`Merylly, Merylly, Shall I Live Now'

The usual prize of six guineas was offered for a passage of not more than twelve lines of blank verse or 150 words of prose from The Yeomen of the Guard as William Shakespeare might have written it.

'A HORRID competition writes Kenneth S. Kitchin, 'So much of. Gilbert's prose is good Shakespeare pastiche, and even some of the songs are bad enough to have come straight from As You Like It!' Gilbert himself thought he wrote jolly good Shakespeare too. 'I would as lief be thrust through a quickset hedge as cry Pooh to a callow throstle' was a sentence he palmed off on to an unsuspecting friend, who asked where the passage occurred. And Hesketh Pearson, in his new book on Gilbert, says : 'Whether Jack Point is more amusing than Touchstone, or Touchstone more natural than Jack Point, is a moot question.'

But to return to competitors—too many chose a passage from the libretto and then proceeded to translate it fairly closely into Shakespearean blank verse as best they could. The result was what H. A. C. Evans calls Shakesbertian lines. No one so much as mentioned an Act V, scene II, for example, it was all Act I and II, though James S. Fidgen and V. Langton both earn a good mark, for introducing a new scene (Fairfax's cell). I had hoped somebody would put 'Another part of the Tower.' I liked Cinna's idea of intro- ducing the ChoruS from Henry V to set the scene 'upon another bank of Thames.' A few characters were renamed, but not always for the better. Leonardo for Leonard imparts a pseudo-Shake- spearean flavour, but this Tower is not the Tower of Pisa. Celia for Elsie was good, and R. A. McKenzie's Colonel Hamfax was not, as I first supposed, another clue for Baconians, but an early study for, or a matured edition of, the Prince of Denmark. (Would Shakespeare have repeated himself quite so much, though?) The theme of `Is Life a Boon?' is such natural matter for a Shakespeare soliloquy • that it accounted for a quarter of the entries.

Faulty scansion eliminated quite a number of otherwise good entries and considerably eased the task of adjudiCation. First prize of three guineas goes to Gloria Prince, two guineas to Rhoda Tuck Pook (who also sent another good entry) and one to Samuel Stephen. Commendations to A. W. Dicker, Kenneth S. Kitchin, H. A. C. Evans, W. K. Holmes and James S. Fidgen, who gave me the idea for the title.

PRIZES

(GLORIA PRINCE)

PlICEBE and WILFRED embracing.

PHmBE (aside): •

HOpe which hath made me bold hath made him drunk : His wits grow dull as mine glow bright. Hark, now! That was the turning of the iron key, The grating of the hinge. They are about it : Cold Harbour Tower lies open to the sky, And footsteps mock the stone.

WILFRED (coming to himself): What's that? thought — PHCEBE (embracing him): It was my heart thou heard'st. Sweet Will, I think, If peradventure I should lie with thee—

Mark well, 1 say but if

WILFRED:

But in that if —

Enter MERYLL, who hands keys unseen to PHCEBE. PHCEBE If in that if more than mere if doth lie—She replaces keys unnoticed in WILFRED's girdle.

Exit MERYLL.

WILFRED:

If truly if doth mean with thee to lie —

PIREBE :

Then, truly, if sloth lie !

Exit, laughing, pursued 1i5 a WILL.

(RHODA TUCK POCK)

Foot : 'Tis an old story and a true, my lord, Befell my grandam. When she was a maid A strolling merry-andrew loved her well, Nay, worshipped her as some adore the saints, She first requiting it. Then, ere she knew, Some easy coxcomb stole her with a smile; All pouncet-box and dainty finger tips Who, though he was a noble, married her.

DUKE: What of the clown?

Foot He pined his heart• away; His body following, he died o' love. 'Twas a rare fool, my lord—well, rest his soul, And God ha' mercy on all poor men's sons..

(SAMUEL STEPHEN) EXTRACT FROM POINT'S SPEECH TO SHADBOLT

Upon this compact stand we then at one, That whatsoever shall to both us twain Appear concordant in our equal minds We thereupon shall ratify by bond In form and manner confirmatory, Our words incorporate in parchment script, Lest memory, of guides most cautelous,, Should carry too predominant a sway,. And with deceitful replication, And insuppressive promptings, intimate The thing that was not, with the show of truth. Will you go call on Elsa, good my friend?

COMMENDED

(A. W. DICKER) EXTRACT FROM FAIRFAX'S SOLILOQUY

Is this poor spark that fires each mortal frame; The soul's brief sojourn in the.wrack Of time, A boon, a favour from the eternal gods Who dwell sublime in pure celestial light? In, faith, 'twould seem a grim and sorry jeS1 When sorrow's serried ranks come shuffling by, Did we not know the candle each one holds Shines brightest in affliction's lonely night. . If then 'tis good, as holy fathers say, And living dogs dead lions do excel, Death's blind imperious summons, without bail, Can never come but what it conies too soon.

(KENNETH S. KITCHIN) EXTRACT FROM DAME CARRUTHERS'S SPEECH

There is no stone in all this solimn pile, Raised by the mighty Julius to o'er-awe

The gallant British hearts of ancient times,

But speaks of conflict foul and piteous woe, Of slaughtered queens, of kings in complot whelmed, Of heroes rack'd with tortures merciless, . Of stubborn guilt unshriven perishing : Yet through the stormy passing of the years Hath this great fortress stood a sentinel Unmoved and stern in silent vigilance With lofty frown pursuing his dread watch O'er London city. . . .

(N.B.: Shakespeare thought that Casar built the Tower so the reference to William the Conqueror had to be altered.)