Ellen
This unrelenting work
This grey, unresting industry, What aim, what future, what peace Will your hard profits buy?
Peter
Buy us a home, buy us respect And buy us freedom from pain Of grinning at gossip's tales. Believe
in me, we shall be free! Choir
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived...
(Fades into background.)
Ellen
Peter, tell me one thing, where
The youngster got that ugly bruise?
Peter
Out of the hurly burly!
Ellen
O your ways
Are hard and rough beyond his days.
Peter, were we right in what we planned To do? Were we right, were we right?
Peter (roughly)
Take away your hand.
(then quietly)
My only hope depends on you.
If you - take it away - what's left?
(Ellen moves unhappily away from him.)
Ellen
Were we mistaken when we schemed To solve your life by lonely toil?
Peter (in anger) Wrong to plan? Wrong to try?
Wrong to live? Right to die? Ellen
Were we mistaken when we dreamed That we'd come through and all be well? Peter
Wrong to struggle? Wrong to hope?
Then the Borough's Right again?
Ellen
Peter! You cannot buy your peace You'll never stop the gossips' talk With all the fish from out the
sea.
We were mistaken to have dreamed... Peter! We've failed. We've failed.
(He cries out as if in agony. Then strikes her. The basket falls.)
Choir Amen. Peter
So be it! - And God have mercy upon me!
(The boy runs from him. Peter follows. Ellen watches. Then goes out the other way. - Behind closed
doors and half-open windows neighbours have been watching.
Three now emerge. First Auntie, then Ned Keene, finally Boles.)
This unrelenting work
This grey, unresting industry, What aim, what future, what peace Will your hard profits buy?
Peter
Buy us a home, buy us respect And buy us freedom from pain Of grinning at gossip's tales. Believe
in me, we shall be free! Choir
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, Who was conceived...
(Fades into background.)
Ellen
Peter, tell me one thing, where
The youngster got that ugly bruise?
Peter
Out of the hurly burly!
Ellen
O your ways
Are hard and rough beyond his days.
Peter, were we right in what we planned To do? Were we right, were we right?
Peter (roughly)
Take away your hand.
(then quietly)
My only hope depends on you.
If you - take it away - what's left?
(Ellen moves unhappily away from him.)
Ellen
Were we mistaken when we schemed To solve your life by lonely toil?
Peter (in anger) Wrong to plan? Wrong to try?
Wrong to live? Right to die? Ellen
Were we mistaken when we dreamed That we'd come through and all be well? Peter
Wrong to struggle? Wrong to hope?
Then the Borough's Right again?
Ellen
Peter! You cannot buy your peace You'll never stop the gossips' talk With all the fish from out the
sea.
We were mistaken to have dreamed... Peter! We've failed. We've failed.
(He cries out as if in agony. Then strikes her. The basket falls.)
Choir Amen. Peter
So be it! - And God have mercy upon me!
(The boy runs from him. Peter follows. Ellen watches. Then goes out the other way. - Behind closed
doors and half-open windows neighbours have been watching.
Three now emerge. First Auntie, then Ned Keene, finally Boles.)