CHATTERTON.
—A Garret in Brooke Street, London. Casement at back C. openingon the street; door, L. 3. E.; rough bedstead R. of window; rude chairsand table, with candle, manuscripts, and writing materials on it, L. C.;old washstand, on which are a glass, a basin, and a broken jug of water,R. 2. E. The Garret is in the house of Mrs. Angell, and is the lodgingof the Poet Chatterton. It is the night of August 24th, 1770. Musicon rise of curtain. A distant bell is heard tolling the hour.
Mrs. Angell. [Knocking from without.] Mr. Chatterton! [Knocking.]Mr. Chatterton! [Knocking.] Mr. Chatterton!
Enter Mrs. Angell with lamp. Lights up.
Mr. Chatterton, a gentleman—[Looking around.] Alack! the boy is out.[Places lamp on table, and goes back to door.] Come in, sir.
Enter Burgum and Bertha.
Mr. Chatterton is not in. Will you wait, Mr.—, Mr.—
Burgum. [Pompously.] Mr. de Burgum, Madam. I trust that I shall havea more honorable title soon;—eh, daughter?
Bertha. There is no more honorable title, father.
Burgum. Bah! romantic.
Mrs. Angell. He surely will return soon: he is seldom out in theevening.
Burgum. I'll await his coming. I must see him on a matter connectedwith the de Burgum Pedigree, which he was fortunate enough to discover.I say "fortunate enough," since otherwise some one else would havediscovered it—birth, like murder, will out.
Mrs. Angell. Pray be seated, sir. [Burgum sits R. of table;Bertha, L.]
Burgum. [Looking around the room.] The rewards of poetry, my dear.
Bertha. The rewards of poetry, father, only poets know.
Burgum. Another romantic speech! If you must worship a poet, worshipmy collateral ancestor, Master John de Bergham, a Cistercian monk, oneof the greatest ornaments of his age—so the Pedigree reads—and atranslator of the Iliad. This boy never can be a poet: he knows noLatin and Greek.
Bertha. He is not writing Latin and Greek.
Burgum. I regret that I permitted you to come. You are a sentimentalgirl likely to fall in love with such a vagabond as Chatterton.
Bertha. Do not call him a vagabond, father: you owe so much to him.
Burgum. For what?
Bertha. Your Pedigree.
Burgum. He has been paid.
Bertha. Yes—a crown.
Burgum. Hem! He shall have more after the College of Heralds haspassed upon my claims—not before.
Bertha. In the meantime he may