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    Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts
    Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts
    Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts
    Ebook146 pages1 hour

    Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts

    By W. Somerset Maugham

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    About this ebook

    Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts is a comedy by W. Somerset Maugham. A comedy of manners, where colorful personalities enmesh in order to solve a peculiar problem.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGood Press
    Release dateMay 19, 2021
    ISBN4057664574732
    Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts
    Author

    W. Somerset Maugham

    William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris, on January 25th, 1874. Orphaned by the age of ten, he moved to England to live with an uncle. He received his education in England and Germany, studying medicine and graduating as a physician.Eschewing his education, Maugham instead became a full-time writer. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth, was published in 1897, but he soon established his reputation as a successful playwright. In time he wrote 32 plays, and abandoned the theater scene by 1933.He wrote nineteen novels, of which Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor's Edge (1944), are considered classics of early 20th century literature.Maugham was a restless and inquisitive soul, and his travels and his sympathies with the working class often formed the basis of characters and settings. Maugham also had a tendency to insert auto-biographical aspects into his work, most infamously in the Ashenden stories, based on his time with the British Secret Service during WWI.Throughout his life, Maugham faced many personal challenges. Romantic struggles and speculation of his sexual identity were only exacerbated publicly by his popularity amongst readers. He had an extended affair with Syrie Wellcome, who gave birth to his only child, May Elizabeth "Liza," in 1915, formalizing their relationship by marriage in 1917. Maugham's relationship with Frederick Gerald Haxton-his long-standing secretary/companion-& constant traveling, eventually caused a rift in the marriage, ending in divorce in 1929.He experienced great financial success with his works, many of which were adapted for radio, stage, film & TV; though the same could not be said for critical approval amongst the literary community, which was uneven at best. He died December 16th 1965, in Nice, France.In his later years, Maugham continued to beguile critics and fans alike-as author Pico Iyer writes, "The riddle he presents us with is how a stammering, conventional-seeming Edwardian, writing in civil service prose, could somehow become the spokesman of hippies, black magicians and stockbrokers throwing it all over for Tahiti. His books are measured explorations of extravagance."

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      Book preview

      Jack Straw - W. Somerset Maugham

      W. Somerset Maugham

      Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts

      Published by Good Press, 2022

      goodpress@okpublishing.info

      EAN 4057664574732

      Table of Contents

      JACK STRAW

      CHARACTERS

      JACK STRAW

      THE FIRST ACT

      THE SECOND ACT

      THE THIRD ACT

      LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN

      MCMXII

      Copyright, London William Heinemann, 1912

      This play was produced at the Vaudeville Theatre on March 26, 1908, with the following cast:

      JACK STRAW

      Table of Contents

      CHARACTERS

      Table of Contents

      Waiters at the Grand Babylon Hotel and Footmen at Taverner, the Parker-Jennings’ place in Cheshire

      Time

      : The Present Day

      Act I

      —The Lounge of the Grand Babylon Hotel

      Acts

      II and III—The Parker-Jennings’ place in Cheshire

      The Performing Rights of this play are fully protected, and permission to perform it, whether by Amateurs or Professionals, must be obtained in advance from the author’s Sole Agent, R. Golding Bright, 20 Green Street, Leicester Square, London, W.C., from whom all particulars can be obtained.

      JACK STRAW

      Table of Contents

      THE FIRST ACT

      Table of Contents

      Scene

      : The lounge and winter garden of the Grand Babylon Hotel. There are palms and flowers in profusion, and numbers of little tables, surrounded each by two or three chairs. Several people are seated, drinking coffee and liqueurs. At the back a flight of steps leads to the restaurant, separated from the winter garden by a leaded glass partition and swinging doors. In the restaurant a band is playing.

      Two or three waiters in uniform are standing about or serving customers.

      Ambrose Holland

      and

      Lady Wanley

      come out from the restaurant. He is a well-dressed, elegant man of five and thirty. She is a handsome widow of uncertain age.

