Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple * Caesar and Cleopatra * Captain Brassbound’s Conversion

George Bernard Shaw

Three Plays for Puritans: The Devil’s Disciple * Caesar and Cleopatra * Captain Brassbound’s Conversion

Cena: 17,70 

Stan książki
średni/wyraźne zużycie (wytarcia i zagniecenia na okładce, bardzo pożółkłe strony, podpis piórem)
Nr katalogowy
05570024
Liczba stron
346
Rok wydania
1973
Okładka
miękka
Rozmiar
11x18

Pozostało tylko: 1

Book description

The Devil’s Disciple
          The setting is in the Fall of 1777, during the Saratoga Campaign. Richard "Dick" Dudgeon is an outcast from his family in colonial Websterbridge, New Hampshire. He returns their hatred with scorn. After the death of his father, Dick returns to his childhood home to hear the reading of his father’s will, much to his family’s dismay. Anthony Anderson, the local minister, treats him with courtesy despite Dick’s self-proclaimed apostasy, but Dick’s "wickedness" appalls Anderson’s wife Judith. 
          To everyone’s surprise, it is revealed that Dick’s father secretly changed his will just before he died, leaving the bulk of his estate to Dick. Dick promptly evicts his mother from her home, but also invites his cousin Essie (the illegitimate daughter of Dick’s never-do-well uncle Peter), orphaned by the hanging of her father as a rebel by the British, to stay as long as she wants. At the end of the Act, Dick proclaims himself also a rebel against the British and scorns his family as cowards when they flee his home. He warns Anderson that the approaching army hanged his uncle in error, believing him to be a man of highest respect, unaware of his ill repute, and that Anderson will be the example set in Websterbridge.

Caesar and Cleopatra
          Act I opens with Cleopatra sleeping between the paws of a Sphinx. Caesar, wandering lonely in the desert night, comes upon the sphinx and speaks to it profoundly. Cleopatra wakes and, still unseen, replies. At first Caesar imagines the sphinx is speaking in a girlish voice, then, when Cleopatra appears, that he is experiencing a dream or, if he is awake, a touch of madness. She, not recognizing Caesar, thinks him a nice old man and tells him of her childish fear of Caesar and the Romans. Caesar urges bravery when she must face the conquerors, then escorts her to her palace. Cleopatra reluctantly agrees to maintain a queenly presence, but greatly fears that Caesar will eat her anyway. When the Roman guards arrive and hail Caesar, Cleopatra suddenly realizes he has been with her all along. She sobs in relief, and falls into his arms.

Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
          In this three act comedy, no person or act is exactly what he, she, or it appears to be. Captain Brassbound’s conversion is not from atheism to Christianity, but from a rough character to something slightly more refined, a conversion that lasts only until he leaves the influence of a rather beautiful but silly woman. Indeed, the missionary in the play was only capable of converting one man during his 25 years of activity in Morocco, and this man, a thief, only seems converted, like Brassbound and the woman, when he is near the clergyman. The Muslims in Morocco call the missionaries Epicureans because they seem to a life of luxurious idleness. 
          The play focuses on the mesmerizing power of a beautiful but foolish woman upon men. She has her way with every man she meets, Christian and Muslim, pious and thief. Brassbound is a brigand who controls a group of thieves by the force of his personality and his physical strength. The uncle of the beautiful woman cheated him and his mother and he wants revenge. But he abandons his plan because of the influence of the woman. Readers will enjoy the play’s humor. 

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