Robert
Lydia
The Gunner
Deuteronomy Bimbo
Driscoll
STAGE PLAN FOR “BIMBO”
BIMBO, THE PIRATE
Note: “Visit the old jail and see the pirate Trickey’s Bible still preserved there.”—Description of York Village, Me.
“The ‘Articles’ [rules for the government of George Lowther’s pirate ship] were sworn to ... on a Bible.... We have an Article which we are sworn to, which is, not to force any married Man to serve us.... No gaming for money at cards or dice was allowed under any circumstances. No women were allowed on board.... When a vessel was captured, if a woman was found on board a sentinel was placed over her immediately.... First, You are to keep such good Orders among your said Briganteen’s Company that Swearing, Drunkenness and Prophaness be avoided, or duly Punished; And that God be duly worshiped.”—The Pirates of the New England Coast, by George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds.
“On the Sabbath Day only such tasks were permitted as had to do with working of the Ship and there was no Diversion ... but to read books of a religious nature.”—Narrative of a Seaman Captured and Forced by Pirates.
SCENE
The rise of the curtain discloses a stage too dark to permit the audience to be sure of more than a single detail. This is a large brass lantern of feeble illumination; it hangs at about the middle of the stage, a little more than six feet above the floor, and is in motion, swinging slightly, as in response to a turbulence which has been made evident since a moment or two before the curtain’s ascent. The turbulence is manifested by a composite sound, somewhat muffled, the trampling of feet, bellowings and angry shoutings, and a rattle of drums; and the repeated blare of fierce trumpets. Then a girl’s voice is heard screaming in an anguish of fear and protest; for several moments the screams are heard above the other sounds, but end abruptly. There is a hoarse cheering; the trumpets are blown triumphantly to an accompaniment of drums; and then follows a short interval of silence; after which a door at the back of the stage is opened, a girl’s voice is heard to moan and murmur as if she panted for breath; there is the thump of a human body falling upon wood; and the faint light of the lantern allows us to see an indistinct figure prostrate upon the floor beneath it.
A HOARSE VOICE
There, missus! P’raps you’ll have sense enough to lay there! I never did know a prudent female make such a commotion!
(Thus grumbling, the Hoarse Voice withdraws, the door closes, and silence follows, broken presently by the girl’s renewed moaning. A Troubled Voice, a man’s, speaks huskily out of the darkness at the right side of the stage.)