Chapter I: Preface

IT is an ungrateful task to write a preface, for few people, if any, ever read one.

“The play’s the thing,” and “a good play needs no epilogue.” So should a good book need no preface, and for one that can boast of containing between its two covers seven picked scenes from the pen of one of the most charming writers in the English language—Jane Austen—no introduction whatever is needed. But to ruthlessly tear her from the library shelf and place her in the hands of the amateur actor demands explanation and even apology.

Jane Austen as a novelist has won and maintained a place in the first rank, but as a writer of true comedy she has been too long unrecognised. She is essentially dramatic, and her characters assume shape, form, and colour; her plots are human, her people are alive. No individual in any of her novels degenerates into caricature, yet there is not one but has a touch of the humorous in his or her composition. Her duologues and scenes are complete in themselves, and in them one appreciates the maxim of Alexandre Dumas, who declared that the _only_ essentials for a play were “_une passion, deux personages, et un paravent_.”

Keeping, therefore, to this rule, these scenes should be represented with no scenery whatever—(by scenery, I mean stage, proscenium, footlights, and curtain)—but it is essential that the accurate costume of the day should be worn; for though the plot and sentiments thoroughly appeal to the modern mind, the language belongs to a past generation, and an incongruity would arise were it spoken in modern dress. The period represented is from 1792-1807, and a pen and ink sketch of the type of character and style of dress, the work of Miss Margaret Fletcher, accompanies each scene.

In order to make the plots clear and the duologues intelligible to those of the audience who are unacquainted with the novels themselves, a few words in monologue form have sometimes been added to the text—the greatest care being taken, however, to keep as much as possible to the spirit of the original—while for dramatic effect and finish, the time or place of action has often been changed from a garden or street scene to that of an interior, lest the absence of scenery should be felt by actors or audience.

The idea of compiling this small book arose from the dearth of good duologues and one-act plays suitable for amateur performance. The acting rights of the best pieces being reserved, it is difficult for the uninitiated to obtain them; moreover, it is expensive, and so the orange-covered book is sought, and a play neither clever nor interesting selected, simply because it is found to contain the requisite number of characters, and has no elaborate scenery.

How refreshing, then, must these seven scenes be to both artists and audience—they play themselves—the language, sentiments, and personalities are within the reach of every cultivated amateur; and I am convinced that Jane Austen _as a play-wright_ will fascinate her audiences as much as she has her readers _as a novelist_.

ROSINA FILIPPI.

CONTENTS.