\ '5 rb6 ' ^ TOM BOWLINE JACK'S THE LAD, A NAUTICAL, ROMANTIC AND HIGHLY PRODIGIOUS TRAGEDY IN 3 ACTS, PONSCION PICCACAKE, C.B. CHORUSES AND SONGS OF THE SEA. ALBANY, N. Y. : JOEL MUNSELL, 1877. NOTICE TO MUSERS. This work is entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by the author, PONSCION PiCCACAKE, C.B. In the office of the Librarian at Washington; also the reserve to write the romance. TMP96-006913 ^C)l> B^ 1^\ -t^-n The Cast.— GoUumes, Red, WJiite and Blue. Tom Bowline, chief of the Red Rocks, pilot and captain of the Goldwave, Anchor Jack, boatswain of the king's ship and a pirate of the Red Rocks. IziA, mate of the Goldwave, a pirate. Poll, wife to Tom Bowline. Merii, a child, daughter to Poll. A Babe, with Poll. Red Rock Pirates, as crew of the Goldwave. Alchymii, a doctor. Homogeneous, captain of the king's ship. Catwip, an officer of the king's ship. Tacks, a sailor. Sailors, as crew of the king's ship Neptune. Old Tar Bonnie ace, of the Ship Inn, Naples. Shoote, an old disabled soldier, lame. A Jew, a peddler. A Lighthouse Keeper. DORKUS, daughter to the lighthouse keeper. SiMiLM \ ^^^^^^ ^^ Naples, officers' friends. Act 1st. The bay of Naples and burning mountains. The ship's office at front of stage. The beach at Naples, two houses at back. Act 2d. A coast rock and lighthouse. A street at front, Naples. The upper deck of the Neptune, a sea scene, 3 wing. Same as 1st scene, 2d act. Act 3d. Scene 1st. The open sea. " 2d. A street in Naples at front. " 3d. On board the Goldwave at sea. Time of play, evening and night. Third act, day time. Several days elapse between the last scenes. Date, ancient. Scene 1st. " 2d. " 3d. Scene 1st. " 2d. " 3d. " 4th, TOM BOWLINE AND JACK'S THE LAD Act 1st. Scene 1st. The hay o/ Naples, Italy, a view of the fleet at anchor and the burning mountains. Officers, Visitors and Sailors on the ship Neptune. Curtain opens with a dance " The Sailor's Hornpipe." Enter Jack, left, with a letter. Jack. Captain Homogeneous, a letter from the good king, sir. Homo, (reads). Boatswain, call the hands aft, to hear the good king's message. Jack. Aye, aye, sir. All hands, hands lay aft, to hear a message from the king. The hands are aft, sir. Homo, (reads aloud). The good king sends his pleasure greeting to the captain, officers and crew of his good ship Neptune and hereby commands that you weigh anchor and return home, hoping Providence will guide you safely to port, to anchor. The king has marked your zeal and faith- ful duties, rendered while on float, for which services leave of absence is granted you, one month extra while at home. Given under the Great Seal. The King. Now men, make merry, and three cheers for the king (crew cheer). There are four winds to blow beneath the heavens, let us give three 6 cheers for a fair one {cheers). I shall now " pipe down " that you may see your friends before sailing. And, as in ancient rule, after a five years' cruise at sea and toil, we'll splice the main brace, with merry grog, one gill to all, in honor to the good ship Neptune and the king. " Pipe down'' hands to dance and skylark. Enter friends from the shore (a dance). Enter ToM Bowline. Chorus^ Home again. Anchor Jack (^sings). Shipmates let me introduce an old friend of mine, Tom Bowline of the brave ship Goldwave. His father and I were for many years shipmates for the king. Old Tar Bonniface, we used to call him, but as he married and had no issue to make his life and wife happy, he craved this boy from a foreign ship we saw sinking in distress; he, struggling in the water, came floating hard by us, and old Tar cast out a bowline which he, child-like, grappled to ; we hauled him in like a drowned fish, and old Tar Bonniface adopted him as his son, naming him after the line we caught him by, and now, Tom, as I have introduced you, speak for yourself, as truly noble as the trim craft jou hail from. Tom. Royal shipmates I am glad with your acquaintance, pleased to know you all, and should be happy to be one of you. Nothing is so noble in the heart of man, as that ambi- tious pride to serve a king; the honor of his shrine inspires the mind to zeal and valor to wash away dishonor. The man is but a poor conqueror in himself, who holds his heroic battle crownless ; it is like the withered wreath the con- quered drops away. As my friend and shipmate told you I am nothing but a castaway dropped like a crownless