June , 1921 
35 
In various parts of the country the pastoral play based on classical lines has become quite popular for summer garden presentation The 
costumes are simple, inexpensive and easy to make. Where chorus or crowds are not required the number need not be as great as in this 
scene from a recent rural performance 
Agathon: Timon, my lad, come here. 
Timon (not heeding; to Melitta ): And did 
he win the maid to wife? 
Agathon: Timon, give heed to me! 
Timon: Did all end happily? 
Melitta: Of course; for that’s the moral of 
the tale;— 
Be brave and true, and you will win the 
prize. 
Agathon (mocking her ): Be brave and 
true, and you will win the prize! 
Stop filling up the young lad's brain with 
tales 
Of things which never happen now. Come 
here. 
Go hurry after those who’re at the stream, 
Tell them to cross, and go beyond the crest 
Of the hill on th’ other side. There is a 
pasture 
For the afternoon. I’ll 
join them when I’ve 
slept. 
Be off. (Timon hur¬ 
ries away. Agathon 
turns to Melitta.) 
Why will you fill the 
youngsters’ minds 
With tales of those old 
things which come no 
more? 
They’re dead and gone. 
Each day the world 
grows stale. 
Weaklings and senti¬ 
mental fools possess 
it now. 
But in my time —{he 
sighs over the change.) 
Melitta : You have 
yourself to blame. For 
it is you 
Who thrills my mind 
with all those glorious tales 
You tell to me, when men were heroes, why, 
They even fought the gods. And you— 
Agathon {angrier and angrier at the decline 
of the world ): Ay. That was long ago, 
when men were men! 
But now;—it makes me sick! 
Melitta: Don’t blame me for the tales I tell 
the young, 
For they are only what I hear from you— 
Your wild adventures, travels, perils, love; 
Your craft to outwit the other charioteers; 
Prisoners you seized in foreign lands at war! 
Agathon: And now, to think that I, a char¬ 
ioteer, 
Should for my little food and shelter roam 
About these hills and dales to find out pas¬ 
ture 
For the sheep, and carry faggots for the 
hearths 
Before whose fires I tell my tales to get 
An extra drink, or crust of new-baked 
bread! 
Melitta : Come, come! The story of the 
chariot race! 
Agathon : You know it all. 
Melitta: That day you raced for more than 
gold. 
Agathon: That’s true. I drove for just one 
woman in the crowd. 
Melitta: She w 7 as afraid to turn to you— 
Agathon: Because her father just before he 
died 
Had pledged her to the bully of the stables; 
And she was timid— 
Melitta (drawing him. on): But you were 
brave for both. 
Agathon : She would not 
let me stick a knife be¬ 
tween 
His well-kept ribs. But 
I did for him at last! 
Melitta: And in the 
races where she saw 
your triumph. 
Agathon {more interest¬ 
ed): And fairly, too. 
The fault was his alone. 
Melitta {as he , pauses): 
At the last turning, just 
as you— 
Agathon {He will let no 
one else tell his story ): 
Had brought 
My horses up beside his 
shoulder, so 
He saw that I was on 
the inside, had 
The right of way—for 
{Continued on page 86) 
