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''Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, An Un-historical Parable'' 〔John Arden, ''Arden Plays 1'', Methuen Publishing Ltd, London, August 2002〕 is a play by English playwright John Arden, written in 1959 and premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on October 22 of that year. In Arden's introductory note to the text, he describes it as "a realistic, but not a naturalistic" play. Four songs are performed that Arden writes should be sung not to an original score but to "folk-song airs." == Plot == The work follows three privates in the British Army and their sergeant, all of whom are deserters from a foreign imperialist war. Serjeant Musgrave and his men, Hurst, Sparky and Attercliffe, come to a northern English coal mining town in 1879. The community is in the grip of a coal strike and cut off by winter snow. The one means of reaching the town is by canal barge. They arrive in the company of the Bargee, a foul-mouthed, disrespectful individual who teases and abuses everyone, especially those in authority. In the local inn the soldiers meet Mrs. Hitchcock, who runs the inn, and the barmaid Annie. The soldiers are greeted by the mayor, parson and constable, who ask them to recruit men in hopes of alleviating some of the town's unemployment as a way to rid the town of their economic dead weight. Musgrave pretends that this is indeed his goal, and asks Mrs Hitchcock about Billy Hicks, a dead fellow soldier from the mining town. It is revealed that Billy was the father of Annie's illegitimate child, but the baby died, and Annie's sanity has suffered from the loss of both Billy and her child. That night in the churchyard, the soldiers talk among themselves and reveal their real purpose: appalled by a violent incident where five innocent men were killed, to avenge the death of a single soldier, they have come to the town to convince the people that the colonial war and the violence used are wrong. The single soldier is in fact Billy Hicks, and the reason they chose this particular town. Continuing the pretence of recruiting townsmen, Musgrave throws a sort of party in Mrs Hitchcock's inn, with free drink for all. Private Sparky tries to impress Annie, but she prefers the handsome Hurst and promises to come to him that night. However, he later rejects her, and she goes to Sparky. They agree to run away together, but are overheard by Hurst, who tries to stop them. In the following struggle, Sparky is accidentally killed by falling on a bayonet, held by the pacifist Attercliffe. Serjeant Musgrave rushes in and they hide the body, when they are told that the colliers are stealing the soldiers' guns. The mayor arrives to say that the town is no longer cut off by snow and the dragoons have been called for. Musgrave announces he will hold a recruiting meeting the next morning. Instead of recruiting townsmen, Musgrave takes out a Gatling gun. The gun is loaded and pointed at the audience. Then the soldiers hoist up the skeleton of Billy Hicks on a lamp post, still dressed in uniform. Musgrave dances below it reciting a rhyme: ... Up he goes, and no-one knows, who it was that raised him. ... He sits on your back and you'll never, never lose him.... Musgrave talks about the atrocities that followed the soldier's death, and explains that since this single death caused five on the other side, five times five townsfolk should be killed to avenge their deaths. Attercliffe refuses to take part in any more violence, but Hurst is quite ready to shoot. Annie intervenes and tells everyone of Sparky's death, producing his bloody jacket as evidence. Hurst makes one last desperate attempt to shoot into the crowd but is overpowered by Musgrave and Attercliffe. The dragoons arrive, shoot Hurst and imprison the two remaining soldiers, who will be hanged later.〔The Officer of Dragoons addresses Musgrave by number, rank and name: "22128480 Serjeant Musgrave, J." The number apparently had some significance for Arden as he used it in other scripts.〕 Ever the jester, the Bargee leads the townsfolk in singing "Michael Finnegan" as a way of "beginning again". In the final scene, Attercliffe and Musgrave sit in their cell and talk about their differing views of life. Musgrave has always lived by rules, regulations and honour. Attercliffe tells how he lost his wife to a greengrocer, who looked like "a rat grinning through a brush", but was a better man because he fed people, as he fed Attercliffe's ex-wife, which Attercliffe himself could not do. In the end, Attercliffe seems to say, it is everyday life that matters, not ideals. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Serjeant Musgrave's Dance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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