The Sage
Erasmus
The Woman and The Wife
The Book of Annandale
Sainte-Nitouche
As a World Would Have It
The Corridor
Cortège
Partnership
Twilight Song
Variations of Greek Themes
The Field of Glory
Merlin
Merlin I
Merlin II
Merlin III
Merlin IV
Merlin V
Merlin VI
Merlin VII
The Town Down the River
The Master
The Town Down the River
An Island
Calverly’s
Leffingwell
Clavering
Lingard and the Stars
Pasa Thalassa Thalassa
Momus
Uncle Ananias
The Whip
The White Lights
Exit
Leonora
The Wise Brothers
But for the Grace of God
For Arvia
The Sunken Crown
Doctor of Billiards
Shadrach O’Leary
How Annandale Went Out
Alma Mater
Miniver Cheevy
The Pilot
Vickery’s Mountain
Bon Voyage
The Companion
Atherton’s Gambit
For a Dead Lady
Two Gardens in Linndale
The Revealer
Lancelot
Lancelot I
Lancelot II
Lancelot III
Lancelot IV
Lancelot V
Lancelot VI
Lancelot VII
Lancelot VIII
Lancelot IX
The Three Taverns
The Valley of the Shadow
The Wandering Jew
Neighbors
The Mill
The Dark Hills
The Three Taverns
Demos
The Flying Dutchman
Tact
On the Way
John Brown
The False Gods
Archibald’s Example
London Bridge
Tasker Norcross
A Song at Shannon’s
Souvenir
Discovery
Firelight
The New Tenants
Inferential
The Rat
Rahel to Varnhagen
Nimmo
Peace on Earth
Late Summer
An Evangelist’s Wife
The Old King’s New Jester
Lazarus
Avon’s Harvest, etc.
Avon’s Harvest
Mr. Flood’s Party
Ben Trovato
The Tree in Pamela’s Garden
Vain Gratuities
Job the Rejected
Lost Anchors
Recalled
Modernities
Afterthoughts
Caput Mortuum
Monadnock Through the Trees
The Long Race
Many Are Called
Rembrandt to Rembrandt
LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
A-D E-H I-L M-O P-S T-V W-Z
A Song at Shannon’s
Aaron Stark
Afterthoughts
Alma Mater
Amaryllis
An Evangelist’s Wife
An Island
An Old Story
Another Dark Lady
Archibald’s Example
As a World Would Have It
Atherton’s Gambit
Aunt Imogen
Avon’s Harvest
Ballade by the Fire
Ballade of Broken Flutes
Ben Jonson Entertains a Man from Stratford
Ben Trovato
Bewick Finzer
Bokardo
Bon Voyage
Boston
But for the Grace of God
Calvary
Calverly’s
Captain Craig
Captain Craig: II
Captain Craig: III.
Caput Mortuum
Cassandra
Charles Carville’s Eyes
Clavering
Cliff Klingenhagen
Cortège
Credo
Dear Friends
Demos
Discovery
Doctor of Billiards
Erasmus
Eros Turannos
Exit
Firelight
Flammonde
Fleming Helphenstine
For a Dead Lady
For Arvia
Fragment
George Crabbe
Her Eyes
Hillcrest
Horace to Leuconoë
How Annandale Went Out
Inferential
Isaac and Archibald
Job the Rejected
John Brown
John Evereldown
John Gorham
L’envoy
Lancelot I
Lancelot II
Lancelot III
Lancelot IV
Lancelot IX
Lancelot V
Lancelot VI
Lancelot VII
Lancelot VIII
Late Summer
Lazarus
Leffingwell
Leonora
Lingard and the Stars
Lisette and Eileen
Llewellyn and the Tree
London Bridge
Lost Anchors
Luke Havergal
Many Are Called
Merlin I
Merlin II
Merlin III
Merlin IV
Merlin V
Merlin VI
Merlin VII
Miniver Cheevy
Modernities
Momus
Monadnock Through the Trees
Mr. Flood’s Party
Neighbors
Nimmo
Octaves
Old King Cole
Old Trails
On the Night of a Friend’s Wedding
On the Way
Partnership
Pasa Thalassa Thalassa
Peace on Earth
Rahel to Varnhagen
Recalled
Rembrandt to Rembrandt
Reuben Bright
Richard Corey
Sainte-Nitouche
Shadrach O’Leary
Siege Perilous
Sonnet
Sonnet
Sonnet
Souvenir
Stafford’s Cabin
Supremacy
Tact
Tasker Norcross
The Altar
The Book of Annandale
The Burning Book
The Chorus of Old Men in “Ægeus”
The Clerks
The Clinging Vine
The Companion
The Corridor
The Dark Hills
The Dark House
The Dead Village
The False Gods
The Field of Glory
The Flying Dutchman
The Garden
The Gift of God
The Growth of “Lorraine”
The House on the Hill
The Klondike
The Long Race
The Man Against the Sky
The Master
The Mill
The New Tenants
The Old King’s New Jester
The Pilot
The Pity of the Leaves
The Poor Relation
The Rat
The Return of Morgan and Fingal
The Revealer
The Sage
The Story of the Ashes and the Flame
The Sunken Crown
The Tavern
The Three Taverns
The Torrent
&
nbsp; The Town Down the River
