Transcriber’s Note
This transcription is based on scanned images posted by Google from a copy in the Harvard Library.
Note that the Google scans are included in a set of four Sydney Grundy plays published by Samuel French posted under the title, A Fool’s Paradise. Based on how the Harvard Library catalogs the individual copies, I assume Google combined the different scans into a single document. A Fool’s Paradise is the first play in the set.
French’s Acting Editions from the nineteenth century tend to have minor editorial inconsistencies and errors such as missing and inverted letters, missing and incorrect punctuation marks, and spelling errors. In addition, errors were introduced in the printing process, depending on the condition and inking of the plates. Thus, for example, it is at times difficult to determine whether a certain letter is an “c,” “e,” or “o” or whether a certain punctuation mark is a period or a comma. Where context made the choice obvious, the obvious reading was given the benefit of the doubt without comment.
The following changes were noted:
- Throughout the text, all abbreviations in the stage directions for stage position, entrances, and exits (e.g.,“R.I.D.”) have been made consistent so that there is no space between the letters.
- Throughout the text, the convention of long dashes at the end of lines has been made consistent.
- p. 3: Tennis bat for Kate R.U.E.—For consistency, changed “Kate” to “Kate”.
- p. 5: You wouldn’t mind being Mrs. Verinder, would you.—Changed period to a question mark.
- p. 6: Kate Why aren’t…—Added period after “Kate”.
- p. 7: Even love matches are often unfortumate.—Changed “unfortumate” to “unfortunate”.
- p. 7: Love has a habit of being so one-sided—Added period to end of sentence.
- p. 7: …a most able and distinguished man—Added period to end of sentence.
- p. 9: …and waves his hand to Tom and Mil)—Changed “Mil” to “Mildred” in stage direction.
- p. 9: Sir. P. Drink too much.—Deleted period after “Sir”.
- p. 9: Kate. Sir Peter!—Changed “Sir” from small caps to initial cap.
- p. 9: SirP. Of course you do.—Inserted space between “Sir” and “P”.
- p. 10: Sir P Any pain?—Inserted period after “Sir P”.
- p. 11: Sir P. So, altogether. you’re quite a happy family?—Changed what looked like a period after “altogether” to a comma.
- p. 11: With more money than I know what to do wi h…—Changed “wi h” to “with”.
- p. 11: The liv r was made, by a beautiful provision…—Changed “liv r” to “liver”.
- p. 12: Re-enter Mildred and Tom, followed by Lord Normantower, C. from R.)—Deleted unmatched closing parenthesis.
- p. 12: (they come down stage tonether…—Changed “tonether” to “together”.
- p. 12: …and though circum tances have kept us a good deal apart—we’ve never quite ost…—Changed “circum tances” to “circumstances” and “ost” to “lost”.
- p. 12: Sir P. (crosses to Lord Normantower. C.)—Changed period after “Normantower” to comma.
- p. 13: Sir P. (picks up bunch from table, R.)—Changed “bunch” to “Punch” based on the “Necessary Properties” list and on the stage direction following the next line of dialogue which has Sir Peter sitting and reading.
- p. 15: …she has a tennis bat in her hand, and comes down C.)—Deleted unmatched closing parenthesis.
- p. 18: (stoop- to give a back, Normantower down R. laughs.…—Changed “stoop-” to “stooping”.
- p. 18: Kate (nodding) How d’ye do?—Added period after “Kate”.
- p. 20: Nonsense I must see you…—Added period after “Nonsense”.
- p. 21: …but consider the future Some day…—Added a period after “future”.
- p. 21: No, I shall never marry—Added a period at end of line.
- p. 22: You are a foolish, obstinate, absurd—(turns suddenly and takes both her hands) Good, generous…—Inserted dash after closing parenthesis, and changed “Good” to lower case.
- p. 23: ACT II—Inserted a period at end of heading for consistency.
- p. 23: …remarkably tight inexpressibles—Added a period at end of line.
- p. 23: You under-rate your accomplishments. don’t think…—Inserted the word “I” before “don’t”. Use of italics was based on spacing between words.
- p. 24: Kate turns up and resumes watering plants, R.C.—For consistency in stage directions, changed “Kate” to small caps in html version and all caps in text version.
- p. 29: No—but I cannot grasp it?—Changed question mark to an exclamation mark.
- p. 31: …bnt now I have awaken…—Changed “bnt” to “but”.
- p. 33: I’m doing right, aren’t I, mousey—Added question mark to end of sentence.
- p. 33: I have your acquiesence?—Changed “acquiesence” to “acquiescence”.
- p. 34: Tom. Are quite well enough to stand a shock?—Inserted “you” after “Are”.
- p. 34: Yon won’t come to blows?—Changed “Yon” to “You”.
- p. 35: Exeunt Johnson and Philip R.U.D.—Added closing parenthesis.
- p. 36: Tom has her L. hand., Philip her right…—Deleted period after “hand”.
- p. 36: Sir. P. Nobody here.—Deleted period after “Sir”.
- p. 36: …then smells it, smell it again, tastes again cautiously by his finger…—Changed “smell” to “smells”.
- p. 38: Beatrice’s fan on piano—Added period after “piano”.
