassanio and Gratiano stood aghast, and Portia simpered at them sweetly in the intervals between dispensing stage directions to the boot boy, who was clad in his best suit for the occasion, and sent to and fro to change the arrangement of the scenery. He wheeled the sofa into the centre of the room, piled it up with blue cushions, and retired to make way for the two ladies, who were already edging in at the door.
A gasp of astonishment greeted their appearance, but when Peggy dragged her heavy train across the room, threw herself against the cushions in an attitude calculated to show off all the splendour of her attire, when she leant her pearl-decked head upon her hand, turned her eyes to the ceiling, and said, with a sigh as natural and easy as if they were her own words which she was using, and not those of the immortal Shakespeare himself, “‘By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is a-weary of this great world!’”—then the vicar broke into a loud “Hear! hear!” of delight, and Mrs Asplin seized the poker and banged uproarious applause upon the fender. For the first few minutes amazement and admiration held her dumb; but as the girls moved to and fro, and the details of their costumes became more apparent, she began to utter spasmodic cries of recognition, somewhat trying to the composure of the actors.
Portia’s description of her lovers was interrupted by a cry of, “My table centres! The Turkish squares I bought at the Exhibition, and have never used! Wherever did they find them?” while a little later came another cry, as the identity of the plush train made itself known, “My portière from the drawing-room door! My beautiful portière—with the nice new lining! Oh dear, dear! it’s dragging about all over the dirty carpet! Don’t sit on it, dear! For pity’s sake, don’t git on it!”
“Mother!” cried Esther, in a deep tone of remonstrance; but Portia was unconscious of interruption. The other actors held their books in their hands, and, for the most part, read their speeches; but Peggy trusted entirely to memory, and sighed and yawned over the denunciation of her lovers, with evident satisfaction to herself as well as to the beholders. Nerissa read her part “conscientiously,” as the newspapers would say, punctuating her sentences in exemplary fashion, and laying the emphasis upon the right words as directed by the stage manageress; but, such is the contrariness of things, that, with all her efforts, the effect was stiff and stifled, while Peggy drawled through her sentences, or gabbled them over at break-neck speed, used no emphasis at all, or half a dozen running, at her own sweet will, and was so truly Portia that the vicar wondered dreamily if he should have to interview the Duke of Morocco in his study, and Mrs Asplin sighed unconsciously, and told herself that the child was too young to be troubled with lovers. She must not dream of accepting any one of them for years to come!
At the end of the scene, however, anxiety about her beloved portière overpowered everything else in the mind of the vicar’s wife, and she rushed after the actors to call out eager instructions. “Hang it up at once—there’s good children. If you put it down on a chair, Peggy will sit on it as sure as fate! And oh! my table centres! Put them back in the drawer if you love me! Wrap them up in the tissue paper as you found them!”
“Mother, you are a terrible person! Go back, there’s a dear, and do keep quiet!” cried a muffled voice from behind the dining-room door, as Shylock dodged back to escape observation; and Mrs Asplin retreated hastily, aghast at the sight of a hairy monster, in whom she failed to recognise a trace of her beloved son and heir. Shylock’s make-up was, in truth, the triumph of the evening. The handsome lad had been transformed into a bent, misshapen old man, and anything more ugly, frowsy, and generally unattractive than he now appeared it would be impossible to imagine. A cushion gave a hump to his shoulders, and over this he wore an aged purple dressing-gown, which had once belonged to the vicar. The dressing-gown was an obvious refuge; but who but Peggy Saville would have thought of the trimming, which was the making of the shaggy, unkempt look so much desired? Peggy had sat with her hands clasped on her lap, and her head on one side, staring at the gown when it was held out for her approval two days before, then had suddenly risen, and rushed two steps at a time upstairs to the topmost landing, a wide, scantily furnished space which served for a playground on wet afternoons. An oilcloth covered the floor, a table stood in a corner, and before each of the six doors was an aged wool rug, maroon as to colouring, with piebald patches here and there where the skin of the lining showed through the scanty tufts. Peggy gave a whoop of triumph, tucked one after the other beneath her arm, and went flying down again, dropping a mat here and there, tripping over it, and nearly falling from top to bottom of the stairs. Hairbreadth escapes were, however, so much a part of her daily existence that she went on her way unperturbed, and carried her bundle into the study, where the girls sniffed derisively, and the boys begged to know what she intended to do with all that rubbish.
“‘They that have no invention should be hanged,’” quoted Peggy, unperturbed. “Give me a packet of pins, and I’ll soon show you what I am going to do. Dear, dear, dear, I don’t know what you would do without me! You are singularly bereft of imagination.”
She tossed her pigtail over her shoulder, armed herself with the largest pins she could find, and set to work to fasten the mats down the front of the gown, and round the hem at the bottom, so that the wool hung in shaggy ends over the feet. The skins were thick, the heads of the pins pressed painfully into her fingers, but she groaned and worked away until the border was arranged for stitching, and could be tried on to show the effect.
“Perfectly splendid!” was the verdict of the beholders. And so the matter of Shylock’s gown was settled; but his beard still remained to be provided, and was by no means an easy problem to solve.