      Lady Wanley.

      [Pausing at the foot of the steps.] Where shall we sit?

      Holland.

      Let us choose a retired corner where we can gossip in peace.

      Lady Wanley.

      Nonsense! I didn’t come to the Grand Babylon in order to blush unseen. I caught sight of a number of people during luncheon, who I’m quite determined shall catch sight of me now.

      Holland.

      I was sufficiently gallant to have eyes for you only.

      Lady Wanley.

      [Pointing to a table.] Shall we sit there?

      Holland.

      D’you mind sitting on the other side? The waiter’s rather a pal of mine.

      Lady Wanley.

      [Sitting down.] What queer friends you have.

      Holland.

      Waiter.

      A Waiter.

      [Coming forward.] Your waiter will be here in one minute, sir.

      Holland.

      [To

      Lady Wanley

      .] You see, I’ve knocked about in so many places that I have friends in every city in the world and every rank in life.

      Lady Wanley.

      I suppose you saw the Parker-Jennings? They were sitting three tables from us.

      Holland.

      I did.

      Lady Wanley.

      Do you know that she cut me dead when I came in?

      Holland.

      I’ve long told you that Mrs. Parker-Jennings is growing exclusive.

      Lady Wanley.

      But, my dear Ambrose, that she should have the impudence to cut me....

      Holland.

      [Smiling.] I respect her for it.

      Lady Wanley.

      I’m much obliged to you.

      Holland.

      I don’t think it does much credit to her heart, but it certainly does to her understanding. She has discovered that a title nowadays is not nearly such a good passport to the world of fashion as she thought it was. She knows you’re as poor as a church mouse, and she’s realised that in Society the poor are quite rightly hated and despised by all who know them.

      Lady Wanley.

      Yes, but remember the circumstances. Five years ago the Parker-Jennings didn’t know a soul in the world. They’d lived in Brixton all their lives.

      Holland.

      It has been whispered to me that in those days they were known as Mr. and Mrs. Bob Jennings—not nearly so smart, is it?

      Lady Wanley.

      He used to go to the City every morning with a black bag in one hand and an umbrella in the other.

      Holland.

      I wish that confounded waiter would come.

      Lady Wanley.

      One day an uncle in the North, from whom they vaguely had expectations, died suddenly and left them nearly two millions.

      Holland.

      Some people are so lucky in the way they choose their uncles.

      Lady Wanley.

      He was a hardware manufacturer, and no one dreamt that he had a tenth part of that fortune. I came across them in Switzerland and found they were looking for a house.

      Holland.

      So, with a burst of hospitality, you asked them down to Taverner, and they took it for twenty-one years.

      Lady Wanley.

      I introduced them to every one in the county. I gave little parties so that they might meet people. And now, if you please, the woman cuts me.

      Holland.

      [Dryly.] You have left out an essential detail in the account of your relations with these good folk.

      Lady Wanley.

      Have I?

      Holland.

      [Smiling.] You have omitted to mention that when they took Taverner they agreed to pay an exorbitant rent.

      Lady Wanley.

      They could well afford it. Besides, it was a historic place. It was worth whatever I could get for it.

      Holland.

      Parker-Jennings may be very vulgar, but he’s as shrewd a man as you’d find anywhere between Park Lane and Jerusalem.

      Lady Wanley.

      I haven’t the least idea what you’re talking about.

      Holland.

      Haven’t you? Well, then, I venture to suggest that if Mr. Parker-Jennings gave you such an enormous rent for Taverner, it was on a certain understanding. He was wise enough to find out that people can live in Cheshire all their lives and never know a soul. I don’t suppose he put it in the agreement between you, but unless I am very much mistaken he took your place only on the condition that you should get every one to call.

      Lady Wanley.

      [After a brief pause.] I was crippled with mortgages, and I had to send my boys to Eton.

      Holland.

      Good heavens,

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