- p. 39: “ad. lib.”—Deleted period after “ad”.
- p. 40: I am charmed with him—Added period at end of sentence.
- p. 41: Philip comes to C. up stage, Kate rises and meets him)—Changed closing parenthesis to a period.
- p. 41: Sir P My dear young…—Added a period after “P”.
- p. 43: You’ve had a trying day—Added a period at end of sentence.
- p. 43: Philip takes his R. arm, and they go up)—Inserted a left parenthesis before “Philip”.
- p. 43: Sir. P. By obeying me…—Deleted period after “Sir”.
- p. 43: Sir P Just one more.—Added a period after “P”.
- p. 43: (behind sofa R. of it)—Added a comma after “sofa”.
- p. 43: Oh, yes; we get along splendidly. like Miss Derwent! she is just my sort.—Added “I” before “like”.
- p. 43: …a bachelor can devote himself to the sex,—Changed comma to a period.
- p. 44: Don’t mock me—Added a period at end of sentence.
- p. 44: Lord Normantower, I owe you an explanation‘ which…—Deleted single quote mark after “explanation”.
- p. 44: You contemplate being married—Added a question mark to end of sentence.
- p. 47: Sir. P. Oh, Miss Derwent!—Deleted period after “Sir”.
- p. 47: …snuff—box…—Changed dash to a hyphen.
- p. 48: As Mr. Selwyn’s friend—betray his confidence—Added a question mark to end of sentence.
- p. 48: …drops into sofa, the picture of desolation.—Added a closing parenthesis after “desolation.”
- p. 48: I’m “all right.’—Changed single closing quotation mark to double closing quotation mark.
- p. 49: Whom I could honor—whom I could even obey—Added an exclamation mark to end of sentence.
- p. 49: …from morning nntil night…—Changed “nntil” to “until”.
- p. 50: Don t I? I’ve got it.—Added an apostrophe between “Don” and “t”.
- p. 50: I’ll go and make things up. exit. R.U.D.)—Added left parenthesis before “exit”; changed period after “exit” to a comma.
- p. 50: (turns up to Sir Peter)—Changed “Sir” from initial cap to small caps in html and all caps in text version.
- p. 51: Tom. How dare you take that from Miss Selwyn?—Changed question mark to exclamation mark.
- p. 51: Re-enter Beatrice, L. after a pause, she has medicine bottle and wine-glass in her hand)—Changed closing parenthesis to a period.
- p. 52: (enter Sir Peter, R.I.D , leaving door ajar…—Changed space after “D” to a period.
- p. 52: (goes towards L D., back of sofa)—Changed space after “L” to a period.
- p. 53: (Beatrice gazes at him as if fascinated—Added closing parenthesis after “fascinated”.
- p. 53: I thought I heard a noise in the conservatory—Added a period at end of sentence.
- p. 53: (goes into the conservatory R.C., disappears R. re-enters…—Inserted a comma after “R.”.
- p. 54: …and on the point of it’s consummation…—Changed “it’s” to “its”.
- p. 54: (takes book gaain)—Changed “gaain” to “again”.
- p. 54: I suspect Miss Derwent—Added a period at end of sentence.
- p. 55: (indicates bell pull, going owards it up R.)—Changed “owards” to “towards”.
- p. 55: comes down R.C.)—Added a left parenthesis before “comes”.
- p. 55: …Kate appears R.C ,…—Changed space after “C” to a period.
- p. 55: (Phil goes down L. to L.C.)—Changed “Phil” to “Philip”.
- p. 55: (sets down the glass—Added closing parenthesis after “glass”.
- p. 56: Re-enter Lord Normantowe, R.I.D.—Changed “Normantowe” to “Normantower”.
- p. 56: Bea. I rang?—Changed question mark to an exclamation mark.
- p. 56: (come down to C.)—Changed “come” to “comes”.
- p. 56: (retreating up L C.)—Changed space after “L” to a period.
- p. 56: Philip makes no movement…—Added a left parenthesis before “Philip”.
- p. 57: If she is innocent, why was she hiding here—Added a question mark at end of sentence.
- p. 57: Perhaps I can throw some light upon that matter—Added a period at end of sentence.
- p. 57: (going up to C , Kate comes to him)—Changed space after “C” to a period.
- p. 57: Sir P I should think, fatally.—Added a period after “P”.
- p. 57: Sir P For a very excellent reason.—Added a period after “P”.
- p. 57: …that to do so would be an admisson of…—Changed “admisson” to “admission”.
The html version of this etext attempts to reproduce the layout of the printed text. However, some concessions have been made. For example, on pages 25, 34, and 39 of the printed text a single curly bracket around two or more lines is used to indicate simultaneous action or dialogue. It is possible to reproduce this in html using tables, but html tables may not transfer well to the Project Gutenberg files generated from the html file. Thus, the use of html tables was avoided.
This play was inspired by the 1889 trial of Florence Maybrick, who was convicted of poisoning her husband with arsenic. A brief description can be found in William R. Cullen, Is Arsenic an Aphrodisiac? The Sociochemistry of an Element (Cambridge, U.K.: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2008), pp. 179-180, 183-185. See also Edgar Lustgarten, Verdict in Dispute (London: Allan Wingate, 1949).
