FIRST VOICE
Outside, the sun springs down on the rough and tumbling
town. It runs through the hedges of Goosegog Lane, cuffing
the birds to sing. Spring whips green down c***le Row, and
the shells ring out. Llaregyb this snip of a morning is
wildfruit and warm, the streets, fields, sands and waters
springing in the young sun.
SECOND VOICE
Evans the Death presses hard with black gloves on the
coffin of his breast in case his hearts jumps out,
EVANS THE DEATH (Harshly)
Where's your dignity. Lie down.
SECOND VOICE
Spring stirs Gossamer Beynon schoolmistress like spoon.
GOSSAMER BEYNON (Tearfully)
Oh, what can I do? I'll never be refined if I twitch.
SECOND VOICE
Spring this strong morning foams in a flame in Jack Black
as he cobbles a high-heeled shoe for Mrs Dai Bread Two the
gypsy, but he hammers it sternly out.
JACK BLACK (To a hammer rhythm)
There is no leg belonging to the foot that belongs to this
shoe.
SECOND VOICE
The sun and the green breeze ship Captain Cat sea-memory
again.
CAPTAIN CAT
No, I'll take the mulatto, by God, who's captain here?
Parlez-vous jig jig, Madam?
SECOND VOICE
Mary Ann Sailors says very softly to herself as she looks
out at Llaregyb Hill from the bedroom where she was born
MARY ANN SAILORS (Loudly)
It is Spring in Llaregyb in the sun in my old age, and
this is the Chosen Land.
[A choir of children's voices suddenly cries out on one,
high, glad, long, sighing note]
FIRST VOICE
And in w**** Nilly the Postman's dark and sizzling damp
tea-coated misty pygmy kitchen where the spittingcat
kettles throb and hop on the range, Mrs w**** Nilly steams
open Mr Mog Edwards' letter to Miss Myfanwy Price and
reads it aloud to w**** Nilly by the squint of the Spring
sun through the one sealed window running with tears,
while the drugged, bedraggled hens at the back door
whimper and snivel for the lickerish bog-black tea.
MRS w**** NILLY
From Manchester House, Llaregyb. Sole Prop: Mr Mog Edwards
(late of Twll), Linendraper, Haberdasher, Master Tailor,
Costumier. For West End Negligee, Lingerie, Teagowns,
Evening Dress, Trousseaux, Layettes. Also Ready to Wear
for All Occasions. Economical Outfitting for Agricultural
Employment Our Speciality, Wardrobes Bought. Among Our
Satisfied Customers Ministers of Religion and J .P 's.
Fittings by Appointment. Advertising Weekly in the Twll
Bugle. Beloved Myfanwy Price my Bride in Heaven,
MOG EDWARDS
I love you until Death do us part and then we shall be
together for ever and ever. A new parcel of ribbons has
come from Carmarthen to-day, all the colours in the
rainbow. I wish I could tie a ribbon in your hair a white
one but it cannot be. I dreamed last night you were all
dripping wet and you sat on my lap as the Reverend Jenkins
went down the street. I see you got a mermaid in your lap
he said and he lifted his hat. He is a proper Christian.
Not like Cherry Owen who said you should have thrown her
back he said. Business is very poorly. Polly Garter bought
two garters with roses but she never got stockings so what
is the use I say. Mr Waldo tried to sell me a woman's
nightie outsize he said he found it and we know where. I
sold a packet of pins to Tom the Sailors to pick his
teeth. If this goes on I shall be in the workhouse. My
heart is in your bosom and yours is in mine. God be with
you always Myfanwy Price and keep you lovely for me in His
Heavenly Mansion. I must stop now and remain, Your Eternal,
Mog Edwards.
MRS w**** NILLY
And then a little message with a rubber stamp. Shop at
Mog's!!!
FIRST VOICE.
And w**** Nilly, rumbling, jockeys out again to the
three-seated shack called the House of Commons in the back
where the hens weep, and sees, in sudden Springshine,
SECOND VOICE
herring gulls heckling down to the harbour where the
fishermen spit and prop the morning up and eye the fishy
sea smooth to the sea's end as it lulls in blue. Green and
gold money, tobacco, tinned salmon, hats with feathers,
pots of fish-paste, warmth for the winter-to-be, weave and
leap in it rich and slippery in the flash and shapes of
fishes through the cold sea-streets. But with blue lazy
eyes the fishermen gaze at that milkmaid whispering water
with no nick or ripple as though it blew great guns and
serpents and typhooned the town.
FISHERMAN
Too rough for fishing to-day.
SECOND VOICE
And they thank God, and gob at a gull for luck, and
moss-slow and silent make their way uphill, from the still
still sea, towards the Sailors Arms as the children
[School bell]
FIRST VOICE
spank and scamper rough and singing out of school into the
draggletail yard. And Captain Cat at his window says soft
to himself the words of their song.
CAPTAIN CAT (To the beat of the singing)
Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail
Kept their baby in a
milking pail Flossie
Snail and Johnnie Crack
One would pull it out and one would put it back
O it's my turn now said Flossie Snail
To take the baby from the milking pail
And it's my turn now said Johnnie Crack
To smack it on the head and put it back
Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail
Kept their baby in a milking pail
One would put it back and one would pull it out
And all it had to drink was ale and stout
For Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail
Always used to say that stout and ale
Was good for a baby in a milking pail.
