ACT I SCENE I   MADAME PERNELLE and FLIPOTTE, her servant; ELMIRE, MARIANE, CLEANTE,  DAMIS, DORINE   MADAME PERNELLE  Come, come, Flipotte, and let me get away.   ELMIRE  You hurry so, I hardly can attend you.   MADAME PERNELLE  Then don't, my daughter-in law. Stay where you are.  I can dispense with your polite attentions.... more...

ACT I SCENE I (So-called 'Little Hall' in BRAND'S manor-house at Reynistad. Enter the DEACON SIGURD, THOROLF BJARNASON, ALF OF GROF, and EINAR THE RICH, of Vik.) Deacon Sigurd.—Thorolf, Lady Jorun bade you wait here until her husband comes. Thorolf.—Where is Brand Kolbeinsson? I bear a message for him from my Lord Kolbein the Young. Sigurd.—Why comes he not himself? Alf.—Kolbein is nigh unto d——... more...

INTRODUCTION ANTON TCHEKOFF THE last years of the nineteenth century were for Russia tinged with doubt and gloom. The high-tide of vitality that had risen during the Turkish war ebbed in the early eighties, leaving behind it a dead level of apathy which lasted until life was again quickened by the high interests of the Revolution. During these grey years the lonely country and stagnant provincial towns of Russia buried a peasantry which was... more...

This play seems to have induced several English playwrights to imitate it. First, we have Sir William D'Avenant's The Playhouse to be Let, of which the date of the first performance is uncertain. According to the Biographia Britannica, it was "a very singular entertainment, composed of five acts, each being a distinct performance. The first act is introductory, shows the distress of the players in the time of vacation, that obliges them to let... more...

ACT 1 (SCENE—The sitting-room at Rosmersholm; a spacious room, comfortably furnished in old-fashioned style. In the foreground, against the right-hand wall, is a stove decorated with sprigs of fresh birch and wild flowers. Farther back, a door. In the back wall folding doors leading into the entrance hall. In the left-hand wall a window, in front of which is a stand filled with flowers and plants. Near the stove stand a table, a couch and... more...

INTRODUCTORY NOTE Pierre Corneille was born in Rouen in 1606, the son of an official; was educated by the Jesuits, and practised unsuccessfully as a lawyer. His dramatic career began with the comedy of "Melite," but it was by his "Medee" that he first proved his tragic genius. "The Cid" appeared in 1636, and a series of masterpieces followed—"Horace," "Cinna," "Polyeucte," "Le Menteur." After a failure in "Pertharite" he retired from the... more...

ACT I. (SCENE.--A spacious garden-room in the BERNICKS' house. In the foreground on the left is a door leading to BERNICK'S business room; farther back in the same wall, a similar door. In the middle of the opposite wall is a large entrance-door, which leads to the street. The wall in the background is almost wholly composed of plate-glass; a door in it opens upon a broad flight of steps which lead down to the garden; a sun-awning is stretched... more...

ACT I SCENE FIRST(Setting is an attic and workshop of an artificial flower-maker. It ispoorly lighted by means of a candle placed on the work-table. Theceiling slopes abruptly at the back allowing space to conceal a man.On the right is a door, on the left a fireplace. Pamela is discoveredat work, and Joseph Binet is seated near her.)Pamela, Joseph Binet and later Jules Rousseau. PamelaMonsieur Joseph Binet!JosephMademoiselle Pamela... more...

INTRODUCTION. Little Eyolf was written in Christiania during 1894, and published in Copenhagen on December 11 in that year. By this time Ibsen's correspondence has become so scanty as to afford us no clue to what may be called the biographical antecedents of the play. Even of anecdotic history very little attaches to it. For only one of the characters has a definite model been suggested. Ibsen himself told his French translator, Count Prozor,... more...

ACT I The garden of IVANOFF'S country place. On the left is a terrace and the facade of the house. One window is open. Below the terrace is a broad semicircular lawn, from which paths lead to right and left into a garden. On the right are several garden benches and tables. A lamp is burning on one of the tables. It is evening. As the curtain rises sounds of the piano and violoncello are heard. IVANOFF is sitting at a table reading. BORKIN, in... more...