The Habit of Art: A Play Read Online Free PDF

Oxford? Is it like coming home?
    Auden The college has been very kind. I have everything I need, but home? No. Still, I feel safer here than in New York. Just before I left the phone rang and a voice said, ‘We are going to castrate you and then kill you.’
    Carpenter So what did you do?
    Auden I said, ‘I think you have the wrong number,’ and put the phone down.
    Carpenter You’ve probably been asked this before. Why…
    Auden …did we go to America in 1939?
    We went to America because England was too cosy. It was family. And though I like my family I don’t want to live with them all the time.
    Carpenter But one does want to be with them when they’re in trouble.
    Auden The thirties were over; now it was war and I didn’t want to be the Laureate of Winston Churchill. Besides, nothing I ever wrote in the thirties saved one Jew from extinction or shortened the war by five seconds.
    The truth is, I stayed in America and did not come back when war was declared, not to save my own skin, but because I had fallen in love with Chester Kallman.
    Carpenter Why did you not say that at the time?
    Auden That I had fallen in love? I would have been put in prison.
    Carpenter Are you writing?
    Auden Am I dead?
    I work.
    I have the habit of art.
    Carpenter Anything in the pipeline?
    Auden Hardy would be the model. An old tree, battered, hollow, some of the branches dead…( As Fitz. ) Yes?
    ASM ( prompting ) ‘But come the spring…’
    Auden But come the spring still on the farthest twigs putting out leaves. ( As Fitz, to Kay. ) I think I might be reading through much of this.
    Kay ( shrugs ) Of course, darling.
    Auden Poetry to me is as much a craft as an art and I have always prided myself on being able to turn my hand to anything – a wedding hymn, a requiem, a loyal toast…No job too small. I would have been happy to have hung up a shingle in the street:
    ‘W. H. Auden. Poet.’
    Carpenter Which is as good a time as any to say that though Auden does not know it, and nor indeed do I, in ten years or so’s time I will write his biography.
    Auden The trouble is that nowadays nobody asks me to write anything. I’m asked to pronounce, but that’s different. I’m too distinguished.
    Carpenter My father said you’d said the same to him.
    Auden Your father?
    Carpenter You sat next to him at High Table. He’s the Bishop of Oxford.
    There is a knock at the door.
    Auden Ah! My gentleman caller.
    He goes to the door.
    Bishop of Oxford. Well, of course if I’d taken Holy Orders I’d have been a bishop myself by now.
    Stuart comes in.
    Stuart I’m Stuart. I came before. I was on time. In fact I was early, only the other guy sent me away.
    Auden Quite so. Your appointment, though not your function, has been usurped by Mr…
    Carpenter Carpenter.
    Auden He is not going to be long. You’re not from Australia?
    Stuart No. Cowley.
    Henry A little bag.
    Fitz What?
    Henry He would have a little bag. The boy. They all had little bags, call boys.
    Tim What for?
    Henry A towel. Baby oil. Stuff like that. Accessories. You could almost pick them out by the bag.
    Author I’ve never read that.
    Henry I’ve never read it either.
    Kay So. A little bag. Thank you, Henry.
    Henry Thank you.
    Kay On we go.
    Carpenter Does he keep in touch? Benjamin Britten?
    Auden And if he did why should I tell you? I don’t know you. You say you’re the son of the Bishop of Oxford, but that’s no recommendation. I saw a bishop with a moustache the other day.
    Carpenter I did actually write to you.
    Auden Did I reply?
    Carpenter No. I wrote to Mr Britten.
    Auden I’ve never heard him called Mr Britten before. Mr Britten. Makes him sound like a bodybuilder. Did he reply?
    Carpenter No.
    Auden Take the hint. It’s a long time ago.
    Carpenter You were both young.
    Auden I was never young, not until I was older. Britten was always young. He’ll be young now.
    Carpenter Whereas you are dead.
    Auden Excuse me?
    Carpenter As far as Britten is concerned. When he