Outside, the sun springs down on the rough and tumbling
town. It runs through the hedges of Goosegog Lane, cuffing
the birds to sing. Spring whips green down c***le Row, and
the shells ring out. Llaregyb this snip of a morning is
wildfruit and warm, the streets, fields, sands and waters
springing in the young sun.
SECOND VOICE
Evans the Death presses hard with black gloves on the
coffin of his breast in case his hearts jumps out,
EVANS THE DEATH (Harshly)
Where's your dignity. Lie down.
SECOND VOICE
Spring stirs Gossamer Beynon schoolmistress like spoon.
GOSSAMER BEYNON (Tearfully)
Oh, what can I do? I'll never be refined if I twitch.
SECOND VOICE
Spring this strong morning foams in a flame in Jack Black
as he cobbles a high-heeled shoe for Mrs Dai Bread Two the
gypsy, but he hammers it sternly out.
JACK BLACK (To a hammer rhythm)
There is no leg belonging to the foot that belongs to this
shoe.
SECOND VOICE
The sun and the green breeze ship Captain Cat sea-memory
again.
CAPTAIN CAT
No, I'll take the mulatto, by God, who's captain here?
Parlez-vous jig jig, Madam?
SECOND VOICE
Mary Ann Sailors says very softly to herself as she looks
out at Llaregyb Hill from the bedroom where she was born
MARY ANN SAILORS (Loudly)
It is Spring in Llaregyb in the sun in my old age, and
this is the Chosen Land.
[A choir of children's voices suddenly cries out on one,
high, glad, long, sighing note]
FIRST VOICE
And in w**** Nilly the Postman's dark and sizzling damp
tea-coated misty pygmy kitchen where the spittingcat
kettles throb and hop on the range, Mrs w**** Nilly steams
open Mr Mog Edwards' letter to Miss Myfanwy Price and
reads it aloud to w**** Nilly by the squint of the Spring
sun through the one sealed window running with tears,
while the drugged, bedraggled hens at the back door
whimper and snivel for the lickerish bog-black tea.
MRS w**** NILLY
From Manchester House, Llaregyb. Sole Prop: Mr Mog Edwards
(late of Twll), Linendraper, Haberdasher, Master Tailor,
Costumier. For West End Negligee, Lingerie, Teagowns,
Evening Dress, Trousseaux, Layettes. Also Ready to Wear
for All Occasions. Economical Outfitting for Agricultural
Employment Our Speciality, Wardrobes Bought. Among Our
Satisfied Customers Ministers of Religion and J .P 's.
Fittings by Appointment. Advertising Weekly in the Twll
Bugle. Beloved Myfanwy Price my Bride in Heaven,
MOG EDWARDS
I love you until Death do us part and then we shall be
together for ever and ever. A new parcel of ribbons has
come from Carmarthen to-day, all the colours in the
rainbow. I wish I could tie a ribbon in your hair a white
one but it cannot be. I dreamed last night you were all
dripping wet and you sat on my lap as the Reverend Jenkins
went down the street. I see you got a mermaid in your lap
he said and he lifted his hat. He is a proper Christian.
Not like Cherry Owen who said you should have thrown her
back he said. Business is very poorly. Polly Garter bought
two garters with roses but she never got stockings so what
is the use I say. Mr Waldo tried to sell me a woman's
nightie outsize he said he found it and we know where. I
sold a packet of pins to Tom the Sailors to pick his
teeth. If this goes on I shall be in the workhouse. My
heart is in your bosom and yours is in mine. God be with
you always Myfanwy Price and keep you lovely for me in His
Heavenly Mansion. I must stop now and remain, Your Eternal,
Mog Edwards.
MRS w**** NILLY
And then a little message with a rubber stamp. Shop at
Mog's!!!
FIRST VOICE.
And w**** Nilly, rumbling, jockeys out again to the
three-seated shack called the House of Commons in the back
where the hens weep, and sees, in sudden Springshine,
SECOND VOICE
herring gulls heckling down to the harbour where the
fishermen spit and prop the morning up and eye the fishy
sea smooth to the sea's end as it lulls in blue. Green and
gold money, tobacco, tinned salmon, hats with feathers,
pots of fish-paste, warmth for the winter-to-be, weave and
leap in it rich and slippery in the flash and shapes of
fishes through the cold sea-streets. But with blue lazy
eyes the fishermen gaze at that milkmaid whispering water
with no nick or ripple as though it blew great guns and
serpents and typhooned the town.
FISHERMAN
Too rough for fishing to-day.
SECOND VOICE
And they thank God, and gob at a gull for luck, and
moss-slow and silent make their way uphill, from the still
still sea, towards the Sailors Arms as the children
[School bell]
FIRST VOICE
spank and scamper rough and singing out of school into the
draggletail yard. And Captain Cat at his window says soft
to himself the words of their song.
CAPTAIN CAT (To the beat of the singing)
Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail
Kept their baby in a
milking pail Flossie
Snail and Johnnie Crack
One would pull it out and one would put it back
O it's my turn now said Flossie Snail
To take the baby from the milking pail
And it's my turn now said Johnnie Crack
To smack it on the head and put it back
Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail
Kept their baby in a milking pail
One would put it back and one would pull it out
And all it had to drink was ale and stout
For Johnnie Crack and Flossie Snail
Always used to say that stout and ale
Was good for a baby in a milking pail.