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    The Lamplighter: "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."
    The Lamplighter: "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."
    The Lamplighter: "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."
    Ebook47 pages37 minutes

    The Lamplighter: "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."

    By Charles Dickens

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    About this ebook

    Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is regarded by many readers and literary critics to be THE major English novelist of the Victorian Age. He is remembered today as the author of a series of weighty novels which have been translated into many languages and promoted to the rank of World Classics. The latter include, but are not limited to, The Adventures of Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, Great Expectations and The Old Curiosity Shop. His talents extended to many other forms including short stories, poetry, letters and his serial magazines. Of course being such a talent he also wrote plays. We are very pleased to present his fourth of four plays: The Lamplighter

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateNov 5, 2013
    ISBN9781783945603
    The Lamplighter: "An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself."
    Author

    Charles Dickens

    Charles Dickens was born in 1812 and grew up in poverty. This experience influenced ‘Oliver Twist’, the second of his fourteen major novels, which first appeared in 1837. When he died in 1870, he was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey as an indication of his huge popularity as a novelist, which endures to this day.

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      Book preview

      The Lamplighter - Charles Dickens

      The Lamplighter - A Farce In One Act by Charles Dickens

      Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is regarded by many readers and literary critics to be THE major English novelist of the Victorian Age. He is remembered today as the author of a series of weighty novels which have been translated into many languages and promoted to the rank of World Classics. The latter include, but are not limited to, The Adventures of Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Hard Times, Great Expectations and The Old Curiosity Shop.

      His talents extended to many other forms including short stories, poetry, letters and his serial magazines.  Of course being such a talent he also wrote plays.  We are very pleased to present his fourth of four plays

      Index Of Contents

      Dramatis Personae

      Scene I

      Scene II

      Scene III

      Charles Dickens – A Short Biography

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE

      MR. STARGAZER.

      MASTER GALILEO ISAAC NEWTON FLAMSTEAD STARGAZER (his son).

      TOM GRIG (the Lamplighter).

      MR. MOONEY (an Astrologer).

      SERVANT.

      BETSY MARTIN.

      EMMA STARGAZER.

      FANNY BROWN.

      THE LAMPLIGHTER

      SCENE I.—The Street, outside of MR. STARGAZER’S house.

      Two street Lamp-posts in front.

      TOM GRIG (with ladder and lantern, singing as he enters).

      Day has gone down o’er the Baltic’s proud bil-ler;

      Evening has sigh’d, alas! to the lone wil-ler;

      Night hurries on, night hurries on, earth and ocean to kiv-ver;

      Rise, gentle moon, rise, gentle moon, and guide me to my—

      That ain’t a rhyme, that ain’t—kiv-ver and lover! I ain’t much of a poet; but if I couldn’t make better verse than that, I’d undertake to be set fire to, and put up, instead of the lamp, before Alderman Waithman’s obstacle in Fleet-street. Bil-ler, wil-ler, kiv-ver—shiver, obviously. That’s what I call poetry. (Sings.)

      Day has gone down o’er the Baltic’s proud bil-ler—

      (During the previous speech he has been occupied in lighting one of the lamps. As he is about to light the other, MR. STARGAZER appears at window, with a telescope.)

      MR. STARGAZER (after spying most intently at the clouds). Holloa!

      TOM (on ladder). Sir, to you! And holloa again, if you come to that.

      MR. STARGAZER. Have you seen the comet?

      TOM. What Comet—The Exeter Comet?

      MR. STARGAZER. What comet? The comet—Halley’s comet!

      TOM. Nelson’s, you mean. I saw it coming out of the yard, not five minutes ago.

      MR. STARGAZER. Could you distinguish anything of a tail?

      TOM. Distinguish a tail? I believe you—four tails!

      MR. STARGAZER. A comet with four tails; and all visible to the naked eye! Nonsense, it couldn’t be.

      TOM. You wouldn’t say that again if you was down here, old Bantam. (Clock strikes five.) You’ll tell me next, I suppose, that that isn’t five o’clock striking, eh?

      MR. STARGAZER. Five o’clock—five o’clock! Five o’clock P.M. on the thirtieth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight! Stop till I come down—stop! Don’t go away on any account—not a foot, not a step. (Closes window.)

      TOM (descending, and shouldering his ladder). Stop! stop, to a lamplighter, with three hundred and

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