[Scene.-A garden with a gate opening on the highroad. David Copperfield, ragged and footsore, is peering over the garden gate, as if afraid to come in. Aunt Betsey Trotwood, very stiff and straight, stalks out of the house into the garden. She has gardening gloves on, and carries a fork and some plants.]
Aunt (seeing David and waving her gardening fork).-Go away! Go along! No boys here!
[She begins to plant her plants. David enters and walks overto her timidly. He touches her arm. She starts up.]
David.-If you please, ma"am! (Aunt gets up.) If you please, aunt!
Aunt (in a tone of amazement).-Eh?
David.-If you please, aunt, I am your nephew.
Aunt.-My goodness! (She sits flat down on the path.)David.-I am David Copperfield, of Blunderstone, in Suffolk-where you came on the night when I was born and saw my dear mamma. I have been very unhappy since she died. I have been slighted, and taught nothing, and thrown upon myself, and put to work not fit for me. It made me run away to you. I was robbed at first setting out, and havewalked all the way, and have never slept in a bed since I began the journey. (David begins to cry.)Aunt (hastily getting up and rushing to comfort David).- Mercy on us! Mercy on us! Janet! Janet! (Janet, the maid, rushes out of the house.) Go upstairs, give my compliments to Mr. Dick, and say I wish to speak to him.
Janet.- Yes, ma"am; I"ll go at once, ma"am.
[Janet goes into the house. Presently Mr. Dick, a simple old man, comes into the garden, laughing.]
Aunt.-Mr. Dick, don"t be a fool, because nobody can be cleverer than you, when you choose. We all know that. So don"t be a fool, whatever you are. (Mr. Dick stops laughing.) You have heard me mention David Copperfield. Now, don"t pretend not to have a memory, because you and I know better.
Mr. Dick.-David Copperfield? David Copperfield? Oh,yes, to be sure! David, certainly!
Aunt.-Well, this is his boy-his son. He would be as like his father as it is possible to be, if he were not so like his mother, too.
Mr. Dick.-His son? David"s son? Indeed !
Aunt.-Yes, and he has done a pretty piece of business. He has run away. (She shakes her head.) Now, here you see young David Copperfield, and the question I put to you is, what shall I do with him?
Mr. Dick (scratching his head).-What shall you do with him? Oh, do with him?
Aunt (very gravely, with her forefinger held up).-Yes! Come,I want some very sound advice.
Mr. Dick (looking vacantly at David).-Why, if I were you, I should wash him!
Aunt (triumphantly).-Janet, Mr. Dick sets us all right.
Heat the bath!
Janet.-Yes, ma"am; at once, ma"am. (She goes out.)Dramatized from David Copperfield, a novel by Charles DickensAuthor.-Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was one of the most famous of English novelists. He was a poor boy and self-educated. As a youth he became a lawyer"s clerk, then a journalist. His keen observation and wide sympathy made him popular as a novelist. Among his works are David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers, Bleak House, Little Dorrit, The Old Curiosity Shop, Barnaby Rudge, Our Mutual Friend, Great Expectations, Edwin Drood, Martin Chuzzlewit. Sketches by Boz, A Christmas Carol, A Child"s History of England.
General Notes.-The scene is laid at Dover, in England. David is an orphan boy who has walked from London to visit his Aunt Betsey. Read the whole book. What kind of woman is Aunt Betsey, as revealed in the play? Why did she think so highly of Mr. Dick? Write an imaginary letter from Aunt Betsey to David"s step-father.