ACT 1, SCENE 2

LOCATIONS SIGNAGE: THE SCRIPTORIUM, 78 BANBURY ROAD, OXFORD, MAY 1887 (Esme aged 5)

MURRAY (aged 50 in 1887) is sitting at the Sorting Table at the Scriptorium. HARRY (mid-40s) is sitting next to him.

Enter SWEATMAN (pronounced ‘Swetman’), followed one by one by the other assistants.

MURRAY: Good morning, Mr Sweatman.

SWEATMAN: Morning, Dr Murray. How do, Harry.

HARRY: Morning, Frederick.

MURRAY: Morning, Mr Maling.

MALING: Bonan matenon, Dr Murray, Harry, Fred. (‘Marling’) (‘Bow-nan mat-ey-i-non’)

Enter CRANE.

MURRAY: Morning, Mr Crane.

CRANE: Good morning, Dr Murray.

HARRY and CRANE nod briefly to each other. ESME goes ‘under the table’.

MURRAY: Gentlemen of the Dictionary, welcome once more to this most excellent Scriptorium –

HARRY: – garden shed.

MURRAY: I will let that pass, Harry, purely on the grounds of our long and loyal friendship. (laughter all round)

For example, if it is a scriptorium, then it must have scribes and copyists … And –? (waits for HARRY)

HARRY: It does.

MURRAY: Indeed.

HARRY: And it’s in your garden.

MURRAY: Indeed. Now. Let us reaffirm our assiduous commitment to the latter half of the letter B.

ALL: The letter B.

The men all sit down at the table.

CHANGE OF PERSPECTIVE: UNDER THE TABLE

ESME is holding court with her invisible friend, Mr Aladdin.

ESME: Welcome, Mr Aladdin, my long and loyal friend, to this most excellent magic cave. Though – Mr Aladdin – if this is a magic cave then it must have treasure! (nods to self ) Indeed! (Another nod)

ABOVE THE TABLE …

MURRAY: Did we resolve the query about the final quotation for ‘Bold’?

ESME is listening – hard.

SWEATMAN: Correspondence is pending, Dr Murray.

MURRAY: Ah. A follow-up letter on my part, Fred?

SWEATMAN: Sorry, sir.

MURRAY: Sometimes I wonder if my correspondence is not a greater contribution than my lexicography.

MALING: Never, Dr Murray. Though your correspondence is a fund of secret treasures.

ESME clocks the words ‘secret treasures’.

ESME: Secret treasures … that is … Uh … Sekreta. Um … um … Trezoro … Mr Maling. Speaks Esperanto, Mr Aladdin. It’s the ‘un-i-ver-sal language’. (smile of triumph) Indeed!

MURRAY moves to his own standing desk.

MURRAY: Harry … Did we address the problem of the etymology of ‘Bolt’?

HARRY: Which /usage?

MURRAY: /As in a bolt for a crossbow?

HARRY: Still unknown. The earliest of most other usages appear to be the sixteenth century.

MURRAY: Mr Crane?

ESME: (playground sing-song) Mr Crane. Is a pain! (falls about laughing)

CRANE: Mr Nicoll is correct, sir.

As CRANE shuffles his papers … a slip floats off the table.

The slip lands in ESME’S lap.

ESME: No! Mustn’t! No! Mr Aladdin, I’m not allowed to touch the slips! Bad. Not good. And I’m good!

The slip lies there, a complete temptation.

What do you mean? If I was good … my hand would be all right? Do you mean – because I’ve got funny fingers … I’m not … good? Mr Aladdin! You should not say that! It is not kind of you! It is not! I can look at a word and still be good. And I know all my letters now. Since, since when … (doesn’t want to go there) … when I was four. Now I am five. So. Mr Aladdin. So.

ESME very deliberately picks up the slip with her maimed hand. Spells out letters alphabetically.

B-O-N-D-M-A-I-D. Bond. Maid. Bondmaid.

