Explore a dramatization of Walter van Tilburg Clark's short story “The Portable Phonograph”
In this 1977 dramatization of Walter van Tilburg Clark's short story “The Portable...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Transcript
JENKINS: ". . . Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
THE BOOK-LOVER: You're not stopping?
JENKINS: You'll forgive me.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Oh, please, just the part again, from "Our revels."
THE HARSH MAN: "Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, . . . spirits and
Are vanished into air, into thin air:
. . . like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces . . ."
JENKINS: "The solemn temples . . ."
THE HARSH MAN: "The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."
THE BOOK-LOVER: I saw Lawrence Olivier as Prospero in "The Tempest" a few years ago in London. No--no, it was New York.
THE HARSH MAN: It was London. It wasn't Olivier, it was Paul Scofield or John Gielgud.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Oh, was it now? Well, you're probably right.
JENKINS: There were those, of course, who said that Shakespeare was not meant to be acted, but read, prepared for the library, not the stage.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Oh no, I don't believe that.
JENKINS: No more do I. It doesn't matter now. When I saw it was going to happen, I told myself, this is the end. I can't take much, I'll take these. Perhaps I was impractical. But, for myself, I don't regret. But what can we know of those who'll come after us? By the doddering remnant of a race of mechanical fools. I've saved what I love. The soul of what was good in us here. And perhaps the new ones will make a strong enough beginning not to fall behind when they become clever.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Could I? Shakespeare, the Bible, "Moby Dick," "Divine Comedy." You might have done worse.
JENKINS: Much worse.
THE HARSH MAN: Yes. You will have a little soul left until you die. It's more than is true of us. My brain becomes thick like my hands. I want paper to write on. But there's none--none.
JENKINS: This peat gives off but a petty warmth and not smoke. But the wood must be saved for winter, for the real cold.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Of course. This was a good starched dugout. The soldiers built well.
JENKINS: Much good it did.
THE BOOK-LOVER: I was a continent away from my home when it found my family. I never saw them. They were in the city. I wonder, if I had had the chance to save something, just a few things, what would they have been?
JENKINS: I met a man once shortly after it happened. He was bearing on his back a large suitcase, leather bound. So heavy, he could scarcely totter a few pitiful steps before he had to rest. It was stuffed with bank notes. Money. Thousands, millions. Who'd heard of this . . . It was impossible to convince him it was worthless. I didn't try, of course.
THE HARSH MAN: I saw a woman, an old woman. She had a canary cage. There was no canary in it. It seemed to mean something to her.
THE BOOK-LOVER: We thank you, Dr. Jenkins, for the reading.
JENKINS: We shall finish it another time, if you'd like. You wish to hear the phonograph?
THE BOOK-LOVER: Please.
THE MUSICIAN: Please.
JENKINS: This, too, I managed to save with some difficulty. I knew there'd be no electricity, no corner drugstores to buy transistor batteries. So when the time came, I retrieved this old friend, from the back of a closet where it had been relegated years ago, and these old records. They're 78s, of course. I've been using cactus thorns as needles.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Of course.
JENKINS: And tonight, because we welcome a stranger into our midst, a musician moreover, tonight I shall use a steel needle. There are only three left.
THE MUSICIAN: Oh no, please--please don't use the steel needle. The cactus thorns will do beauti . . .
JENKINS: No. I've become accustomed to the thorns. They're not really good. Tonight, my young friend, you shall have good music. After all they can't last forever.
THE HARSH MAN: No, nor we. The steel needle, by all means.
THE MUSICIAN: Thanks. Thanks.
JENKINS: The records, though, are a different matter. Already they're very worn. I don't play them more than once a week. One record, once a week, that's all I allow myself. More than a week, I can't stand it, not to hear music.
THE MUSICIAN: Oh no, how could you? And having the records here like this.
THE HARSH MAN: A man can stand anything. Anything.
THE MUSICIAN: Please, the music.
JENKINS: Very well. But first, we must make our choice. Only the one, you understand. In the long run we'll remember more that way. Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D; Nathan Milstein and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham; Pablo Casals playing the Bach Suite No. 5 in C Minor for cello unaccompanied; Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, Oscar Levant at the piano; Bela Bartok, String Quartet No. 6 performed by the Budapest; Claude Debussy, piano pieces played by Walter Gieseking; Mozart, Symphony No. 40, Chicago Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter; Piano Concerto No. 21, Mozart, pianist Edwin Fischer; Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring; Pierre Monteux conducting the Paris Symphony; Beethoven, Quartet, the last, again the Budapest String Quartet; and Bach, St. Matthew Passion--not all of it of course--The New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Well?
THE HARSH MAN: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
THE MUSICIAN: No--no--no.
THE HARSH MAN: Well, you choose. I don't care.
THE MUSICIAN: I've forgotten, I cannot hear them clearly. Something's missing.
JENKINS: I know. I thought I knew all of Shelley's poetry by heart, every line. I should have brought Shelley.
THE HARSH MAN: That's more soul than we can use. "Moby Dick" is better. Thank God we can understand that.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Here we need the ideal. If we're to keep a grasp on anything, anything but this existence--the cold, the rabbit snares.
THE HARSH MAN: Shelley desired an absolute ideal. It's too much. It's no good, no earthly good.
JENKINS: Be that as it may, let us choose the music we are to hear. It's your first time at one of our gatherings: suppose you make the choice.
THE MUSICIAN: We have, Gieseking. Play the Debussy, Nocturne.
JENKINS: You were a pianist?
[Music]
THE BOOK-LOVER: Well, good night Dr. Jenkins, and thank you very much.
THE HARSH MAN: Good night. Thanks.
JENKINS: Come again, in a week. We shall have the Gershwin. Good night, my young friend. You're welcome to come again, if you wish.