“Tow!” suggested Mellicent; but the idea was hooted by all the others. The idea of Shylock as a blonde was too ridiculous to be tolerated. False hair was not to be bought in a small village, and Maxwell’s youthful face boasted as yet only the faintest shadow of a moustache.
The question was left over for consideration, and an inspiration came the same afternoon, when Robert hurled one of the roller-like cushions of the sofa at Oswald’s head, and Oswald, in catching it, tore loose a portion of the covering.
“Now you’ve done it!” he cried. “The room will be covered with feathers, and then you will say it was my fault! We shall have to fasten the stupid thing up somehow or other!” He peered through the opening as he spoke, and his face changed. “It’s not feathers—it’s horsehair! Here’s a find! What about that wig for Shylock?”
Esther was dubious.
“It would take a great deal of horsehair to make a wig. It would spoil the cushion if the horsehair were taken away; it would spoil the sofa if the cushion were small; it would spoil the room if the sofa—”
Peggy interrupted with a shriek of laughter. “Oh, oh, oh! It’s like the ‘House that Jack built’! How long do you intend to go on like that? Nonsense, my dear! It would be perfectly easy to take out what we want, and put it back afterwards. I’ll promise to do it myself and sew it up tightly, though, if you desire my opinion, I think the cushion would be improved by letting in a little air. You might as well lean your head on a brick. Max, you are a made man! You shall have a beautiful, crinkly black wig, and a beard to match! We will sew them to your turban, and fasten them with black elastic. It will never show, and I’ll finish off the joins after you are dressed. You’ll see?”
“You can do as you like! I’m in your hands!” said Max easily; and when the night of the reading arrived, and he was attired in wig and gown, Peggy seated him in a chair and tucked a towel under his chin with an air of business. She had a number of small accessories on a table near at hand, and Max was first instructed to stick pieces of black plaster over alternate teeth, so that he might appear to possess only a few isolated fangs, and then made to lie back in his chair, while his dresser stood over him with a glue-brush in one hand and a bunch of loose horsehair in the other.
“Shut your eyes!” she cried loudly. And before he could say “Jack Robinson” a tuft of the wiry stuff covered his eyebrow. “Keep your face still!” And, to his horror, the gum was daubed from the borders of the beard, halfway up to his eyes, and little prickly ends of hair were held in Peggy’s palm and pressed against his cheeks until they were firmly attached.
This, indeed, was more than he had bargained for! He jerked back his head, and began a loud-voiced protest, only to be interrupted by shrieks of excitement.
“Oh, oh, oh! It’s beautiful—beautiful! What a fright! What a delicious fright! No one would know you! You look an old hairy monster who would gobble up half a dozen Christians. Do look at yourself!”
Peggy felt the pride of an artist in the result of her efforts, and Max was hardly less delighted than herself as he stood before the glass, gazing at his hairy cheeks and leering horribly, to admire his toothless gums. If the result were so hideous as to astonish even those who had watched the process of his make-up, what wonder that the effect upon Shylock’s fond parents was of a stupefying nature!
Horror kept Mrs Asplin silent until the middle of the scene between Shylock and Antonio when the bond is signed, and then her agitation could no longer be controlled, and Shylock’s little speeches were interrupted by entreaties to take that horrid stuff off his teeth, to use plenty of hot water in washing his face, and to be sure to anoint it plentifully with cold cream after doing so.
An ordinary lad would have lost his temper at these interruptions; but Max adored his mother, and could never take anything she did in a wrong spirit. Anger being therefore impossible, the only other resource was to laugh, which, in Peggy’s opinion, was even worse than the former. A Shylock who chuckled between his speeches, and gave a good-humoured “Ha! ha!” just before uttering his bitterest invective, was a ridiculous parody of the character, with whom it would be impossible to act. It would be hard indeed if all her carefully rehearsed speeches lost their effect, and the famous trial scene were made into a farce through these untimely interruptions!
The second part of the play went more smoothly, however, as the audience settled down to a more attentive hearing, and the actors became less self-conscious and embarrassed. If four out of the six were sticks, who never for a moment approached the verge of the natural, Portia and Shylock did nobly, and, when the reading was over and the young people gathered round the fire in the drawing-room, it was unanimously agreed that they had acquired a more intimate knowledge of the play by this one evening’s representation than by weeks of ordinary study.
“I feel so much more intimate with it!” said Esther. “It seems to have made it alive, instead of just something I have read in a book. It was a delightful thought, father, and I am grateful to you for proposing it. I wish I could do all my lessons in the same way.”
“I’ve not enjoyed myself so much for ages. You just did beautifully, all of you, and the dresses were a sight to behold. As for Peggy, she’s a witch, and could make up costumes on a desert island, if she were put to it! But I don’t know what is going to happen to my poor, dear boy’s face. Oswald, what is he doing? Isn’t he coming to have some lemonade and cake?” asked Mrs Asplin anxiously. And Oswald chuckled in a heartless fashion.
“Pride must abide. He would be Shylock, whether we liked it or not, so let him take the consequences. He is fighting it out with cold cream in the bathroom, and some of the horsehair sticks like fun. I’ll go up and tell him we have eaten all the cake. He was getting savage when I came down, and it will sweeten his temper!”