ACT 1, SCENE 6

LOCATIONS SIGNAGE: OXFORD, THE COVERED MARKET, 1902

MABEL'S wooden-crate stall at the Covered Market. There is a FLOWER SELLER at the next stall who does not approve of MABEL. ESME and LIZZIE approach.

LIZZIE: Have you eaten today, Mabel?

MABEL: Ain’t sold enough to buy a stale bun.

LIZZIE hands MABEL a bread roll.

MABEL: Who’s this, then? All of sweet eighteen.

ESME: Twenty-one. I’m twenty-one years old.

LIZZIE: Esme, this is Mabel. Mabel, this is Esme. Her father works for Dr Murray. Esme works for the Dictionary too.

MABEL holds out her hand. ESME hesitates then proffers her own. MABEL grabs it.

MABEL: Lawks. No amount of by yer leave will fix that! (she looks at it carefully) Those fingers work? Can you feel this?

ESME: Yes. It feels a bit as if you are touching them through a glove. Like. Distanced.

MABEL: Right. Well. I’ll bet they got stuck into you when you was a little ’un, hey? Nothin’ like a bit of a flaw to bring out the uglies! (beat) Well. Look around. See what you fancy.

There’s not much. ESME picks up a wooden carving.

ESME: This is … Mabel … this carving is very good. My da would like this. You are a wood carver, you say?

MABEL: Eh well, naught else to do with my hands now no one wants ’em round their shaft.

ESME: ‘Shaft’?

MABEL: (to LIZZIE) She stupid or something?

LIZZIE: No, Mabel, she just doesn’t have an ear for your particular kind of language.

MABEL laughs.

ESME: Ohhhh, I see.

MABEL: (laughs more) I don’t think so. Can’t see anything like that around here right this minute, me dilly darlin’!

ESME: I mean, I understand. Excuse me. (she fumbles)

MABEL: What’s that?

LIZZIE: Essymay? (gets it) Oh, you’re not. (beat) Yes, you are. (to MABEL) Slips. For words and quotations. The same as they use at the Dictionary!

MABEL: Eh?

ESME: I just need to write that word down while I have the phrase you used to describe it still in my head.

MABEL: (to LIZZIE) Do you think she maybe hasn’t been born yet? (laughs) Oooh – lookit her over the flower stall glowering at me for talking mean to a nice young lady, silly bloody cunt.

ESME: What did you say then?

MABEL: I said ‘silly bloody cunt’, what did you think I said? And I said it loud enough for her to hear me too!

ESME: I know you said it loudly. I can see it’s an insult. But what does it mean?

MABEL: It means she’s a cunt: a fuckin’ nasty bitch.

LIZZIE: Esme! Come!

ESME: In a minute, Lizzie. Mabel, what does ‘cunt’ actually mean?

MABEL: You got yer pencil and paper handy still, lass? Yer goin’ to wanta write this one down.

LIZZIE: Esme!

ESME: Oh, Lizzie, enough! You go and do the other shopping. Mabel and I are going to whisper. Aren’t we, Mabel?

MABEL: Are we?

ESME: We are. Or I don’t write down your words.

MABEL: (exaggerated whisper) It’s yer quim.

Exit LIZZIE in a flurry.

ESME: Mabel, that doesn’t help.

MABEL: Better get a piece of paper for that one, too, then!

ESME: I will. But first. Put ‘cunt’ in a sentence for me, would you please, Mabel?

MABEL: I got an itchy cunt.

ESME: That’s still a bit general. Is it the same as ‘crotch’?

MABEL: Sad to say but you really is dim, lass. You got a cunt. I got a cunt. Lizzie’s got a cunt, but old Fred over there, married to cunt-face, he ain’t got a cunt, got it? (beat) Tho’ he’s a cunt all the same, believe you me!

ESME: Ohhhhh. Is it the vagina?

MABEL: Fuck, yer a genius, you are.

ESME: Except that it’s an insult. Right. Well. Mabel, now all I need is a sentence that makes it crystal clear what it actually means.

MABEL: Yer. ‘Need’?

ESME: Yes. I do. Need.

MABEL: There was a young harlot from Kew

Who filled her cunt up with glue,

She said with a grin

If they pay to get in

They’ll pay to get out of it too.

ESME: Excellent, Mabel! That is very clear. Quotation: Mabel –

MABEL: O’Shaughnessy.

ESME: – 1902.

MABEL: Lawks, I’m in the history books.

ESME: And ‘quim’? Does it mean the same thing?

MABEL: Yer persistent, aren’t ya?