[Music]
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep."
THE BOOK-LOVER: You're not stopping?
JENKINS: You'll forgive me.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Oh, please, just the part again, from "Our revels."
THE HARSH MAN: "Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, . . . spirits and
Are vanished into air, into thin air:
. . . like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces . . ."
JENKINS: "The solemn temples . . ."
THE HARSH MAN: "The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."
THE BOOK-LOVER: I saw Lawrence Olivier as Prospero in "The Tempest" a few years ago in London. No--no, it was New York.
THE HARSH MAN: It was London. It wasn't Olivier, it was Paul Scofield or John Gielgud.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Oh, was it now? Well, you're probably right.
JENKINS: There were those, of course, who said that Shakespeare was not meant to be acted, but read, prepared for the library, not the stage.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Oh no, I don't believe that.
JENKINS: No more do I. It doesn't matter now. When I saw it was going to happen, I told myself, this is the end. I can't take much, I'll take these. Perhaps I was impractical. But, for myself, I don't regret. But what can we know of those who'll come after us? By the doddering remnant of a race of mechanical fools. I've saved what I love. The soul of what was good in us here. And perhaps the new ones will make a strong enough beginning not to fall behind when they become clever.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Could I? Shakespeare, the Bible, "Moby Dick," "Divine Comedy." You might have done worse.
JENKINS: Much worse.
THE HARSH MAN: Yes. You will have a little soul left until you die. It's more than is true of us. My brain becomes thick like my hands. I want paper to write on. But there's none--none.
JENKINS: This peat gives off but a petty warmth and not smoke. But the wood must be saved for winter, for the real cold.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Of course. This was a good starched dugout. The soldiers built well.
JENKINS: Much good it did.
THE BOOK-LOVER: I was a continent away from my home when it found my family. I never saw them. They were in the city. I wonder, if I had had the chance to save something, just a few things, what would they have been?
JENKINS: I met a man once shortly after it happened. He was bearing on his back a large suitcase, leather bound. So heavy, he could scarcely totter a few pitiful steps before he had to rest. It was stuffed with bank notes. Money. Thousands, millions. Who'd heard of this . . . It was impossible to convince him it was worthless. I didn't try, of course.
THE HARSH MAN: I saw a woman, an old woman. She had a canary cage. There was no canary in it. It seemed to mean something to her.
THE BOOK-LOVER: We thank you, Dr. Jenkins, for the reading.
JENKINS: We shall finish it another time, if you'd like. You wish to hear the phonograph?
THE BOOK-LOVER: Please.
THE MUSICIAN: Please.
JENKINS: This, too, I managed to save with some difficulty. I knew there'd be no electricity, no corner drugstores to buy transistor batteries. So when the time came, I retrieved this old friend, from the back of a closet where it had been relegated years ago, and these old records. They're 78s, of course. I've been using cactus thorns as needles.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Of course.
JENKINS: And tonight, because we welcome a stranger into our midst, a musician moreover, tonight I shall use a steel needle. There are only three left.
THE MUSICIAN: Oh no, please--please don't use the steel needle. The cactus thorns will do beauti . . .
JENKINS: No. I've become accustomed to the thorns. They're not really good. Tonight, my young friend, you shall have good music. After all they can't last forever.
THE HARSH MAN: No, nor we. The steel needle, by all means.
THE MUSICIAN: Thanks. Thanks.
JENKINS: The records, though, are a different matter. Already they're very worn. I don't play them more than once a week. One record, once a week, that's all I allow myself. More than a week, I can't stand it, not to hear music.
THE MUSICIAN: Oh no, how could you? And having the records here like this.
THE HARSH MAN: A man can stand anything. Anything.
THE MUSICIAN: Please, the music.
JENKINS: Very well. But first, we must make our choice. Only the one, you understand. In the long run we'll remember more that way. Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D; Nathan Milstein and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham; Pablo Casals playing the Bach Suite No. 5 in C Minor for cello unaccompanied; Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, Oscar Levant at the piano; Bela Bartok, String Quartet No. 6 performed by the Budapest; Claude Debussy, piano pieces played by Walter Gieseking; Mozart, Symphony No. 40, Chicago Symphony conducted by Bruno Walter; Piano Concerto No. 21, Mozart, pianist Edwin Fischer; Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring; Pierre Monteux conducting the Paris Symphony; Beethoven, Quartet, the last, again the Budapest String Quartet; and Bach, St. Matthew Passion--not all of it of course--The New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Well?
THE HARSH MAN: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
THE MUSICIAN: No--no--no.
THE HARSH MAN: Well, you choose. I don't care.
THE MUSICIAN: I've forgotten, I cannot hear them clearly. Something's missing.
JENKINS: I know. I thought I knew all of Shelley's poetry by heart, every line. I should have brought Shelley.
THE HARSH MAN: That's more soul than we can use. "Moby Dick" is better. Thank God we can understand that.
THE BOOK-LOVER: Here we need the ideal. If we're to keep a grasp on anything, anything but this existence--the cold, the rabbit snares.
THE HARSH MAN: Shelley desired an absolute ideal. It's too much. It's no good, no earthly good.
JENKINS: Be that as it may, let us choose the music we are to hear. It's your first time at one of our gatherings: suppose you make the choice.
THE MUSICIAN: We have, Gieseking. Play the Debussy, Nocturne.
JENKINS: You were a pianist?
[Music]
THE BOOK-LOVER: Well, good night Dr. Jenkins, and thank you very much.
THE HARSH MAN: Good night. Thanks.
JENKINS: Come again, in a week. We shall have the Gershwin. Good night, my young friend. You're welcome to come again, if you wish.
[Music]