hero into the sea; but from then till now, I have loved the name of king as truly noble as though I wore a crown. A sailor of the king is to me what I do worship, for his heart ; manliness and proud ambition elates a clear conscience in the man who can boast, T am a king's man. a sailor. My secret life is sacred to you and me upon those decks of the good ship the king doth own, because I have no honor, no king to have zeal, pride and ambition, for. I am but the brave son of a brave pirate, whose days, months and years have been spent in wanton outrage, so that my life and soul, hands, flesh and blood are stained with inhumanity. Then if there be a man among you, save me from such cruel des- peration. Anchor Jack. What say you, boy, would you turn a traitor to your crew, and doom the existence of braver men ? what would you do ? Tom. Join the good king's ship and be a royal sailor, with the title of king upon me. Anchor Jack. We would rather see patriotism than gal- lantry. The one cannot be counterfeited ; the other can. If you wish to be a king's sailor, change your name to Caution, and let the air of cheerfulness ever pervade your every employment, for, like music, " it sweetens toil." As a kingsman to please it is not so necessary to say as to leave unsaid. Obedience is your first duty and with a cheerful countenance salute your officers. From the mysteries of the sea the veil is seldom to be drawn ; from the mysteries of love and romance, no, never ! you are standing on a deck unknown, veiled in mystery, and so am I. Should I raise the veil both of us are lost, for like you I am but a Red Rock disguised in the uniform of the king who shipped me. Tom. Your example is a most powerful teacher, one by which a sailor can be irresistibly moulded to the true and good. A. Jack. Without that example, it would be false and bad. 8 Tom. It is true I am but a brave pirate ; but then my thoughts are on the king, and sunlight that enlivens day, and sends bright, beautiful thoughts to the iieart of man. As its king rises slowly in the east on a throne of golden clouds, in all the majesty of the king of day, a striking imago of the Great Creator, his cheering beams move the soul to gladness and drive all evil thoughts away, hence I sink into oblivion, the hero of a tempest wrecked ; but no. As all nature rejoices at the sunlight, so will I rejoice, a sailor to the king. Flowers lift their drooping heads, the sea sparkles like glitterin 2: jewels, and the moss that clings to the weather-beaten rocks glistens like the richest emerald. The masts and vanes alike are covered with a flood of golden light; and the captive's lonely life is brightened as he watches the sunlight peeping through the little barred windows of his cell. Honor lights in my heart as bright as the sun in that philosophy. All is gloom where it is not. The sick and dying love the sunlight to shine upon them, as do I, because it reminds us of port and home, toward which we, like the tide, are slowly drifting. When nature weeps, and her mouth speaks thunder, and her eyes flash lightning, sunlight soon drives and dries away the tears ; and nature's face is wreathed again in sunny smiles. It is welcomed by the happy and unhappy ; only where there is death is it shut oiit; it mocks grief with its splendor and happy appearance; it weaves itself into fantastic shapes of the purest and most dazzling brilliancy on the bier of the dead and on the scene of joy; it is the source of life on sea or land, the vegetation on the earth. Let no one ex- clude it, for the poorest and gloomiest are made beautiful where a glimpse of it is found. 8uch is my ambition as light, in honor as the sun to serve my king. All. Bravo, by Jove ! VV^elcorae, Tom nowline. 9 Jack. Tom is courageous, a brave sailor, and unto Poll a lock and bolt of admiration. He, like the perfumes of the sea tbat forms the fragrance for mermaids to inhale, is the sport of many maidens. Tom. Jack you speak flatteringly, which is somewhat un- grateful. Jack. True, boy. Flatterers are the worst kind of traitors. They strengthen imperfections, encourage you in evils, cor- rect you in nothing ; but so shadow and paint follies and vices as you shall never, by their will, discover good from evil or vice from virtue. Few sailors look upon an object as it really is ; but regard it through some fantastic prism presented by their own prejudices, which