The Forcing House Author:Israel Zangwill Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DRAMATIS PERSONA: RlFFONI VlTTORIO Professor Salaret Count Cazotti Baron Gripstein Duke D'AzoLLO Marshal Roxo Colonel Molp Corporal Vanni Brio Omar Mar... more »gherita Livia (baroness Gripstein) Signora Da Grasso Countess Cazotti Sigismondo A Socialist A Socialist Writer Prime Minister of Valdania A Financier. Formerly Ex-Regent of Paldania Ex-War Minister Head of the Royal Body-Guard. Of the Palace Guards Gripstein's Majordomo Gripstein's Doorkeeper Queen of Valdania Gripstein's Daughter-in-Latv Wife of a Valdanian Landowner Wife of the Prime Minister Guests, Lackeys and Guards The action fosses in our day at Scaletta, the capital of t'al- dania. Act I. in Baroness Gripstein's salon, Acts II., III., and IV. in the former Throne Room of the old San Marco Palace. (In the description of scenes, R. and L. stand for Right and Left of the actor, not the spectator, from whose point of view they can be rtad transposed!) THE FORCING HOUSE Act One [The scene is a salon in Baron Gripstein's bouse at Scaletta, the capital of Valdania, on a spring evening. The room has been made by dividing and partly modernising a vast ancient banqueting hall, the unseen portion of which, behind modern folding doors in the rear wall, constitutes the dining-room. The furniture is massive, and there are tapestries and old oil- portraits and religious pictures, but the medieval gloom, which the electric candles in sconces cannot quite dissipate, is dispelled by the masses of hot- house roses in the great old vases. In the lower part of the left wall is a tall Gothic leaden-paned casement with a cushioned seat, opening on the courtyard. The original old doors, oaken and brass-studded, are in the centre of the right and the upper part of the left wa...« less