WORDS SIGNAGE: BONDMAID

ESME: Then … some other words. But no other slips. It’s alone. Like. No brothers and sisters … Happens. You know. Sometimes your mama dies when you are born and then there’s no more of you.

SWEATMAN: The earliest usage of the word ‘bolection’ … is confirmed as 1708. (‘boe-lection’)

ESME: But … Da says. If there’s not enough information, a word will get discarded. It won’t go into the Dictionary. And then. It might … Get gone forever. Like … (whispers) Mama.

HARRY: 1708?

SWEATMAN: Yes. Actually.

ESME: And – this is a really lovely word, Mr Aladdin. Yes! A Secret Treasure! Actually.

ESME looks around. Then she folds the slip and puts it into her pinny.

LOCATIONS SIGNAGE: MURRAY HOUSE, LIZZIE’S BEDROOM

ESME and LIZZIE (aged 13) are in LIZZIE’S bedroom.

LIZZIE: I’m wanted in the kitchen, Essymay!

ESME: But I have a secret, Lizzie!

LIZZIE: That you can only tell me in my bedroom?! (softens) What would that secret be, me little cabbage?

ESME shows the slip (‘Bondmaid’).

LIZZIE: Bit of paper.

ESME: No. It’s a word slip. See. There’s the word. And … some other words.

LIZZIE: Where did you find this, Esme Nicoll?

ESME: It found me.

LIZZIE: Like magic.

ESME: Yes! You are exactly right, Lizzie! Like magic. Some words don’t make sense, and they throw them away. So I took it. To save it.

LIZZIE: To save it from who?

ESME: From Mr Crane. He discards things he does not like, Lizzie. He is not kind.

LIZZIE: To you?

(beat)

ESME: So, can you keep my lonely slip for me? That would be very kind.

LIZZIE: Where should I keep it, me little cabbage?

ESME: Oh. (spies trunk under LIZZIE’S bed) There? In your treasure chest?

LIZZIE: That’s me travel trunk, not me treasure chest, Essymay. But. It’s empty now. So it’ll do for your treasures, I expect.

ESME opens the trunk as if it is Aladdin’s.

ESME: I think this trunk is probably magic, Lizzie. I think it is!

LIZZIE: You’re a curiosity, Essymay, that’s for sure.

ESME: The trunk’s not empty, Lizzie.

LIZZIE: No?

ESME: No. Look. It’s a …?

LIZZIE: Hatpin! Oh, Essymay, it’s me ma’s hatpin from before she died. Before the little ’uns was taken away. Before I went into service/

ESME: /What’s service?/

LIZZIE: /Me little brothers and sisters was too young for service, see, so they was taken away, see, after me ma … I was eleven but they was –

ESME: And now you’re thirteen!

LIZZIE: Yes! So. You put your bit of paper in there. And I’ll put this hatpin next to me ma’s photo. Up here. See? It’s got a bright blue sparkle on the end of it. It’s even pretty!

ESME: Was I good to find it?

LIZZIE: You were so good! (ESME is thrilled. A hollow banging.)

Esme! That’s Dr Murray banging his knife handle on the table. He’s home early for lunch! I must go!

ESME: Lizzie?

LIZZIE: What. Now. Esme Nicoll?

ESME: What’s ‘service’?

LIZZIE: Will you never stop asking questions?! It’s being a maid. Like I am to Dr and Mrs Murray.

ESME: Maid.

LIZZIE: Yes. Maid.

ESME: Are you a ‘bondmaid’?

LIZZIE: How would I know that? I never even heard of a ‘bondmaid’.

ESME: Will I be in service?

LIZZIE: No. You won’t. You’ll be a lady, and you’ll get married.

ESME: No, I won’t.

LIZZIE: Yes, you will, for sure.

ESME: No. I won’t. I don’t want to.

Hollow banging is more urgent.

LIZZIE: What do you want, then?

ESME: I want … I want to be a lex-i-cog-raph-er. And not have little ’uns that get taken away.