invest it with a false color. You are a Red Rock and would be a true blue ; you break your oath to change color, and must obligate again to serve the king and that will perjure you a traitor and a villain. Tom. But what of that in so true a cause from an outlaw to a king ? Oaths when taken are but senseless, offensive, vul- gar and impious acts ; like obscene words, they leave a noi- some trail upon the lips, and a stamp of odium upon the soul. They outrage taste and dignity. Jack. True, Tom, we find profit sometimes, by losing our prayers, spending the prayer-while to save the ship. Tom. Why then reprove me, when I love but to adorn. The finest manner of my growing instincts is but a mantle dark upon my fairer mind. The world is his who can see through its most sacred pretensions, ever and alone. Jack. Elated boy, thy faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death to that undiscovered country, where, born, lived and died, sums up the great epitome of man. Tom. Aye, and so breaks the ladder on which we climb to the likeness of it. When one is young, one must do 10 more when one is old, else we only live to enjoy the good of others. Jack. That is so, boy. The best days of a man's life are those in which he effects the most good. Occasions of ad- versity best discover how great virtue or strength each one hath. Childhood itself is scarcely more than a cheerful, kindly, sunshiny old age, and a great heart is as quick to find out another as the world is slow. Tom. There is no good this world can give, like that it takes away, for little things on little wings, bear little ships to heaven, well knowing that a treacherous friend is like a treacherous rock against whom you must be always on your gard. Jack. Quite philosophical Tom, by Jove, and now to splice the main brace as a memento of your shipping a kings- man in the good ship Neptune hand up the liquor ship- mates, a health to Tom Bowline, and the weighing our anchor for home {aside). And now the sail is set at last, I hate the king, I hate his service, I hate his ship, I have tried to escape it all for my freedom again as a Red Rock pirate of the sea and my own captain ; the Goldwave is already partly mine. Tom Bowline is heir to the other part. I will enlist him in the king's royal service to effect my escape, once on board the Goldwave then Neptune, sink her, aye, sink her as a torture as being a mortified, existing misery to each soul on board. She weighs anchor, but not a league of sea before she shall let go, whoever be her pilot, and now boys let us drink to the main-brace and your health, Tom Bowline, welcome among us, a real sheet anchor. All {drink). Your health, and the main-brace. Song hy ANCHOR JacK. All. Your health and song, Anchor Jack, your health and song. 11 lEnter Capt. Homogeneous and Officers.] Homo. Good shipmates, I greet your cheer and happi- ness, on our weighing anchor. After these many summers in this tropic and other foreign climes, each heart I know will welcome well his home, his friends and lovers, and above all our dear old mothers. May Providence save the ship to reach them, they pray to cheer us on life's sea and its track- less dangers. What say you, boatswain of the Neptune. Jack (aside). I have now to play the villain. I say, captain that the sea is a hidden peril to fresh meat, and a pearl to salt. Life, and it, are linked together by no common affection. Yet we sacrifice all but Heaven and our love for it, losing happiness for honor, and tenacious duty. It is like the poet says of the sinking ship " From every heart a cry of anguish rose," grazing the rocks, she struck ! and the water that had bent to bear her broke and soon all was drowned in the royal sea dwelling. We are about to weigh anchor on this same sad sea, and the four winds of Heaven may blow upon us. Homo. And what then ? Jack. I have on board a pilot that can save us, and reverse the storm however stress it be. The quaint gable of those romantic seas are like the love that sports, well known unto him, he has fathomed every nook, and hole, and there is not an inch about the bottom but wh;it Tom has sounded, and knows each water, and each current force with that philosophy of an idol charm, which makes me introduce him as a shipmate to you. Tom Bowline, Captain, a pilot. Homo. I greet you, and as we are weighing anchor on the boatswain's recommend, I will ship you on this good sl