by J. M. Barrie
A fairy drops the postage stamp he has been reading to conceal himself, his anxious expression betraying fear of discovery. By contrast with the lightness of being found in many of Kensington Gardens’ fairies, this unkempt figure, costumed in found objects, seems earthy and earthbound, and the feather on his head is purely decorative.
Figure 14: “A band of workmen, who were sawing down a toadstool, rushed away, leaving their tools behind them.”
Peter Pan throws the workers into a panic, since they perceive him as a human who has stayed in Kensington Gardens past Lock-out Time.
Figure 15: “Peter put his strange case before old Solomon Caw.”
Barrie loved this illustration almost as much as that of the Serpentine. Peter is perched in birdlike fashion on a branch, but Solomon slowly breaks it to him that he is no longer a bird. Peter loses faith in his ability to fly and for a time he is stranded on the island. Solomon describes him as a “poor little half-and-half” and famously dubs him a “Betwixt-and-Between.” At the foot of the tree, mice busy themselves polishing shoes.
Figure 16: “Peter screamed out ‘Do it again!’ and with great good-nature they did it several times.”
Frightened at first by a “wonderful white thing” on Bird Island, Peter comes to love the kite and even sleeps with it, “because it had belonged to a real boy.” He delights in its flight, but forgets to thank the birds for demonstrating its powers, showing that “even now he had not quite forgotten what it was to be a boy.” Mimicking the movements of the kite, he seeks to rise up in the air with it.
Figure 17: “A hundred flew off with the string, and Peter clung to the tail.”
Peter begs the birds to fly him over Kensington Gardens. With their help, he is carried aloft by the kite but returns to earth when the kite breaks to pieces in the air.
Figure 18: “After this the birds said that they would help him no more in his mad enterprise.”
Two “indignant” swans rescue Peter from the waters, and the other birds declare that they will no longer take him for joy rides. With hair wet and matted from the Serpentine, a chastened Peter untangles the remains of the kite.
Figure 19: “‘Preposterous!’ cried Solomon in a rage.”
Solomon, responsible for sending birds to mothers who have sent him requests via the Serpentine, can make nothing of the five-pound banknote drifting his way in the form of a boat launched by the poet Shelley. The two thoughtful mouse assistants—one bespectacled—ponder the note and are equally perplexed. Solomon gives Peter the note as a plaything. From his seven days as a boy, Peter learned the value of banknotes and plans to use the one found by Solomon to facilitate his return to Kensington Gardens.
Figure 20: “For years he had been quietly filling his stocking.”
Solomon Caw has no intention of remaining in office forever, and he stocks up on various oddities, ranging from crumbs to bootlaces, hoping eventually to “retire on a competency.” Barrie structures the world of Kensington Gardens in ways that parody Edwardian social conventions and cultural values.
Figure 21: “When you meet grown-up people in the Gardens who puff and blow as if they thought themselves bigger than they are.”
Using a broader palette, Rackham returns us to reality with a satiric look at men and women born in the “Sparrow’s Year,” a time when Solomon is obliged, owing to a critical shortage of thrushes, to send sparrows to ladies who have requested thrushes. The babies born that year turn into adults who “puff and blow” to make themselves look as if they started out as thrushes rather than as sparrows.
Figure 22: “He passed under the bridge and came, to his great rejoicing, within full sight of the delectable Gardens.”
Using his white nightgown as a sail, Peter flies across the water just as he once flew through the air with the help of a kite. Both sail and kite harness the power of the wind to help Peter (he is nearly as white as the nightgown) reach Kensington Gardens. The Gardens appear in the background, but the focus is on the hardy infant, manning the sails.
Figure 23: “There now arose a mighty storm, and he was tossed this way and that.”
Peter sails from an island in the Serpentine to Kensington Gardens in a thrush’s nest (one that resembles the Never bird’s nest in Peter and Wendy). Poised as an adventurer, he is nearly drowned, like “English mariners who have sailed westward to meet the Unknown.” His nightshirt twice saves him, first when he hoists it up as a sail, then when the lady fairies “straightaway” love Peter Pan for his “baby’s nightgown.” Even the fish in the ocean side with the storm-tossed child, who joins the class of mythic castaways on the waters.
Figure 24: “Fairies are all more or less in hiding until dusk.”
Rackham gives us another glimpse of the fairy world, which resembles a miniaturized version of domestic life in the human world. Although unable to see the gnarled roots underground, the young girl has a conspiratorial look on her face and seems to be aware of a presence below. Because fairies hide in the daytime, they never witness children’s games and cannot instruct Peter on what to do with hoops.
Figure 25: “When they think you are not looking they skip along pretty lively.”
The beautiful is mingled with the grotesque as fairies dance and cavort with creatures of nature. The toddler, riding on a gnome’s back, shares the kinetic energy of their games.
Figure 26: “But if you look, and they fear there is no time to hide, they stand quite still pretending to be flowers.”