ESME: I believe I am.

MABEL: You, missy, is a curiosity.

ESME: Yes, and I’ve been told that before, too. Several times. It isn’t very original.

MABEL: ‘Quim’ is the juices, lass. I used to eat well ’cos of me juices. The men loves to think they got you goin’.

ESME: Is ‘quim’ also an insult?

MABEL: ’Course! Quim’s just proof of yer shame. That yer are enjoyin’ it! The likes of us use ‘quim’ as we use ‘cunt’. For like – her over there and her old man are fuckin’ quims, and there’s no doubt about it.

ESME: Thank you, Mabel. That’s marvellous.

MABEL: Yer don’t want a sentence?

ESME: Oh. You’ve given me plenty. I’ll choose the best when I get back home.

MABEL: So long as my name goes on it.

ESME: You have my solemn word.

LOCATIONS SIGNAGE: 1903 … 1904 … 1905 … 1906 … (Esme aged 24)

MABEL gives her another wooden figure.

MABEL: A mermaid.

ESME: Oh. My. Thank you, Mabel. You have been busy!

MABEL: Worth an extra penny? On top of the words?

ESME: Two. Wait. (she goes to the FLOWER SELLER, points out a posy of flowers) These, please. Thank you. (returns to MABEL) For you, Mabel. With my thanks.

A young woman approaches.

TILDA: Good morning, Mabel! A posy! You’re lucky. Roses and sweet peas! What a glorious smell!

MABEL: Couldn’t tell you if it was glorious or not. I haven’t smelled nothin’ in years. You have ’em.

MABEL gives the flowers to TILDA, who sniffs deeply. She picks up another whittled figure.

TILDA: Beautiful! What’s this?

MABEL: Me. Before I lost me teeth. It’s an angel, isn’t it? Penny ha’penny.

TILDA: (beat) Cheap at the price. (she buys it, hands it to ESME) For you. Seeing I got your kind gift of flowers, which I shall so enjoy when they brighten my lodgings. (offers her hand to ESME) Tilda Taylor.

ESME hesitates.

MABEL: She don’t like offering her hand. Might make you flinch.

TILDA: Not much makes me flinch. (she takes ESME’S hand, shakes it)

ESME: (fascinated) Esme. Esme Nicoll. Are you a friend of Mabel’s?

TILDA: We are new acquaintances. Since yesterday.

MABEL: Kindred spirits, I reckon.

TILDA: Lord, Mabel! (to ESME) She thinks I’m a dollymop.

MABEL: Now look at ’er face! (ESME'S face) Never even ’eard of a dollymop! Come on, girl. Where’s your paper slips gone? (to TILDA) She collects words.

TILDA: What kind of words?

MABEL: Women’s words. Dirty ones.

TILDA: Really?

ESME: Well, no, not necessarily. Just words that need … rescuing. The dirty ones, however, do seem to be Mabel’s speciality. Can I …? Would you mind?

TILDA: Am I a dollymop?

ESME: Yes. Or. What is it? Because you don’t seem … quite …

TILDA: I’m an actress, though to some that’s the same thing as a dollymop. Yesterday Mabel told me that treading the boards was how she got into her own line of work.

ESME gets out her slips, writes it down.

ESME: Can you put the word in a sentence for me?

TILDA: You’re serious, aren’t you?

ESME: Um. Yes.

MABEL: Give ’er a sentence, go on.

TILDA: On one condition.

ESME: Yes?

TILDA: I’ve joined a production of A Doll’s House at New Theatre. You must come to the matinee this afternoon and join me after, for tea.

MABEL: She will, she will. Now give ’er ’er sentence.

TILDA: ‘A coin for the dollymop will keep your lap warm.’

MABEL: That’s experience talking, if yer ask me.

ESME: Except that no one did.

TILDA: I like you!

ESME: So is ‘dollymop’ the same as ‘prostitute’?

TILDA: I suppose. Though a dollymop is more opportunistic, and less experienced.

ESME writes. Shows it to TILDA.

MABEL: Read it out to me.

WORDS SIGNAGE: DOLLYMOP

TILDA: ‘Dollymop’: a woman who is paid for sexual favours on an occasional basis. ‘A coin for the dollymop will keep your lap warm’. Tilda Taylor, 1906. Well. I’m charmed.

ESME: Thank you. A Doll’s House, you say? By Ibsen?

TILDA: Yes. I play Nora, of course. Curtain goes up at two. There’ll be someone with a ticket for you at Stage Door. It’s the laneway next to the theatre.