The Works of George Meredith Author:George Meredith 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: THE SENTIMENTALISTS Of this comedy Scenes vi.-viii. in blank verse were written probably forty years ago, or more; of Scenes i.-v. there are two MS. versions,... more » differing in very slight degree the one from the other, and both written some ten or fifteen years ago. There also exist fragments of further Scenes. Mr. J. M. Barrie has assembled the alternative versions and somewhat rearranged the Scenes—to the text no change nor addition has been made. DRAMATIS PERSONS Homeware. Professor Spiral. Arden, . . .In love with Astraea. Swithin, Osier, Dame Dresden, . Sister to Homeware. Astraea, . . Niece to Dame Dresden and Homeware. Lyra, . . .A Wife. Lady Oldlace. Virginia. Winifred. THE SENTIMENTALISTS AN UNFINISHED COMEDY The scene is a Surrey garden in early summer. The paths are shaded by tall box-wood hedges. The time is some sixty years ago. SCENE I PROFESSOR SPIRAL, DAME DRESDEN, LADY OLDLACE, VIRGINIA, WINIFRED, SWITHIN, AND OSIER. (As they slowly promenade the garden, the professor is delivering one of his exquisite orations on Woman.) Spiral One husband! The woman consenting to marriage takes but one. For her there is no widowhood. That punctuation of the sentence called death is not the end of the chapter for her. It is the brilliant proof of her having a soul. So she exalts her sex. Above the wrangle and clamour of the passions she is a fixed star. After once recording her obedience to the laws of our common nature—that is to say, by descending once to wedlock—she passes on in sovereign disengagement— a dedicated widow. (By this time they have disappeared from view. Homeware appears; he craftily avoids joining their party, like one who is unworthy of such noble oratory. He desires privacy and a book, but is dis...« less