The Tree in Pamela’s Garden
The Unforgiven
The Valley of the Shadow
The Voice of Age
The Wandering Jew
The Whip
The White Lights
The Wilderness
The Wise Brothers
The Woman and The Wife
Theophilus
Thomas Hood
Three Quatrains
Twilight Song
Two Gardens in Linndale
Two Men
Two Quatrains
Two Sonnets
Uncle Ananias
Vain Gratuities
Variations of Greek Themes
Verlaine
Veteran Sirens
Vickery’s Mountain
Villanelle of Change
Zola
The Plays
67 Lincoln Avenue in Gardiner, Maine. — this house was Robinson’s childhood home, which his family purchased in 1870.
VAN ZORN
Written in 1914, this comedy of New York City artist life is one of Robinson’s two published plays, released prior to the poet’s breakout collection of poems The Man Against the Sky. The play enjoyed little success; a reviewer in The New York Times of November 15, 1914, wrote: “it is to be noted with regret that so interesting a poet as Mr. Robinson should in the dramatic form be so halting in his utterance. His play is tantalizing. It has all the puckered brow and portentous manner of hidden meaning — but the meaning remains hidden even after a most attentive and respectful perusal.” Van Zorn was only given a public performance during a 1917 run in a Brooklyn hall by a semi-professional company.
The drama concerns a fatalist that attempts to play the part of destiny in a love affair, running counter to a man with a destiny better than his own. The wealthy Van Zorn arrives in Greenwich Village after his various travels abroad, to discover that his best friend, the artist Weldon Farnham, is engaged to marry Villa Vannevar. Van Zorn has met Villa Vannevar once before and it appears that he is in love with her. Van Zorn looks at the portraits Farnham has painted of Vannevar and believes that Farnham does not really know her and is marrying her for her beauty. He also finds out that Lucas is in love with Vannevar, but that a previous relationship between the two ended in their separation by Vannevar’s aunt.
The original title page
CONTENTS
CHARACTERS
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
TO HERMANN HAGEDORN
CHARACTERS
VAN ZORN
GEORGE LUCAS
WELDON FARNHAM
OTTO MINK
MRS. LOVETT
VILLA VANNEVAR
JENNY
ACT I
WELDON FARNHAM’S studio in Macdougal Alley, New York. In the rear is a long window, beneath which is a wide cushioned seat, extending from the left wall to a vestibule on the right, from which a door, front, into the studio. The door is hidden by a tall screen. Further down on the right is another door, and still further down is an antique cabinet, upon which rests a bust of Shakespeare. To the left of the cabinet, well into the room, is a table, upon which are a few books and, among other objects, an ornamental cigar box of polished mahogany. Half way down the left wall, which is built diagonally into the stage, cutting of about one-third of the rear wall, is an open grate with a mantel. Well to the front, on the left, is an upright wheeling easel, upon which a framed portrait faces the rear. There are several chairs, for the most part plain and small; but one of them, near the table, to the left, is large and comfortable.
The curtain rises, revealing WELDON FARNHAM and OTTO MINK. FARNHAM is a well-conditioned and well-satisfied man of thirty, or a little more, with a certain complacent hardness about his face, which suggests an aggressiveness that does not really exist. He stands surveying OTTO, a younger man — short, plump, pink and loquacious — who in turn stands surveying the picture on the easel. His hands are in his trousers pockets, and he stands from time to time on the tips of his toes during the process of his scrutiny.
FARNHAM
[As if amused]
Well, Otto, aren’t you going to say something?
OTTO
[Slowly, with a frown]
So this is Villa Vannevar.
FARNHAM
Not exactly. It’s a picture of her.
[Smiling]
You don’t care for it, I see. — Lucas and Petherick think it’s rotten.
OTTO
Did Lucas say that?
