THE SILVER BOX
A monologue from the
play by John
Galsworthy
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from The Silver Box. John Galsworthy. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1916. |
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- JONES: Let 'em come and find me. I've had enough o'
this tryin' for work. Why should I go round and round after a
job like a bloomin' squirrel in a cage. "Give us a job,
sir"--"Take a man on"--"Got a wife and three
children." Sick of it I am! I'd sooner lie here and rot.
"Jones, you come and join the demonstration; come and 'old
a flag, and listen to the ruddy orators, and go 'ome as empty
as you came." There's some that seems to like that--the
sheep! When I go seekin' for a job now, and see the brutes lookin'
me up an' down, it's like a thousand serpents in me. I'm not
arskin' for any treat. A man wants to sweat hisself silly and
not allowed--that's a rum start, ain't it? A man wants to sweat
his soul out to keep the breath in him and ain't allowed--that's
justice--that's freedom and all the rest of it! The other day
I went to a place in Edgware Road. "Gov'nor," I says
to the boss, "take me on," I says. "I 'aven't
done a stroke o' work not these two months; it takes the heart
out of a man," I says; "I'm one to work; I'm not afraid
of anything you can give me!" "My good man," 'e
says, "I've had thirty of you here this morning. I took
the first two," he says, "and that's all I want."
"Thank you, then rot the world!" I says. "Blasphemin',"
he says, "is not the way to get a job. Out you go, my lad!"
[He laughs sarcasticly.] Don't you raise your voice because
you're starvin'; don't yer even think of it; take it lyin' down!
Take it like a sensible man, carn't you? And a little way down
the street a lady says to me: "D'you want to earn a few
pence, my man?" and gives me her dog to 'old outside a shop--fat
as a butler 'e was--tons o' meat had gone to the makin' of him.
It did 'er good, it did, made 'er feel 'erself that charitable,
but I see 'er lookin' at the copper standin' alongside o' me,
for fear I should make off with 'er bloomin' fat dog.
MORE
MONOLOGUES BY JOHN GALSWORTHY |
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