Transcribed from the 1921 W. Heffer & Sons edition byDavid Price,
SIX PLAYS
By Florence Henrietta Darwin
and an Introduction by CecilSharp
Memoir and Portrait of theAuthor
W. HEFFER & SONS LTD.,
CAMBRIDGE, 1921.
SIX PLAYS BY |
The Plays may be had in papercovers at 1. LOVERS’ TASKS 2. BUSHES & BRIARS 3. MY MAN JOHN 4. PRINCESS ROYAL } 5. THE SEEDS OF LOVE } In one volume 6. THE NEW YEAR |
W. HEFFER & SONS LTD. |
p.vINTRODUCTION
I have been asked to write a fewlines of introduction to these volumes of Country Plays, and I doso, not because I can claim any right to speak with authority onthe subject of drama, but in order that I may associate myselfand express my sympathy with the endeavour which the author hasmade to restore to his rightful estate the English peasant withwhom my work for twenty years or more has brought me into closerelations.
There have been few serious attempts to depict English countrylife on the stage. Nor, for that matter, can it be saidthat the English peasant has fared over well in ourliterature. Nevertheless, the English countryman hasqualities all his own, no less distinctive nor less engaging thanthose of his Irish, Scottish, Russian, or Continental neighbours,even though his especial characteristics have hitherto been forthe most part either ignored or grossly travestied by theplaywright. Now in these plays, as it seems to me, he hasat last come into his own kingdom and is painted, perhaps for thefirst time on the stage, in his true colours, neither caricaturedon the one hand, nor, on the other, sentimentalised, butfaithfully portrayed by a peculiarly sympathetic and skilfulhand.
It is well, too, that an authentic record should be preservedof the life that has been lived in our country villages year inyear out for centuries before its last vestiges—and theyare all that now remain—have been completely submerged inthe oncoming tide of modern civilisation and progress. Moreover, the songs and dances of the English peasantry that havebecome widely known in the last few years have awakened a p. vigeneralinterest and curiosity in all that concerns the lives and habitsof country people and there are many who will be glad to knowwhat manner of men and women were they who created things of sorare and delicate a beauty.
These plays are very simple plays. With one exception,“The New Year,” they rest for their effects upondialogue rather than upon dramatic action or plot. There isnothing harrowing, problematical, or pathological about any ofthem. The stories ar