Wappin’ Wharf
CHARACTERS
- THE DUKE
- PATCH-EYE
- THE CAPTAIN
- RED JOE
- DARLIN'
- BETSY
- OLD MEG
- SAILOR CAPTAIN
- THREE SAILORS
SETTING: For details of Stage Set turn to pages [35-6-7].
A PROLOGUE TO BE SPOKEN BY BETSY
Our scene is the wind-swept coast of Devon. By day there is a wide stretch of ocean far below, and the abutments of our stage arise from a dizzy cliff.
The time is remote, and ships of forgotten build stand out from Bristol in full sail for the mines of India. But we must be loose and free of precise date lest our plot be shamed by broken fact. A thousand years are but as yesterday. We make but a general gesture to the dim spaces of the past.
The village of Clovelly climbs in a single street—a staircase, really—and it is fagged and out of breath half way. But far above, on a stormy crag, clinging by its toes, there stands a pirates' hut. To this topmost ledge fishwives sometimes scramble by day; but when a wind shall search the crannies of the night, then no villager would dare to climb so high.