When they meet humans, fairies use camouflage, masquerading as flowers to avoid recognition. They then rush home to tell their mothers about their “adventures.” The woodland creatures respond to encounters with children in much the way children react to encounters with fairies—with wonder, astonishment, and some trepidation and terror. Fairies may pose as lilies, bluebells, crocuses, or hyacinths. Their houses are hidden because they are “the colour of the night,” and their palace, “entirely built of many-coloured glasses,” is the “loveliest” of all royal residences.
Figure 27: “The fairies are exquisite dancers.”
The fairies’ dance on a tightrope spun by a spider is accompanied by music from string and wind instruments. A spider web serves as safety net.
Figure 28: “These tricky fairies sometimes slyly change the board on a ball night.”
The fairies’ mischievous side—along with their skillful teamwork—is illustrated clearly in this scene. When the fairies hold a ball, the closing time for Kensington Gardens is surreptitiously changed to enable preparations to begin in a timely fashion.
Figure 29: “Linkmen running in front carrying winter cherries.”
Linkmen are attendants hired to carry torches for pedestrians, and these fairies are described as jolly fellows, eager to carry the winter cherries that are “fairy-lanterns.”
Figure 30: “When her Majesty wants to know the time.”
When Queen Mab consults her Lord Chamberlain for the time of day, he responds by blowing on a dandelion, revealing that even temporality takes a whimsical turn in the fairy world.
Figure 31: “The fairies sit round on mushrooms, and at first they are well behaved.”
The fairies are able to play at being well behaved for a limited period of time. Like children, they prove unable to remain dignified and before long they “stick their fingers into butter” or “crawl over the tablecloth chasing sugar.” In the midst of the pomp and pageantry of their ball, we see an aesthetic that divides the charmingly attractive women from their grotesque male counterparts.
Figure 32: “Butter is got from the roots of old trees.”
A gnarled tree in a spooky forest setting has at its roots a cozy domestic scene, with fairies making cakes from the butter provided by the tree. Fairies coexist peacefully with nature.
Figure 33: “Wallflower juice is good for reviving dancers who fall to the ground in a fit.”
A mouse hastens to bring wallflower juice for exhausted fairy dancers. An unusually dashing male fairy cares
for the fallen dancers, for whom Peter Pan provides the music. “They bruise very easily,” we are told, “and when Peter plays faster and faster they foot it till they fall down in fits.”
Figure 34: “Peter Pan is the fairies’ orchestra.”
Peter Pan plays his pipes, seated on toadstools that are aglow with his aura. His song is so beautiful that the Queen offers him “the wish of his heart.” Peter decides to make two small wishes, and the first offers him the opportunity to fly back home through the window.
Figure 35: “They all tickled him on the shoulder”
Gravity is lifted when the fairies tickle Peter on the shoulder, giving him the power to fly. Still hovering in the air, he is about to be propelled forward for the flight home: “I wish now to go back to mother for ever and always.”
Figure 36: “One day they were overheard by a fairy.”
Maimie Mannering listens intently while her brother boasts about his plan to sail in Peter Pan’s boat. A camouflaged fairy at the base of the tree eavesdrops and turns Tony into a “marked boy,” the target of constant fairy mischief. Tony sports a hat that is the color and shape of what George Llewelyn Davies wore on outings to Kensington Gardens.
Figure 37: “The little people weave their summer curtains from skeleton leaves.”
Barrie described this illustration as “the gayest thing,” and it displays Rackham’s gift for creating a densely packed mix of delicate charm and melancholy gloom. The fairies sew summer curtains from skeleton leaves at the base of a tree, with a toadstool serving as a table for a sewing kit.
Figure 38: “An afternoon when the Gardens were white with snow.”
Maimie decides to stay in the Gardens past Lock-out Time. Nature is animated through the games of children in the snow, and when they depart the trees will begin to speak, the flowers will set out on walks, and the fairies will come out of hiding.
Figure 39: “She ran to St. Govor’s Well and hid.”
Maimie’s brother does not have the courage to stay past Lock-out Time, and she huddles in the well while visitors to the Gardens hasten to the exit. Maimie opens her eyes and feels something very cold run up her legs and arms and drop “into her heart”—“It was the stillness of the Gardens.”
Figure 40: “An elderberry hobbled across the walk, and stood chatting with some young quinces.”
The trees in Kensington Gardens all walk with crutches, “the sticks that are tied to young trees and shrubs,” and Maimie finally learns about their actual use. The contrast between the fairies’ lightness of being and the gnarled appearance of the trees is nowhere more striking than in this illustration.
Figure 41: “A chrysanthemum heard her, and said so pointedly, ‘Hoity-toity, what is this?’”
The chrysanthemum exhibits distinctly adultlike behavior. Maimie is obliged to justify her presence to “the whole vegetable kingdom,” and she wins over the trees, shrubs, and flowers by offering to take them for walks, inviting them to lean on her.
Figure 42: “They warned her.”
The trees warn Maimie about the menace posed by the fairies: “They will mischief you—stab you to death, or compel you to nurse their children, or turn you into something tedious like an evergreen oak.” Maimie, depicted in loving profile, forms a strong contrast to the fiercely gnarled trees. Safely contained by the trunks and branches yet also imprisoned by them, Maimie decides to ignore their advice.
Figure 43: “Queen Mab, who rules in the Gardens.”