FARNHAM
[Still amused]
No, but he smoked it. He might as well have said it.
OTTO
[Leaving the picture and lighting a cigarette]
You can’t always tell what Old Hundred means — when he doesn’t say anything. Or when he does, for that matter.
FARNHAM
[Smiling]
I’m sorry, Otto, that you don’t like the picture.
OTTO
[Showing his teeth]
There’s genius in it. Is that what you wanted me to say?
FARNHAM
But a poor likeness — eh?
OTTO
Likeness? — Farnham, you make me sick.
[FARNHAM scowls quickly and laughs]
I beg your pardon, but you do, — just now, I mean.
[With a sniff]
You and your pictures!
FARNHAM
[Laughing]
Are they all so bad as that, Otto?
OTTO
[Irritated]
I suppose it’s you that I’m talking about, not your pictures.
FARNHAM
[With patronage]
You don’t seem to be improving matters very much.
What have I done?
OTTO
[With affectionate disgust]
You? You haven’t done anything. Destiny, or something or other, has done it for you.
FARNHAM
[Laughing]
But I don’t believe much in destiny. I believe in work.
OTTO
You didn’t work very hard to get the best girl in New York.
FARNHAM
If I didn’t know you, Otto, I might be offended.
[Laughing]
What’s the matter with you to-day, anyhow?
OTTO
[With all sincerity]
I understand. You think I’m jealous, but I’m not.
I’m not such a dam fool.
FARNHAM
Otto, don’t be so impulsive.
[He laughs]
OTTO
Impulsive? You don’t know what the word means.
[With a grimace]
You might at least look glad, or say something foolish once in a while, — just to let a fellow know that you’re human.
FARNHAM
[Seriously]
I’ll take back a part of what I said, Otto. There may be a large element of destiny in my — we’ll say my very great good fortune.
[Laughing]
But I wouldn’t say as much as that to Van Zorn.
OTTO
Van Zorn? He’s a fatalist, isn’t he?
FARNHAM
[Laughing]
I don’t know just what he is. He’s the best man living, and he’s my best friend.
OTTO
[Cheerfully]
And he’s worth about how many millions?
FARNHAM
[With animation]
I don’t know. Twenty or twenty-five. I don’t care much about that part of it.
OTTO
You know, Farnham, I believe you when you say that.
[Moving to the Right]
If I didn’t, I shouldn’t hang around your place any more.
You think you wouldn’t miss me if I didn’t, but you would. I’m a tender shoot, and I’m delicate, and you’ll be dam sorry when I’m dead.
[OTTO pauses before the bust of Shakespeare, looks at
it thoughtfully, places his hat upon it carefully, and surveys the result with satisfaction. FARNHAM watches him with patronizing amusement. Presently, when the two men stand looking at each other, the bell rings]
FARNHAM
[Looking at his watch]
That sounds like Lucas. It can’t be Mrs. Lovett — yet.
OTTO
It’s Old Hundred, I’ll bet a sequin. Let him in.
[FARNHAM admits GEORGE LUCAS, who is a square-jawed and somewhat cadaverous looking man of thirty, with a melancholy and highly intellectual face. His clothes are well kept, but unmistakably the worse for wear, and there is a whimsical weariness in his manner that might be suggestive of latent tragedy. He looks at FARNHAM and OTTO as if he expected them to say something OTTO
Good morning, Phoebus-Apollo.
LUCAS
[With a benignant smile]
Good morning.
[To FARNHAM, half quizzically]
Good morning.
[He looks at the decorated bust of Shakespeare, and then at OTTO.
He smiles once more and removes his hat, which FARNHAM
takes and tosses on to window-seat]
OTTO
Have you come to join the celebration?
LUCAS
Celebration of what?
OTTO
Oh, I don’t know. You take your choice. You might celebrate the publication of my new book, or you might celebrate the rotation of the planet Neptune — on his axis.
Or, you might celebrate the engagement of our friend Farnham to the radiant Miss Villa Vannevar.
[Motioning towards the picture]
There she is — or, I should say, a picture of her.
LUCAS
[With gathering surprise and difficulty]
I have seen the picture, but I had not heard of the engagement.
[Giving his hand to FARNHAM, but as if with unconscious reluctance]
Farnham, let me congratulate you.
FARNHAM
[Taking his hand]
Thank you, Lucas.
[As LUCAS goes towards the picture]
I fear that some of us get rather more than we deserve in this life.
LUCAS
[Affecting indifference]
Oh, I don’t know about that.
Works of Edwin Arlington Robinson Page 54
