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Comediettas and Farces

Chapter 1: PREFACE.
By John Maddison Morton
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About This Book

A collection of short stage comedies and farces written for private and amateur performance. Most pieces adapt French plots but feature substantial alterations and original dialogue, while a few are wholly original. The plays rely on situation-driven humor—misunderstandings, comic reversals, and brisk exchanges—delivered in a dry, sententious style. An introductory essay sketches the author’s theatrical background and era, and the pieces favor economical staging, quick pacing, and character-based comic devices suited to small-scale production.



COMEDIETTAS AND FARCES



BY

JOHN MADDISON MORTON

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS

1886




PREFACE.

I HAVE been asked to write a few words of Preface to this little book of Plays. I may state that two are original; for the remainder (being too old an offender in this respect to do otherwise), I thankfully admit my indebtedness to French material, claiming, however, for myself, considerable alterations in plot, situations, etc., and complete originality of dialogue.

I beg to call the attention of Amateurs to these pieces—they having been written by me with a special view to Private performance.

JOHN MADDISON MORTON.

CONTENTS.

    PAGE
BOX AND COX              11
FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED              35
PEPPERPOT’S LITTLE PETS              61
AFTER A STORM COMES A CALM              85
EXPRESS!              106
TAKEN FROM THE FRENCH              125
DECLINED—WITH THANKS              147