Queen Mab famously appears as the “fairies’ midwife” in Mercutio’s speech (Romeo and Juliet) and brings dreams of wish fulfillment. Flanked by younger fairies, she wears a robe with flowers that evoke her connection to nature. Her confident expression reflects faith in the ability of fairy girls to “bewitch” the Duke of Christmas Daisies.
Figure 44: “Shook his bald head and murmured, ‘Cold, quite cold.’ ”
A physician examines the Duke’s heart, which no one has been able to warm up. The Duke of Christmas Daisies’ slight stature, heavy mustache, and sallow complexion create a strong resemblance to J. M. Barrie himself.
Figure 45: “Fairies never say, ‘We feel happy’: what they say is, ‘We feel dancey.’”
The fairies cannot dance so long as the Duke remains without wife, for “they forget all the steps when they are sad.” Here, the fairies are shown in happier times, performing their nimble footwork on Christmas daisies
Figure 46: “Looking very undancey indeed.”
The morose fairy may be Brownie, who is about to warm up the heart of the Duke of Christmas Daisies. Brownie bears a certain resemblance to Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, mother of the boys adopted by J. M. Barrie, though it seems unlikely that Rackham would have modeled Brownie on Sylvia.
Figure 47: “ ‘My Lord Duke,’ said the physician elatedly, ‘I have the honor to inform your excellency that your grace is in love.’ ”
The physician’s unctuous manner (he uses three honorific titles in a single sentence) and the oddity of declaring his patient to be “in love” makes the pronouncement somewhat suspect, but the words work magic on the crowd, and lead to multiple marriages among the fairy folk.
Figure 48: “Building the house for Maimie.”
The fairies build a house around Maimie, much like the house built for Wendy after she is struck by Tootles’ arrow. Maimie’s house shrinks and disappears as soon as she wakes up and walks out of it.
Figure 49: “If the bad ones among the fairies happen to be out.”
Malicious in appearance and in their behavior toward humans, these fairies are goblinlike, woodland creatures that seem very much at home at the base of trees. Oddly, Rackham illustrates the sideshow rather than the main event, giving us vignettes about the fairies rather than representing the climax of the book—the encounter between Peter and Maimie.
Figure 50: “They will certainly mischief you.”
Having lingered past Lock-out Time, the girl is in real danger, and we are told that Peter “has been too late several times” to save children from the fairies. Left in the cold and the dark, the children can perish in Kensington Gardens, and Peter then uses his paddle to dig a grave for them.
Figure 51: “I think that quite the most touching sight in the Gardens is the two tombstones of Walter Stephen Matthews and Phoebe Phelps.”
The tombstones, although actually parish boundary markers, communicate the whiff of the tragic that permeates Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. Children play in the Gardens, but it is there that they also can perish. The double tombstones that mark the burial site for a boy and a girl are a sobering reminder to the two couples strolling through the Gardens of their common destiny. Small wonder that one of the women casts an anxious glance at the tombstones. Like all mortals, she too will one day face the onset of Lock-out Time: “It is all rather sad.”
J. M. Barrie’s Scenario for a Proposed Film of Peter Pan
INTRODUCTION TO BARRIE’S PETER PAN SCREENPLAY
Barrie was fascinated by the medium of film, and in 1915 he made a parody of Macbeth, called The Real Thing at Last. The film ran for thirty minutes and included a cast of Peter Pan veterans. In 1918 he was offered £20,000 for the film rights to Peter Pan. Although he refused the offer, he decided to try his hand at a reimagining of the play for the silent screen. After much negotiation, Barrie finally signed a contract with Paramount and sent them his screenplay, complete with subtitles, a profusion of new visual details, and descriptive embellishments. From the scenario, it becomes clear that Barrie hoped for a film that would catch the wonders of Neverland. Here is a description of the mermaid lagoon: “The mermaid pictures should be a beautiful series of considerable length.” And here is another of Peter at a fairy wedding: “This should be an elaborate and beautiful picture of some length, one of the prettiest in the film.” And the final picture, Barrie declared, should be “the most beautiful”: “Now there are only lights from moon and stars, and Peter is seen in silhouette alone, playing his pipes.”
SCENARIO FOR A PROPOSED FILM OF PETER PAN
by J. M. BARRIE
NOTE.—The music of the acted play, as specially written for it, should accompany the pictures. Thus there is the music which always heralds Peter’s appearances—the Tinker Bell music—the pirate music—the redskin music—the crocodile music, etc., all of which have a dramatic significance as well as helping in the telling of the story. Other special music should be written so that all the music accompanying the play becomes really part of it. The subtitles, i.e. the words flung on the screen, are here [in italics]. The aim has been to have as few words as possible. There are very few words in the last half hour or more of this film, and there are also about fifteen minutes of the lagoon scene without any words. Many of the chief scenes, especially those calling for novel cinema treatment, are of course not in the acted play, but where they are in it they should be acted in the same way, and to that extent the play should be a guide to the film. This scenario is very condensed: here we give only the bones of the story. The details of how to get the humours etc. must come later. The technical matters are obviously of huge importance and difficulty, and it remains to be seen whether the cinema experts can solve them.
